Earth Blessings Everyone!!
I was blessed this past weekend to have attended a Mushroom growing festival in Western Ma. It was graciously hosted by Mycoterra Farm in Deerfield MA.
This is a commercial (in the smallest sense) mushroom growing farm. It's run by a wonderfully intelligent lady named Julia and her family.
There were a bunch of workshops on using mushroom blocks in the garden, growing on logs and using saw dust to create inoculated mushroom blocks. The blocks are what we're really going to focus on today, how Mycoterra using them and how we can take this method and bring it into the kitchen with (non-plastic) Mason jars and wheat grain.
Before we get started I just want to showcase quick how Mycoterra uses the discarded blocks. They are used as compost and in the garden!
Mycoterra Farm offers already inoculated mushroom blocks with varieties like Lions Mane, Oyster, and Shiitake. With these, you simply stick the block on your kitchen counter, cut a slit in the bag or take out completely and let grow.
This wasn't good enough for me. I NEEDED to know how the whole process worked. After a tour through their farm, including the lab and 'greenhouses' I have the general process down, and while I haven't tried this on my own yet, I will definitely write up a new post when I do. Complete with mistakes, because with processes that include sterile environments, it's a recipe laden with mistake opportunities!!
So here we go!
The first thing you need to start with is 'spawn'. Many people might label this part of the process as spreading the 'spores'. But NO! I found out that spores are usually only used for growing polyphyletic mushrooms, aka psychedelics. Any mushroom you grow at home is likely using spawn. To grow your spawn you need to be in a super sterile environment! Get the cats and dogs away during this process!!
You'll need a few things to do this:
Whole wheat grain (presoaked in cold water for 24 hours)
Mushrooms you are trying to spawn (Oysters are a good one to start with)
Pressure Cooker
Mason Jars
Agar Plates (these are the sterile petri dishes that contain agar as the solid growing source where the spawn will grow)
I'm going to break it down pretty quickly as I understand it, but I'll link a really great resource that breaks the spawning step down a little further here and here
1. Place a piece of your mushroom on your agar plate. (make sure you are in as sterile an environment as you can make during this step)
2. The agar plate will start to grow the mycelium needed for your grain spawn, it looks similar to spider webs. Once your mycelium (this can take a few days to a week) is fully grown and covered your agar plate you can move to making your grain spawn. **I had to ask a million questions that the tour guide wasn't used to for these two steps, so I don't have any pictures of the process!**
3. After you've soaked your grain in cold water for a day, you're ready to sterilize with the ever fearful pressure cooker. Make sure you read your manual for these things, they are quite literally a steam bomb if not used properly. Mycoterra farm uses this HUMUNGOUS submarine looking pressure cooker to sterilize 1000 bags at a time! In the kitchen, a regular pressure cooker and mason jars work fine.
4. Once your grain is sterilized and cooled down it's time to inoculate with your spawn. Take a small piece of your spawn from you agar plate and place it in your jar. It should be ready in a about a week, maybe 2. Depending on size. The 5 lb saw dust blocks that come out of the pressure cooker at Mycoterra are lined through the lab to sit for about 6 weeks before they are then moved to their 'greenhouses' . I put greenhouse in quotation marks because the houses are inside and completely temp controlled.
5. You'll notice the mycelium traveling through and around your grain spawn. Once it's fully covered, it's time to open up your jar or bag and let your mushrooms grow!! Now this is the part that most people can buy the block and stick on their counter to grow at home, if Mycoterra doesn't sell the grow your own kits in time, then they are put on these shelves in the greenhouse and grown on site.
It's the same with your at home version, hopefully, as long as everything stayed sterile.
You should see mushrooms starting to grow within the first month.
After talking with the tour guide, I've come to find out that this facility is completely zero waste. If they can't sell their mushrooms in time, they are often dried out and used in tinctures or remedies. The used blocks are composted outside in the gardens. So win win!
While Mycoterra focuses in sawdust blocks in growing mushrooms, that's not the only way!! You could use old hardwood logs to inoculate as well. Mycoterra had a fantastic workshop that broke down all the steps in inoculating a log.
What you'll need:
Any Hard wood log
Mushroom plugs
Wax (the instructor used paraffin wax, but I always suggest bees wax)
Drill
Let's get started! This way is a lot easier to do that the mason jar/block bag method, but takes a very long time for the mushrooms to grow, like sometimes almost a year, while you could grow mushrooms within 6 weeks with the sawdust/grain method.
1. Drill holes all along the log
2. Plug holes with mushroom plugs.
3. Cover holes with melted bees wax
4. Wait forever...no I kid, but wait a long while. It's best to put the log in a shady damp spot and make sure to water your log during the warmer, hotter months.
Let me know if you venture into the world of mushroom growing! I know it can sound a little daunting, but how awesome to grow great culinary or medicinal mushrooms right on your counter!
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