Oyster Mushroom Extravaganza - I Hope.

Oyster mushrooms are delicious! This summer on one of my weekly visits to the Salmo Farmer's Market I met a man that was selling homegrown mushrooms out of gardening bags. He wanted $20 bucks, which is a steal, however, there was a beautiful necklace that I just had to have and well, if you know me, you know that the accessory won! I went back the following week and every one there after and he never came back. So, I decided to try it myself!

First I researched it on the web, like any good do it yourselfer. I purchases a beautiful oyster mushroom from the Kootenay CoOp; the only store I've ever visited that has a box of crocs at the door so they don't have to refuse entry to any barefooted nelsonians! I sliced the bottom portion of the mushroom into thin slices and place them onto small pieces of corrugated cardboard that was previously soaked in water. I layered the cardboard with mushroom into a small Tupperware container and sealed it, then I placed in a warm dark spot and waited for the spores to regenerate.

This project was ready for transfer in December but Christmas got in the way. :) my niece Alex tried her spores using used coffee grinds but she was not successful. So I decided to try using the straw approach. Two days ago I cut straw into one or two inch pieces and put on to boil. Once the water started boiling, I turned down to low for an hour. Before straining I added a tsp of peroxide into the water as this kills off bad bacteria but doesn't inhibit the mushroom growth.

I used an old plastic half gallon olive container. Using a box cutter I cut holes into it and then lined it with a vegetable bag. One site suggested putting a little bran in for additional food, so I tossed in a tsp of it and then I got to work on layering the spore covered cardboard and the wet straw into it. In the end it looked like this.

So now I keep it somewhere with indirect light and try in this weather to maintain 15 - 20 degrees Celsius and I should get a shitload of mushrooms. Let's keep our fingers crossed! I will keep you posted.