Flying Fortress:“When eko asked me to write an article for him & ekosystem.org on the topic “
Self-Isolation - Tips From An Artist“ I mused a bit like: OK I have already jumped on all these „regular activities/projects“ - we put up our „Juke Box Coloring Book“ for free download (still up here ), I also sent in some more black’n’white drawings for similar projects and we released an „art puzzle“ with Affenfaust gallery to help people’s pastime.
So it was time to write something unusual and share a special view on one of my other hobbies…”
How To: Mushroom In Your Room
Since we moved with family into a little town-house last year I am just happy now to have a little garden to do all this spring planting and gardening to kill some of the extra time at home while quarantine lockdown. But even before I started to do some gardening during wintertime inside.
I started to grow mushrooms. The legal ones. Oyster mushrooms and suchlike.
Why? It’s just amazing! Everything about it!
It’s easy. It’s tasty homegrown food. They grow fast, like you can look twice a day and you gonna see significant growing happening! You can up-cycle your used coffee-grounds as substrate (or use dead wood or straw). So your organic waste turns into some new groceries! Brilliant!
Search online for a dealer (e.g. Germany: pilzpaket.de ) who is providing different starter-sets of mycelium (the „real mushroom; not the „fruits“ we colloquially generalize as „mushrooms“). It’s not even expansive.
When you start planting the mycelium on your “coffee soil“ in a pot it’s just important to work sterile - like washing your hands properly or using disposable gloves (ah come on, you should be trained on this already due to „the situation”, right?).
I am not taking this to deep in details. You should get an instruction sheet with all details together in any starter-kit (or go online).
Just again: it’s really easy. And it’s fun.
Within 3 weeks you should get your first harvest from your mushroom. Ready to cook.
See my documentary photos from my personal first experience in growing oyster mushrooms in my kitchen on top of the wall units (not in sunlight on the windowsill!).
And now comes the extra clue: after 1-2 waves of harvest you can split the „worn out“ mushroom into 2 pieces and start the whole thing over again in two bowls with new soil. So you basically double your mycelium/mushrom. And double… quadruple…and so on. It’s a bit the same as like kefir (just a mushroom in milk) or sourdough (for baking bread). You can share a bowl of mycelium with your friends so they can also start growing their own mushrooms.
Hoping this little article might has caught your interest!
Start growing. Take care & stay safe!
FÖRTRESS
