One of my things this winter is growing mushrooms. In the past, I had tried some of those kits you can buy that come in a cardboard box ready to go, but I wanted to do something more hands on and more cost effective. Those premade kids are very spendy.
I did a bunch of surfing the internet and I found two mushroom purveyors I liked, one dude was the Mushroom Man of Peotone, who seemed like my kind of dude and was super passionate and also doing this to pay for his kid’s way through college, and another guy named Charles from G.P. Mushrooms. I liked him because his videos were sometimes out of focus and jerky, a form I appreciate and emulate, and because it’s clear he does it as efficiently and as thriftily as possible. Basically, I tried to avoid folks that require you to have this elaborate setup where you have to become a MUSHROOM GUY in order to succeed, I just wanted to find normal people I could relate to who were having success. I just want to explore and have fun and maybe grow some good tasting stuff for a small price.
At any rate, I got my first kits under way, and I will throw some pictures up when anything interesting happens. I am keeping them under my second desk in the office which never gets direct sunlight and is surrounded by all my plants this winter, so the mushrooms will not become a victim of my issues with object permanence and forgetting to take care of them.
Excited!
WereBear
Mmmm. Portobello and blue cheese omelettes.
AM in NC
Are you using sawdust spawn? And also, which varieties did you choose?
randal m sexton
What an entertaining fellow you are.
Gin & Tonic
Here in New England, a wet summer and fall made for an outstanding wild mushroom season – ended up being a sort of family competition. My younger daughter and her husband foraged something like 40 pounds. We had maitakes as big as basketballs.
Ohio Mom
And your mushrooms will have the company of the other plants. I think they’d get lonely by themselves in another part of the house.
I’m serious, even if it’s just bare bones biochemical reactions, I am convinced plants interact with one another.
khead
The first time we drove up to Avondale PA (from NE MD) for sushi my wife basically said “the sushi better be good because this place smells like shit”. We did not know we were rolling through mushroom country until later. And yes – the sushi was, in fact, good.
Mactree
He can’t hum a note, but he can pee a tone. Sorry, grew up 10 miles from Peotone.
Also 20 miles from the Beecher Meat Co. in Beecher IL. We’d drive past it
just to have a laugh. Lots to do in rural IL.
Mart
I worked in the mushroom industry. Collected racetrack horse shit and piss from the stalls hay and straw and trucked to a mushroom farm. Afraid I can offer no advice, other than stripping down and hosing off in the garage, and putting your clothes in the washing machine, or mom will kill you.
Cameron
@Ohio Mom: Bees like mushrooms. Apparently some types of mushrooms act as anti-viral agents on bees.
Benw
Some of those among us are suspicious.
Ol'Froth
Oyster mushrooms are super easy. All you need is the spawn, some sort of cellulose (shredded paper, a roll of toilet paper, etc) water, and a plastic bag.
opiejeanne
My older daughter grew mushrooms on her kitchen counter, from a kit from Starbucks. The growing medium was coffee grounds, the money went to a charity. She got a lot of mushrooms from that kit, I think they were enoki. When the kit was done, she could buy another package of spores. I think they were very reasonable, but that was 11 years ago.
TaMara (HFG)
Are we going to have a mushroom live cam, too?
This summer, the weather was so weird, my entire front yard (keep in mind, I live in high desert territory) was covered in mushrooms, some the size of saucers. I’m sure some were edible…I just mowed them back into the lawn as fertilizer.
p.a.
I got the itch from watching Adam Ragusea’s utube shroom segment but haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Will check out your sources.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Ol’Froth:
Just a note to let you know that the blog software does not like apostrophes in nyms. Each of your comments will have to be approved by a front-pager unless you remove the apostrophe, in which case just the first one needs to be approved. “Ol Froth” or “Ol*Froth” would work fine.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I have oyster mushrooms on one stump in the yard up front – cooked up about 3/4 pound last night . There’s triple that left on that stump alone.
I I start tromping around, there are more.
sacrablue
I saw this guy the other day on a local morning show. He seemed really passionate about his mushrooms and they were gorgeous. https://www.foggydewfungi.com/
quakerinabasement
I am here for fungus blogging.
Major Major Major Major
Nice! Always exciting to really dig into a new hobby.
I’ve been getting really into minerals lately. In the new year I’m going to get myself a Dremel and rent a workbench and teach myself lapidary, starting off with learning how to polish and shape rough quartz.
hells littlest angel
Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!
CaseyL
I see so many astonishing varieties of mushrooms at the local farmers markets, and am always tempted to try some of the more exotic ones (like lions mane). But it comes down to: don’t they all taste pretty much the same?
oatler
Just be careful you don’t [obligatory psilocybin joke].
BC in Illinois
Last night, after seeing two families of the next generation off on their Christmas travels,* I returned home for a dinner of portobello mushrooms, stuffed with a spinach/onion/something else concoction. Really nice, thanks to Mrs. BC and her internet resources.
*Three out of four of the families of our children live here in the St Louis area. Two of those families are leaving town for the rest of the year for limited/vaccinated contacts with the in-laws’ families. (They can always see us, under certain circumstances. All four families are fairly observant of protocols, mandates, etc. and all kids — 5 to 15 — are vaccinated.)
We’ll see the whole crowd — and pretty much only them — in January, when we celebrate the BC/Mrs BC 50th anniversary. (Yes, January. Takes guts to get married in Michigan in January, but it worked.)**
**Not like daughter #2, who got married in Michigan in February, combining a wedding day with a winter storm advisory.)
***Well, that was a rambling series of thoughts, but I was thinking of mushrooms . . .
WereBear
@Major Major Major Major: That sounds fantastic. We have a shop in town which makes jewelry with Herkimer diamonds.
zhena gogolia
@CaseyL: Oh, no. Not a huge fan but we Slavs have to stand up for the honor of mushrooms. They come in an infinite variety of flavors, like wine.
Josie
@BC in Illinois: We got married in December, but it was in South Texas. The weather was gorgeous. If we actually get cold weather here, it doesn’t happen until January or February.
M31
I read an article in Scientific American about how a tree with an disease or infestation sends off chemical signals which other trees can respond to.
I kid you not, that very same day I saw a headline in a tabloid, “TOP SCIENTISTS PROVE TREES CAN TALK”
I mean, that’s not wrong
Major Major Major Major
@WereBear: yeah, I’m super excited. Don’t know any actual jewelry stuff, probably won’t learn, but stoneworking will be plenty for now!
In the future, I might even get a faceting machine, but one step at a time, lol. Years down the road.
debbie
@CaseyL:
Nope. I don’t know enough to tell you which is which mushroom, but I’ve eaten enough of them over the years to know they aren’t all the same.
The Pale Scot
Hell, might as well grow the good stuff
https://vikingspore.co.uk/product-category/magic-mushroom-spores/
Salty Sam
Oh no, not at all. Lion’s Mane have a slight seafoodish flavor- the ‘net abounds with “Lion’s Mane Crabcake” recipes. Some of the Stropharia species taste meaty- lots of recipes out there for “Pulled Pork” made with King Oysters. But the best part is the incredible umami they bring to the table…
CaseyL
@zhena gogolia:
@debbie:
Thank you! I will gird my loins and try the lion’s mane next time I see them.
Gary K
I prefer to make them myself, thanks anyway.
debbie
@CaseyL:
Growing up in the Midwest, all I knew were white button mushrooms. One of the best things about living in NYC was all the new foods. I still remember eating an individual pizza of smoked duck and wild mushrooms from a place I think was Nick and Eddie’s on the West Side back in the 1980s. It was like a whole new world—and that was just the mushrooms!
JoyceH
For those of you following the Jorts and Jean saga, someone wrote them a sea shanty:
https://twitter.com/JortsTheCat/status/1471953638176137219
dnfree
@JoyceH: why are they now called sea shantys? All my years growing up (still working on it) they were sea chanteys. Or chanties, but always “ch”. A shanty to me is a run/down house.
dnfree
“Issues with object permanence” is the perfect description of what happens to me when I leave a room intending to come back and finish what I was working on.
John Cole
@M31: Not only that, but trees use mycelium under the ground to push nutrients to their “offspring” trees.
https://www.nationalforests.org/blog/underground-mycorrhizal-network
https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2019/exploring-the-underground-network-of-trees-the-nervous-system-of-the-forest/
John Cole
@John Cole: It’s why it is so fucking important to never use any types of pesticides or any crap like that in your yard. Only use native species and things that belong together. There is literally an entire world we do not understand so best not to fuck with it and let them do what they do naturally.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: That was very well done!
Ken
@hells littlest angel: That’s the one! I kept thinking of “The Father-Thing” but that was bugs..
JoyceH
@dnfree: I know! I always heard them described as chanties, but lately you see the term shanty, so I’m just moving with the times. And yes, a shanty was supposed to be a rundown shack, as in shantytown.
JoyceH
@WaterGirl: what’s funny about it is that unless you’ve been following the saga, the song makes absolutely no sense at all. When I first saw it, I played it five times in a row, snickering.
JustRuss
For anyone with even a passing interest in fungi, Fantastic Fungi is a must-watch. It’s on Netflix.
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic:
And you’re all still alive, so apparently you knew what you were doing!
Woah!
M31
@John Cole: so not only do they alert their friends of danger, they feed their kids by bartering with the local fungal communities to pass sugar along, giving the fungi a cut
dexwood
@M31: The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohilleben, is pretty good.
Honus
Shiitakes are pretty easy to grow. You just need an oak log and 1” drill to drill holes all around it and the fill the holes with spawn and peanut butter, throw it in cool shady spot next the house and wait. If they don’t flush, you hammer the log with a claw hammer and that usually does the trick. There used to be a guy near Cherry River that sold jars of spawn and also the complete drilled and stuffed logs, but that was 30 years ago. I had three or four 24” long logs and got more shiitakes than we could eat.
DCrefugee
Carlos Castañeda has entered the chat room
mrmoshpotato
Look who’s back!
Honus
@mrmoshpotato: “there are old mushroom hunters, and bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters”
Madeleine
@John Cole: The recent findings about plant communication and support fascinate me!
Some of the farmers at our local farmers’ markets sell several varieties of mushrooms. One seller (Hodgins Harvest for BJers in NYC) introduced my husband and me to great new—to us—types. They also taught us that shredding the entire mushroom for sauteeing both browns them nicely and allows us to use stems that, when whole, are tough. So good!
WereBear
@mrmoshpotato: it’s a Zappadan miracle!
SiubhanDuinne
@JoyceH:
Jorts: Best meme in the world, or best meme ever?
Feathers
Different fungus, but I watched the film Pig last night. Amazing film that goes all sorts of places you aren’t expecting it to. Nicolas Cage getting to be as good as he’s always been capable of. Sort of John Wick but with a truffle pig, but also totally not. Violent, but bounded and well telegraphed.
@p.a.: I really like Ragusa’s videos. It’s important to do the work to make things good, ridiculous to do pointless work just to be fancy.
zhena gogolia
@JoyceH: Great!
Wyatt Salamanca
Speaking of another kind of fungus,
This Dan Froomkin post is a must read:
When facts have a liberal bias, New York Times editors can get squirmy
https://presswatchers.org/2021/12/when-facts-have-a-liberal-bias-new-york-times-editors-can-get-squirmy/
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: I have no idea of the backstory or what Twitter Coventry is. Can you supply a little background on this?
mrmoshpotato
@WereBear: So true!
WaterGirl
PSA #1
If you were supposed to be receiving your copy of Midnight In Washington and it hasn’t arrived yet, please send me an email ASAP.
PSA #2
Starting on Monday, we’re posting holiday pics – from when we were little – in the On The Road time slot. So please send me your pics. Doesn’t have to be Christmas, all holidays welcome. The war on Christmas has begun!
Baud
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Thanks for that link. Very enlightening.
SpaceUnit
We had a couple of premade kids in our neighborhood when I was growing up. I mostly avoided them. Have no idea how ‘spendy’ they were because I never wanted to know.
Then when I went to college there were the pre-med kids who always made a point to let you know they were, in fact, pre-med. So annoying. We used to say that, technically, anyone can claim that they’re pre-med until you’re . . . you know, actually accepted into medical school.
Like, I could claim to be pre-astronaut, but until I get the call from NASA it doesn’t mean shit, does it? Seriously.
Anyway, what were we talking about? Mushrooms?
StringOnAStick
A few weeks ago I came across a really interesting community of fungi on the end of a log, it made for a fun texture photo. Then yesterday’s backcountry ski day had quilted, painterly sky and snow/charcoal/wood texture in a standing snag from and old fire. A few more and I’ll send in a texture collection for the morning post.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Gonna take a bit to do some blog spelunking on my phone.
Dan B
@Wyatt Salamanca: Excellent piece with clear rendering of the problem and a solution. We need this to wake up centrist Dems.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@JoyceH: Everyone with cats has owned a Jorts at one time or another.
kindness
I knew a couple people who used covered hexagonal fish tanks to grow mushrooms in the 80’s. Big ones. Their most difficult problem was sterilizing the media. They were pretty successful though. Did several batches with great results. Looked really nice when the mushrooms were all starting to bud out. These weren’t particularly legal mushrooms though. It was the 80’s and all.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: I wasn’t intending to give you homework! :-)
Is the gist that he was somehow banned from twitter for a year and then they said oops and let him back in?
Yutsano
@SpaceUnit:
Wait…how does that work exactly? :P
WereBear
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’ve got Bud-Bud the Oblivious Spud.
SpaceUnit
@Yutsano:
You can buy anything on Amazon.
Order extra batteries.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Guessing that your elbow hurts like hell and everything you try to do is a pain in the behind? :-(
Or do they have you on super high doses of tylenol? When I broke my ankle they wouldn’t let me take advil because there was some research that advil kept the bones from knitting together as well and they had me at the max dose of tylenol.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: It has not been that painful. Can’t comment much with one finger of left hand. I was told to alternate large doses of tylenol and advil and that has worked well — no other pain meds needed. i’m skipping tylenol right now. of course it’s Saturday so i can’t ask my doc about your advil info.
Spanky
@Yutsano: I assumed “pre-made kids” meant step-children.
Too simple an assumption?
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: With acetaminophen (Tylenol) you have to be careful to limit your intake to 1,000 mg/day or you risk serious liver damage. The alternating acetaminophen/ibuprofen regimen is sound, and has good clinical evidence.
MissBarbie
@CaseyL: Actually, no they don’t. I have some that smell and taste like maple syrup
(Lactarius rubidus), and others like seafood (Russula xerampelima). Join a local mushroom club, and learn from your fellow shroomers. You’ll never look at the woods the same again.
MagdaInBlack
@Spanky: I assumed typo for pre-med, considering the next paragraph was about pre-med students attitudes.
zhena gogolia
@MagdaInBlack: Probanly using the damn dictation feature. I called my husband (instead of myself) stupid in a group email thanks to that
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
Yes. :)
zhena gogolia
By rhe way guys I’ll say it again GET BACK is a f–in masterpiece. Parts 1-2 down and part 3 will get me through
Yutsano
@MagdaInBlack: I’m looking at it now and I blame Autocorrect, who is a fickle beast indeed.
@zhena gogolia: I can accept that answer as well.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: I’ve not seen it, but over at the forum at The Beatles Bible most have said seeing it changed how they viewed the group at that time.
zhena gogolia
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yes, amazing portrait of four artists plus collaborators. Makes me so mad about John all over again.
Mo MacArbie
@MagdaInBlack: My money’s on “kits”.
There go two miscreants
@WaterGirl: per Wikipedia:
Send to Coventry: an English idiom meaning to deliberately ostracise someone
narya
@WaterGirl: I have yet to receive notice that it has shipped, unfortunately. I will email you as soon as I hear, and I’ll call them Monday to make sure the order hasn’t been disappeared. I am trying to support a local bookstore, damnit!
SiubhanDuinne
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Excellent piece. Thanks for the link.
Another Scott
@Wyatt Salamanca: Indeed, it is excellent. Thanks for the pointer.
Cheers,
Scott.
narya
@JoyceH: OMG, especially the version with bass. This saga makes me so happy.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: My orthopedist was adamant about no advil. ?♀️ Not until week 6 or 8 when they took x-rays and confirmed that the bone had healed nicely. Only then would she let me take advil.
I HATE tylenol but I took it because she was insistent about the no advil thing. That was 3 or 4 years ago so there is probably either confirmation of the early research that had a bunch of doctors saying no advil or alternate research that disputed the earlier research. ?♀️
WaterGirl
@narya: Thanks for the update.
If it doesn’t ship soon I think you will need to either go with a different source or I can enlist one of the other offers to get the book for your person.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
No streaming or Netflixing over here, but when you say “mad,” do you mean he’s unkind or acting like a jerk?
WaterGirl
@debbie: I thought she meant mad because John Lennon’s life was cut short. ?♀️
debbie
@WaterGirl:
That I can relate to.
Miss Bee
@Ol’Froth: alfalfa pellets (such as guinea pig chow) work well as a growing medium.
Miss Bee
@MissBarbie: Find a list of local mushroom clubs here:
https://namyco.org/clubs.php
zhena gogolia
@debbie: His murder.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Oh, yes. I still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when the news came over the radio. Cried like a baby.
Miss Bee
@CaseyL: No, they don’t all taste the same. Lion’s Mane is by far the most delicious. Do try it. The oyster mushrooms, whatever their color, are all pretty bland.
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: When I got my knee replacement they had me on BIG alternating doses of Advil and Tylenol, plus one regular aspirin a day as an anti-clotting measure. After a week or so, the aspirin and the Advil together caused me to get horrible bruises all over my feet and legs at the slightest pressure, and the solution was to just take me off the Advil entirely and leave the rest. Had to tough out a bit more pain.
Ol Froth
@Steeplejack (phone): Thanks! I did not know that!
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
If you actually start to work with polishing or forming crystals with a Dermel, WEAR A MASK !!! Get a 3M industrial respirator with at least N95 filtration capacity. A facemask with replaceable filter packs. You can get them at auto-parts or hardware stores, or order them via mail after Googling for a supplier…