Growing Mushrooms!

I finally bit the bullet back in January when an ad came up on my Facebook feed for a sale on Mushroom Grow Kits.  I quickly ordered two kits of oyster mushrooms from the company.  Within a few days, they arrived. I punched holes in the boxes and the long wait began.

One box of Blue and one of Black Oyster Mushrooms.  After many weeks and no "fruit," I re-punctured both boxes as directed.  Within a week the Black Oysters started to show themselves!

It had two holes that produced so I harvested the larger side.




















 

Beautiful mushroom gills.

They were delicious.  Sadly, a few days later, when I went to harvest the others, they had shriveled. And the Blues have never fruited. I am hoping that the Black Oysters will have a second fruiting.







Not to be deterred, while at the 2016 Philadelphia Flower Show, I stumbled upon Smugtown Mushrooms' booth!  After a nice chat with a very knowledgeable young woman, I purchased two more growing kits.  The Shiitake block is now in a old fish tank fruiting away.  The other, "Wine Cap," also known as "Garden Giant" are going to go outside in the next day or so.  They will grow on a bed of fresh wood chips and continue to fruit throughout the spring, summer and fall!  I am really looking forward to it.  I will post photos once we get some growing.


If you are interested in trying to grow mushrooms at home, I suggest a visit to Smugtown Mushrooms to check them out!  

This year is all about trying new things in the gardens and stepping outside of my comfort zone.  15 blackberry plants went in this week! To be partly living fence and partly food. We revamped garden beds and are looking to improve our harvests this growing season.

Sprouts! So Easy and Good for Ya!

Sprouts!

I have been sprouting seeds for consumption on and off for a few years now.  It goes in spurts. Sometimes I sprout them for me. Sometimes I sprout them for my chickens. It is a simple process and it helps turn those seeds, beans, etc. into something more easily digestible.

A few things you may be asking yourself. Am I going to need fancy equipment? Is it an involved process? What if I don't like them? No worries!  I'm going to give you some simple tips and photos of the process that will get you sprouting in no time.

Step 1: Deciding what to sprout!  I do like bean sprouts, so for this blog post, I decided to sprout mung beans. They are very easy.  I've also sprouted lentils, green peas and broccoli. There are lots of places on line that you can purchase seeds specifically for sprouting.

Step 2: Gather your equipment.  I picked up these lovely mung beans from our local family owned organic market.  A quart sized wide mouth jar, jar lid ring, and a bit of wire mesh that I cut to fit in the lid. You can use other things, such as screen, or cheese cloth. Anything that will let the water freely flow out and keep whatever you are sprouting, in!

Mung beans, mesh lid, clean jar.

Mesh Lid.

Lucky for me, I keep bees, and at some point I ordered some #8 hardware cloth for a bee project.  That is what I used to fit in the lid.

Step 3: Add a small amount of mung beans (or whatever you have decided to use) into the bottom of the jar.  Add the lid. Then I half fill the jar with water, give it a few swirls and then drain it.  I do this once or twice.  After that I fill the jar at least half full of water and let the beans soak over night.

Overnight soak.

 

Step 4: Once they have soaked, I give them two more rinses. 
From this point on, I rinse the beans twice a day. Once in the morning, then again at night.  

Each day you will notice a little more of the bean has sprouted.

Just beginning to sprout.

  

The tails get longer and your jar will seem to suddenly fill up!

Full jar!

All of my mung beans have sprouted!  From this point you can start eating them. 

Ready to Eat.

As you can see from the above photo, the green skins of the beans have mostly come off and the tails are nice and white. 

Sometimes I have let them go until the first set of leaves, the cotyledons, emerge, but you can stop them before that. It is a matter of taste preference.  They go great on salads or in stir fry. Or just snack on them by the handful!

In order to keep them for a bit longer, I give them a final rinse and drain them well. I put the regular lid on the jar and stick them in the fridge.

Enjoy!