Mushroom Cultivation: An Illustrated Guide to Growing Your Own Mushrooms at Home

1 The Basics

So you’ve decided to grow your own mushrooms. Now let’s figure out how to go about it. You have some decisions to make. What to grow is undoubtedly the first one. Where and how are important, too.

Mushrooms don’t exactly grow on thin air. In fact, most of their growing takes place underground, or in a log, or even under a pile of straw, so successfully cultivating them is quite a bit different from growing geraniums or cauliflower. There’s a lot to learn.

Understanding how mushrooms grow is crucial to successfully cultivating them. In this next chapter, we’ll teach you the fundamental facts: What a mushroom actually is. What it likes to eat, and where it can find it. Then, to help you decide which to start with, we’ll look at several different mushroom varieties, and give you lots of information to consider in making your choice. Most important, we’ll show you how you can successfully replicate in your own home what nature gives the mushroom to survive in the wild.

2 Growing Mushrooms on Logs

Take a walk in the woods, especially after a warm rain, and chances are you’ll find mushrooms growing. They may be growing at the base of some trees, on a decaying stump, on tree bark, or even on the tree trunk.

Many mushrooms like to grow on wood. But you don’t need to find a nearby forest to enjoy these delicious fungi; with a little care and knowledge, you can cultivate them in your own backyard, or even inside your house. In this section, you’ll find just about everything you need to know for a successful crop, from choosing the right species to selecting the best log, and right up to how and when to harvest.

3 Growing Mushrooms on Straw

If you don’t have a forest in your backyard to provide you with logs, or even a place to let a lot of mushroom-inoculated logs grow, straw might be the answer.

Not all mushrooms will grow on straw, but the ones that do will grow well. Oyster mushrooms and wine caps are both fond of straw. We’ll show you how to grow both, and the best ways to do everything possible to ensure success, from where and how to choose the straw, to how to prepare it, and of course, how to inspire a healthy crop of mushrooms to grow on it.

Yes, there’s some prep work involved, but it might be easier and more convenient than chopping down a tree. This method is especially easy if you live near a farmer who grows grain and is happy to supply you with a nice weed-free crop.

4 Growing Mushrooms on Sawdust and Wood Chips

We’ve already seen how to use two different mediums—one from a forest, the other from a farm—to cultivate a successful mushroom crop. Next on the list is something you may have in your own home, if you’re into carving or carpentry, or know someone who is. We’re talking now about sawdust and wood chips. They make excellent substrates for certain kinds of mushrooms. Wine caps love wood chips; in fact, they often grow without any help at all—whether they’re wanted or not—wherever a pile of chips or mulch can be found. Oysters are equally happy; sawdust closely mimics what they munch on in the wild.

If it works in nature, the odds are good that both these mushrooms will also do well in your own backyard—with a little help, of course, which you’ll find in this next chapter.

5 Growing Mushrooms on Compost

Need a little help with your composting? Could your garden soil use a bit of beefing up? Mushrooms to the rescue. Several species are adept at breaking down garden and table waste and turning them into usable, nourishing soil.

Blewits are the star here; last year’s leaves are their preferred food. But they’re not fussy; they like the leftovers from your table, and your garden, too. And they’re easy to cultivate; the coming pages will show you how.

We’ve spent a lot of time on a wide variety of seemingly exotic mushrooms, the kind that didn’t enter your culinary lexicon until recently. And we’ve found they’re not so hard to grow after all. The common button mushroom might seem lowly at this point, but let’s end with a look at that species, agaricus; we’ll find they’re kind of finicky and maybe one of the more difficult to grow.

You’re a mushroom-growing expert now, so why not give it a shot? In this chapter, we’ll add these last two to round out your repertoire.

6 Problems and Solutions

The decision to grow your own crop of edible mushrooms is not one to be taken lightly. It involves a lot of time and effort and, as is the case with many new endeavors, there are certainly things that can go wrong. So though we’ve tried to give easy-to-follow, understandable instructions, you may feel a bit daunted by this new undertaking.

Maybe it just seems overwhelming; you’re worried about making some bad mistakes right off the bat. Perhaps you’re further down the road and have a harvest, but you wonder whether what you’ve got is what you should eat. Did some not-so-edibles mix in with the mushrooms you thought you were growing? Or perhaps you’re sure you did everything right, but somehow that mushroom bed looks wrong.

This chapter will help calm those jitters. We’ll tell you how to start slow and build your confidence, and if problems come up, we’ll show you how—whenever possible—to correct them.

7 Processing and Preparation

Congratulations. You’ve got a successful harvest on your hands. So successful, in fact, that you’re not sure what to do with all of them. Sure, you’ve been cooking up a storm. But you probably won’t be able to gobble them all up the day you harvest. We want to make sure they don’t go to waste and that you get to savor them for many months to come.

In this chapter, we’ll tell you the best way to keep them for both the short term and the long, from a week to a year. Some for now, and some for later: it’s up to you. We’ll make sure they’ll last as long as you want them to, and be delicious no matter when you choose to use them. You wouldn’t want to waste all the effort you’ve put in to growing them, would you?

8 The Finished Product

Now comes the reason you’ve coaxed and coddled all those mycelium for all these many months. You’ve got mushrooms, and now you get the chance to eat them.

Regardless of what type you’ve grown, mushrooms are incredibly versatile and there are practically countless ways to prepare them—sautéing, stewing, or braising; making mushroom soup or mushroom sauce; as an appetizer, a main course, or a salad addition (some people even make them into a dessert!).

The easiest choice is simply to sauté them up: just heat some butter (or oil, but mushrooms and butter bring out the best in each other), throw in some slices, maybe add garlic, and cook until they’ve absorbed all the liquid they’ve just sweated out. Serve and enjoy. You’ve just made a great side dish or garnish for almost any entrée.

If you’re British, perhaps add them to toast; French, make an omelet. Japanese? Miso soup. Just about every cuisine you can think of uses mushrooms in one tasty way or another.

We’ll tell you how to get the most out of your mushrooms in this chapter. Taste buds ready? Let’s go!