'Shroomin'!

 

 

 

Stropharia rugosoannulata photo from wikimedia

 

It would appear that I have a wilted thumb when it comes to growing peas, carrots, beets, or many other vegetables. But potatoes and tomatoes manage to survive, and herbs thrive. While pondering just how many Yukon golds and cherry tomatoes to put in the ground, my husband asked why not try mushrooms?

A day earlier I happened to have watched a video on growing wine cap mushrooms and it seemed easy. The video creator happily wandered through his backyard garden cutting wine cap mushrooms from under leaves and thanking his fungi for providing nutritious food.

What better place to grow fungus than in the Pacific Northwet? After watching a few more videos I sent away for my wine cap

mushroom kit. A few days after it arrived, I got the first bale of straw I’ve ever purchased, too. Straw is necessary to layer with forest duff (decaying vegetable matter covering the ground under trees) to grow the wine caps. Straw is also great for covering the potatoes as they grow.

The straw and duff are laid down in what is called the "lasagna method", and then the layers need to be well-watered. After a thorough soaking, the 15 spawn pegs we received in our mushroom kit were pushed into the layers of straw and duff.

Now we just need to keep everything wet, and with a 100% chance of rain the following day, we picked the perfect Saturday for starting our wine cap mushrooms!

While researching how to grow mushrooms I also learned of the great health benefits many varieties have. Mushrooms such as lion's mane, reishi, maitake, shiitake, and turkey tail protect your brain as you age, help your memory, provide antioxidants, and some even have cancer-fighting properties.

In two to three months I'm looking forward to a crop of wine cap mushrooms popping up in the backyard garden, and I'm hoping the squirrels leave some for us!