The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms


Book Description

From the basics of using mushroom kits to working with grain spawn, liquid cultures, and fruiting chambers, Stephen Russell covers everything you need to know to produce mouthwatering shiitakes, oysters, lion’s manes, maitakes, and portobellos. Whether you’re interested in growing them for your own kitchen or to sell at a local market, you’ll soon be harvesting a delicious and abundant crop of mushrooms.




Growing Mushrooms for Beginners: A Simple Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms at Home


Book Description

A practical introduction to growing and enjoying mushrooms at home Cultivating your own mushrooms is simple and satisfying once you've mastered a few basics. Growing Mushrooms for Beginners is full of advice, techniques, and step-by-step instructions for growing a range of edible and medicinal mushrooms at home, whether you have a sprawling backyard, a tiny balcony, or no outdoor space at all. Cultivation at a glance--Get started with a straightforward guide to the basics of the cultivation process, and explore simple setups that require minimal space and investment. A variety of growing mediums--Learn everything you need to know to successfully grow mushrooms on logs, straw, sawdust and woodchips, compost, and in mason jars. Project-specific pointers--Find troubleshooting tips for every growing project, plus instructions for freezing, drying, and cooking with your harvest. Popular mushroom profiles--Explore detailed profiles of 7 novice-friendly mushroom types, like oyster and lion's mane, including their unique characteristics, flavors, health benefits, and specific growing requirements. 30 culinary and medicinal recipes--Discover delicious recipes to showcase your mushroom harvest, from Cordyceps Tea to Tri-Mushroom Curry. Learn how to grow and utilize a wide variety of mushrooms at home with help from this beginner-friendly guide.




How to Grow Mushrooms from Scratch


Book Description

This guide to growing edible mushrooms covers 19 varieties, from button mushrooms to immune-boosting reishis—plus recipes and preserving methods. Mushrooms are a joy to grow—for food, as a garden feature, or just for fun—and it’s easier than you think! Mushrooms will thrive in your garden, on your windowsill, and even in your basement. The key is to pick the right growing medium for your mushroom—a log, a bale of hay, or a simple pot of dirt—and give it a little shade. Experts Magdalena and Herbert Wurth explain every step of cultivation—whether starting from a kit, a culture, or a grown mushroom you’d like to propagate. From protecting mushrooms in extreme weather to troubleshooting pests, here is expert advice for beginners and experienced growers alike!




Shiitake Growers Handbook


Book Description




Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms


Book Description

A detailed and comprehensive guide for growing and using gourmet and medicinal mushrooms commercially or at home. “Absolutely the best book in the world on how to grow diverse and delicious mushrooms.”—David Arora, author of Mushrooms Demystified With precise growth parameters for thirty-one mushroom species, this bible of mushroom cultivation includes gardening tips, state-of-the-art production techniques, realistic advice for laboratory and growing room construction, tasty mushroom recipes, and an invaluable troubleshooting guide. More than 500 photographs, illustrations, and charts clearly identify each stage of cultivation, and a twenty-four-page color insert spotlights the intense beauty of various mushroom species. Whether you’re an ecologist, a chef, a forager, a pharmacologist, a commercial grower, or a home gardener—this indispensable handbook will get you started, help your garden succeed, and make your mycological landscapes the envy of the neighborhood.




Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation


Book Description

An in-depth exploration of organic mushroom cultivation practices, groundbreaking research and myriad ways to incorporate mushrooms into your life "A clear, comprehensive guide that is a gift to amateur as well as professional mushroom growers. This book opens the doors wide to a diverse and fascinating fungal world."—Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden What would it take to grow mushrooms in space? How can mushroom cultivation help us manage, or at least make use of, invasive species such as kudzu and water hyacinth and thereby reduce dependence on herbicides? Is it possible to develop a low-cost and easy-to-implement mushroom-growing kit that would provide high-quality edible protein and bioremediation in the wake of a natural disaster? How can we advance our understanding of morel cultivation so that growers stand a better chance of success? For more than twenty years, mycology expert Tradd Cotter has been pondering these questions and conducting trials in search of the answers. In Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation, Cotter not only offers readers an in-depth exploration of best organic mushroom cultivation practices; he shares the results of his groundbreaking research and offers myriad ways to apply your cultivation skills and further incorporate mushrooms into your life―whether your goal is to help your community clean up industrial pollution or simply to settle down at the end of the day with a cold Reishi-infused homebrew ale. Inside, you’ll find: The Fundamentals of Mushroom Cultivation Innovative Applications and Projects Using Fungi Basic Laboratory Construction, Equipment, and Procedures Starting Cultures and Spawn Generation Detailed descriptions of over 25 different genus The book first guides readers through an in-depth exploration of indoor and outdoor cultivation. Covered skills range from integrating wood-chip beds spawned with king stropharia into your garden and building a “trenched raft” of hardwood logs plugged with shiitake spawn to producing oysters indoors on spent coffee grounds in a 4×4 space or on pasteurized sawdust in vertical plastic columns. For those who aspire to the self-sufficiency gained by generating and expanding spawn rather than purchasing it, Cotter offers in-depth coverage of lab techniques, including low-cost alternatives that make use of existing infrastructure and materials. Cotter also reports his groundbreaking research cultivating morels both indoors and out, “training” mycelium to respond to specific contaminants, and perpetuating spawn on cardboard without the use of electricity. Readers will discover information on making tinctures, powders, and mushroom-infused honey; making an antibacterial mushroom cutting board; and growing mushrooms on your old denim jeans. Geared toward readers who want to grow mushrooms without the use of pesticides, Cotter takes “organic” one step further by introducing an entirely new way of thinking―one that looks at the potential to grow mushrooms on just about anything, just about anywhere, and by anyone. "This comprehensive introduction to growing and utilizing fungi has something for all mushroom-inclined readers . . . . Both practical and passionate, Cotter offers extensive and detailed information.”—Publishers Weekly




Farming the Woods


Book Description

Learn how to fill forests with food by viewing agriculture from a remarkably different perspective: that a healthy forest can be maintained while growing a wide range of food, medicinal, and other nontimber products. The practices of forestry and farming are often seen as mutually exclusive, because in the modern world, agriculture involves open fields, straight rows, and machinery to grow crops, while forests are reserved primarily for timber and firewood harvesting. In Farming the Woods, authors Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel demonstrate that it doesn’t have to be an either-or scenario, but a complementary one; forest farms can be most productive in places where the plow is not: on steep slopes and in shallow soils. Forest farming is an invaluable practice to integrate into any farm or homestead, especially as the need for unique value-added products and supplemental income becomes increasingly important for farmers. Many of the daily indulgences we take for granted, such as coffee, chocolate, and many tropical fruits, all originate in forest ecosystems. But few know that such abundance is also available in the cool temperate forests of North America. Farming the Woods covers in detail how to cultivate, harvest, and market high-value nontimber forest crops such as American ginseng, shiitake mushrooms, ramps (wild leeks), maple syrup, fruit and nut trees, ornamentals, and more. Along with profiles of forest farmers from around the country, readers are also provided comprehensive information on: • historical perspectives of forest farming; • mimicking the forest in a changing climate; • cultivation of medicinal crops; • cultivation of food crops; • creating a forest nursery; • harvesting and utilizing wood products; • the role of animals in the forest farm; and, • how to design your forest farm and manage it once it’s established. Farming the Woods is an essential book for farmers and gardeners who have access to an established woodland, are looking for productive ways to manage it, and are interested in incorporating aspects of agroforestry, permaculture, forest gardening, and sustainable woodlot management into the concept of a whole-farm organism.




Mycelial Mayhem


Book Description

“A comprehensive and personal tome on the production, business, promotion, and problem solving for the independent mushroom grower.” —Taylor Lockwood, renowned mushroom expert & photographer Most supermarket mushrooms are bland and boring; products of an industrial process which typically relies on expensive equipment and harmful pesticides. Many people would like to add more flavorful and diverse fungi to their diets, but lack the knowledge or confidence to gather or grow their own. Do-it-yourself cultivation is a fun, exciting way to incorporate a variety of mushrooms into a sustainable lifestyle. Mycelial Mayhem is a straightforward, no-nonsense resource for the aspiring mushroom grower. This practical guide cuts through much of the confusion surrounding methods and techniques, helping the hobbyist or farmer to: Select regionally appropriate species for the home garden, farm-scale production, or an edible landscape Practice sustainable, environmentally friendly cultivation techniques, such as companion planting, to combat common garden pests and diseases Choose a successful, proven business approach to maximize profit and minimize frustration Many people find that DIY mushroom cultivation is not nearly as complicated as they expect, but a knowledgeable and experienced mentor is crucial to success. Whether your goal is to harvest homegrown gourmet mushrooms for your table, supplement your income by selling to friends and neighbors, or start a full-fledged niche business, Mycelial Mayhem is packed with the advice and resources you need to succeed with this rewarding and valuable crop. “After reading Mycelial Mayhem’s approachable primer to this age-old art I’m ready to invite the mysterious and captivating kingdom of fungi right into my own home.” —Langdon Cook, author of The Mushroom Hunters




A Way to Garden


Book Description

“A Way to Garden prods us toward that ineffable place where we feel we belong; it’s a guide to living both in and out of the garden.” —The New York Times Book Review For Margaret Roach, gardening is more than a hobby, it’s a calling. Her unique approach, which she calls “horticultural how-to and woo-woo,” is a blend of vital information you need to memorize and intuitive steps you must simply feel and surrender to. In A Way to Garden, Roach imparts decades of garden wisdom on seasonal gardening, ornamental plants, vegetable gardening, design, gardening for wildlife, organic practices, and much more. She also challenges gardeners to think beyond their garden borders and to consider the ways gardening can enrich the world. Brimming with beautiful photographs of Roach’s own garden, A Way to Garden is practical, inspiring, and a must-have for every passionate gardener.




The Beginner's Guide to Mushrooms


Book Description

The Beginner's Guide to Mushrooms is your ultimate guide to mycology. Whether you've never picked a mushroom before in your life or you've been cultivating mushrooms at home for ages, the expert advice in this comprehensive mushroom manual will transform your practice. Never before have mushrooms generated so much interest, for their health benefits and medicinal properties, as well as a new understanding of their crucial role in a healthy environment and ability to regenerate damaged ones. If you are a newcomer, mycology, or the study of mushrooms and other fungi, can seem daunting. While other field guides are geared toward experts with advanced knowledge or regional in scope and aimed at only a few easy-to-recognize mushrooms, The Beginner’s Guide to Mushrooms by veteran mycologists Britt A. Bunyard and Tavis Lynch is a complete reference and guidebook to get you started identifying, cultivating, cooking, and preserving mushrooms. The Beginner's Guide to Mushrooms opens with important basics about wild mushrooming and how to use the book. Information about what fungi are and their role in the environment and around the home is provided in brief and very understandable terms. Basic wild mushroom anatomy is discussed along with how to identify mushrooms and various characteristics to look for—of great importance if you are interested in learning how to recognize edible wild species…as well as dangerous look-alikes. The guide then covers: All the major groups of wild mushrooms, pointing out habitat, region, and notable characteristics—large photographs with easy-to-view characteristics facilitate correct identification. Mushroom cultivation—with easy-to-follow illustrated instructions, learn how to grow mushrooms at home, including how to collect wild specimens and domesticate them. Culinary uses and how to preserve wild mushrooms to be enjoyed in the kitchen all year round. Begin your wonderful exploration of wild mushrooms with this accessible yet thorough beginner's guide.