From the beginning
It took me a couple years to figure it out and I’m still learning. Still as excited as I was to do it back then, even after all the mold I’ve grown. Mushrooms are difficult because they require so much time just to learn you messed it up. It’s good to start small. Learn about this amazing organism from everything and everyone you can.
Inspiration Finds you
As it turns out, I learn about as slowly as mycelium. Going back to my first dry tiny mushroom I grew in at the end of august 2022. It was delicious! I had never tried lions mane before and while I don’t hate mushrooms. I just don’t think to eat them. This one made me change my mind. Medicine sometimes doesn’t need a spoonful of sugar. Maybe mayonnaise but definitely not sugar! It could be a great substitute or filler for meat. It tastes a lot like crab and it preserves well if you dry it out. You can eat it, drink it or swallow it.
All of these factors fueled my passion in persevering through all my failures. I never mentioned that this first mushroom was already a years’ worth of trial and error for me. I live in the desert which has its special set of problems that cost me money. Some climates on earth grow mushrooms naturally and easily and with them come people who have most the information on how to grow them. So adjustments had to be made for my unique situation.
I didn’t want to spend a fortune on a hydration system. I found humidifiers a waste and a mess. It made the fresh air exchange almost impossible in a chamber so we decided to contain the substrates moisture in buckets instead. Since this is the only part of that needs to stay hydrated anyway, it made sense seeing other people try it with lions mane in smaller buckets.
A year later I had a new product…
bigger and better mush and no fuss
In late September 2023 I managed to grow my first real mushroom. They were still a little dry, but the size was a nudge in the right direction.
Comparatively, it worked much better than an old broken refrigerator with fans and a humidifier (for the first mushroom from a year prior) to taking over our second bathroom as an inoculation chamber. which made grain to grain transfers possible and it kept it from the extreme temperature changes from night to day that happen in the desert.
I still wanted my bathroom back which brings us to where I am today with it. I bought an old camper and decided to repurpose it for this reason.
Come back for more Mush because there’s MUSH MORE TO COME! 😁🍄