Mushroom foraging

Velvet shanks (wild enoki) growing by the road near me.

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Good haul from a wander near the in-laws back in October

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Picked today, reckon these are oysters? They feel a bit tough.

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Reckon so. That’s a great haul!

Fried mushroom sandwich for breakfast!

Can confirm. Tasted like oyster mushrooms. If I die, it will have been a tasty way to go.

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What difference does the growing medium make to the taste of mushrooms? I assume it’s like wine.

I’m growing some oyster mushrooms on coffee grounds. Not sure what to expect. They were slow to start but are now growing rapidly.

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Looks like Covid cultivation

That looks fucking wild

It’s mildly terrifying TBH

I've thought about doing this with left over brewing grains/coffee grounds and a spare plastic fermenter I have

Fuck yes. Have you got any more details?

Pretty simple, really. Placed spores within layers of coffee grounds in this tub. Drilled holes. Waited. Now I’m misting the mushrooms daily.

Spores from here: https://www.annforfungi.co.uk/

Anyone else done this? Are they going to taste like coffee? Looks like I’m going to have a massive crop so keen to experiment with more substrates.

Sweet, will start saving grounds (rather than just chucking in the compost)!
By spores, are you just chucking the dowels in there, or am I looking in the wrong place?

I bought these and scattered them between layers of grounds. I think I only used half the little bag and looks like I’m going to get more mushrooms than I’ve ever bought.

My mates set up https://espressomushroom.co.uk/ (they've sold it on since) and I've done a number of the oyster mushroom kits. No coffee flavour at all in the end product but genuinely delicious and really fun to watch them grow...

That’s great to know. I received one of those for Christmas last year and didn’t mist it enough so the mushrooms dried out. I was read up and went DIY this time. Can’t wait for my haul. Will report back.

This looks really good and after getting some experience growing plants I think it would be nice to grow some mushrooms. For how long were you saving coffee grounds? Weren’t you afraid of other mushroom spores contaminating the incubator/tub?

I think that’s a month of grounds from two cups a day.

I didn’t think other spores would get into the tub to contaminate. Are they everywhere?

I was more concerned about spores getting into the grounds and getting a head start before you plant oyster spores. Not sure about how common shroom spores are, but if you have a large and old apartment or a house with an attic I’d guess there’s a pretty good chance some spores are present.

You’ve inspired me and now I’ve placed an order for a box full of mycelium so I guess we’ll find out how it goes. Thanks!

Update. Not sure these are oyster.

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I'd not be so sure - I've done homegrown oysters and had the same experience, they came out with more stem than I expected.

I don't know how to make sure they can out like I expected them to....

(You have absolutely loads more than I got, though - I just bought a fairly budget kit which was just OK)

I gave my dad an oyster mushroom grow kit and it looked identical to yours in the early stages and then they get massive.

I’m getting nervous. I keep them under the stairs.

Looking good. Internet tells me they need at least 8 hours of light/day to grow properly. Do they get it under the stairs?