By Ali Manns
Some seasons are just plain hard. And I don’t mean winter, but rather seasons of life. There come periods when a single, challenging priority rises to the top, making heavy demands. Like a tenacious messenger, it delivers feedback that cannot be ignored.
Such a season set in for me in recent months. Following an unwanted diagnosis and surgery, recovery and self-care took priority. To make space for that, life had to be pared back. In gardening terms, it meant my intended winter of building new veggie beds for spring just did not happen. Instead, my projects got reduced to tasks within my capacity.
That capacity turned out to be caring for just a tiny patch of soil – in a box – in my living room. Within it, grew mushrooms. It proved to be easy, super-productive and a rather fun activity.
Cultivating mushrooms
While there is a whole world of fungi and complicated techniques to grow them, the easiest entry point is a ready-to-grow kit. Mushroom boxes are increasingly available to buy at garden centres and online for under $30. And once set up in a warm location, out of direct sunlight, they require little more than a daily misting of water from a spray bottle. It is a worthwhile investment as the crop is generous, producing for weeks after the first harvest.
A box contains a block of growing substrate (sawdust or straw) which has been inoculated with your chosen variety of mushroom. The white mycelium threads are already abundant through the block meaning they are nearing the fruiting stage of their cycle. All that’s needed is some water and attention from you.
Popular edible fungi to grow at home are white or brown Button, Lion’s Mane, Oyster and Portobello mushrooms. Once you taste a fresh picked and cooked mushie, there really is no going back! Box kits may become a regular feature in your home or perhaps the world of advanced, larger scale growing – in-ground, on logs, or fruiting chambers – might beckon.
Some now, some later
As with all successful garden produce there comes a time when the belly might not be able to keep up with the harvest. Luckily, mushrooms preserve very well and can be dehydrated for use down the track. Once thoroughly dry they can be stored in airtight jars until needed.
To use, they can be rehydrated in a little water 30 minutes before cooking and used as you would fresh mushrooms. Or, the dehydrated pieces can be blitzed into a powder for use in soups, slow-cooker creations or as a table sprinkle.
It’s not often you can say that food from a box is both tasty and nourishing, but mushrooms seem to offer it all. Science knows their benefits for every part of our body from brain to gut to immune system. Our hearts recognise their mysterious enchantment.
And if growing them offers any lesson, it might be that magnificent things emerge from darkness. A good message to reflect on in hard times.
