Grow-your-own mushrooms at home. It’s easier than you think, even easier if you treat yourself to a kit for just under £20.
We love mushrooms in our house. When I found a kit making them easy-to-grow at home, it was the perfect Christmas present for Mr. The guys behind the Espresso Mushroom Company use recycled coffee grounds to produce gourmet funghi.
Recycled Coffee
They collect the used grounds from coffee shops and mix it with mushroom seed (or spawn). It’s put in grow bags and left for a month in a dark place. For the fruiting stage, the bags are put into a light, humid environment which allows the ‘shrooms to grow, until harvest. Each bag produces up to half a kilo of mushrooms in a couple of harvests.
A few years ago, they launched a kit for mushroom fans to grow oysters in their own homes. With very little preparation and a little TLC, you’ll see mushrooms begin to sprout in your own home and it’s VERY EXCITING! Each kit costs just over £15 and contains the coffee grounds from 100 espressos, which grows about 350g of mushrooms.
These took under ten days from box to harvest.
The mushrooms are great to cook with and they’ve got the most beautiful appearance and are amazing on great sourdough toast (with a little creme fraiche, black pepper and Tarragon). Here’s our first and only harvest. The instructions did say we’d get further ‘shrooms and whilst it was an expensive way of growing a handful of exotic mushrooms it was a fun foray into the world of mushroom growing.
I’m sure there’s a cheaper way to grow-your-own but until I’ve mastered it, have the room and space for stock, I’ll stick with the kits.
Health Benefits
