Mushrooms farming is SO COOL

I visited Del Fresh mushroom farms today with Bart Minor of the Mushroom Council and could not believe how cool mushroom farming is.  Grains inoculated with mushroom spores are planted in compost in a large flat box.  The spores develop into a mycelium like a seed develops into a plant.  A mycelium is a colony of single cells making up one large organism filling up the box; see the white fluffy mycelium in the first image.  CLICK any image to see it enlarged.  The mycelium is covered in peat to retain moisture in the box.  After a week the atmosphere is changed quickly from high carbon dioxide built up from leaving the room closed, to higher oxygen by opening the door.  The mycelium gets stressed out and thinks it is going to perish, so it grows mushrooms to release spores and survive. Although it is not a plant, the mushroom itself is a reproductive body and is therefore called a fruit, with a similar function as apples and oranges, but passing on spores instead of seeds.  We take a fungus, realize it functions as a fruit, and then think of it as a vegetable.  Talk about multi-tasking.  Shown are pictures of white button mushrooms, the brown crimini mushrooms, and a harvested box of portabella, which are over-sized crimini.  During the tour I saw mushrooms being sliced and boxed for Round Table pizza, which makes me want to go eat there now that I see what quality goes into one of their ingredients; gourmet veggie with red sauce!  Thank you Emily Bettencourt of Del Fresh for the tour.  See the Ted Talk below my youtube video for a discussion by Paul Stamets on the profound potential benefits of mycelium, which include toxic waste removal, combating viral infection, and creating biofuels naturally.  

Comments

[ask a doctor]

what a great experienced, I never taught mushroom farming are cool..