Homegrown Mushrooms Part 1

That kinda sounds like a Pink Floyd song!

I found this at the store!

It doesn't look like much at first.

This is my first post, now that I have stated the obvious, I'm just going to get into why I decided to write a blog. I love to share what I find with the people I know! Especially when it comes to food. 


I was walking through the produce department at the Von's in MDR and I found this display. For $16.99 you can grow up to 1 1/2 pounds of oyster mushrooms. While it doesn't seem to be economical it did look like fun!

As soon as I got it home I opened the box and found the little spray bottle... This is probably for the "kid factor" that was part of the display. What is harder to see is the perforations on the cardboard. The instructions on the side of the box kind of allude to "opening the front panel" I pulled the panels off after finally finding the perforations and followed the directions. So far so good, this looked like an easy project so far. A lot easier than the lime tree that was a gift from one of my best friends (no offense B) . Easier than the pepper sprouts in a can (from my wife) that are finally starting to get bigger, but not yet blooming!

Its made with coffee grounds,
my favorite coffee grounds, Peet's.

Inside the box I found a coupon for Peet's. Cool mushrooms and $1 off my next bag of coffee! I'm really liking this project.

If you have a problem with the written directions on the outside of the box the inside of the perforated panel has pictures. I like pictures too. The pictures made it easier to understand that I was going to cut into the plastic bag that held the used coffee grounds.

After opening the cardboard.

I know this sounds redundant! But I'll say it anyway, find a sharp knife! Dull knives are dangerous, you stand a better chance of cutting yourself with a dull knife you have to fight with than that sharp knife that does it's job the first time.

Once that was done I had to find a container that would hold the entire plastic bag. I tried some of the smaller pots I own but I had to use my enormous stock pot. See the bag needs to soak for 12 hours. The biggest problem was the bag wants to float...

The instructions make it look easy to 
put it under water to soak but it's not!

Ultimately my solution was to weigh down the whole this with a gallon jug of water. Even after an hour the bag o' mulch wanted to float.

Tuesday morning I'll pull the bag out of my stockpot and continue to follow the directions and place the box in out of direct sunlight.

I'll keep you posted!