Mushroom bucket...another extension class

 This county extension class was in July, but I had to wait until this month to see results.

The subject was learning to grow mushrooms at home.

We each received take home instruction pages...

The mushrooms are grown in a bucket.  The agents had the buckets ready for our class...sanitized and with holes drilled in the sides for the mushrooms to grow through.

They had a big pile of wet straw and we took turns going up and filling our buckets, packing it in tightly to the top.

While packing in the straw we added layers of this bagged mushroom spawn.

The lid goes on the bucket then its kept in a black garbage bag in a cool dark place for a few weeks.

I put my bucket in the basement near the air conditioning unit.

In a month or so I checked and found one nice sized mushroom.

There were a few more small sprouts growing out of the bucket.

I wrapped it back in the garbage bag and waited a couple more weeks.

No more big mushrooms.

By this time I was starting to feel uneasy about the mushrooms.  The one that did grow wasn't very flavorful and my brain was telling me not to eat it.

I guess it's just the idea of eating something that grew in the dark in my basement...not a pleasant thought.  

I was sort of worried that other basement mold and so forth could grow in there too.

So, I opened the bucket to empty it out. Lots of activity in there.

I spread the straw around a flower bed to enrich the soil.

It was a fun and interesting project. I learned that I'd rather buy my mushrooms at the grocery!