Tavis Lynch - Mushroom Cultivation: An Illustrated Guide to Growing Your Own Mushrooms at Home

An Illustrated Guide to Growing Your Own Mushrooms at Home

TAVIS LYNCH

2018 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

First Published in 2018 by Quarry Books, an imprint of The Quarto Group,

100 Cummings Center, Suite 265-D, Beverly, MA 01915, USA.

T (978) 282-9590 F (978) 283-2742 QuartoKnows.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the copyright owners. All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned, and no responsibility is accepted by producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort has been made to ensure that credits accurately comply with information supplied. We apologize for any inaccuracies that may have occurred and will resolve inaccurate or missing information in a subsequent reprinting of the book.

Quarry Books titles are also available at discount for retail, wholesale, promotional, and bulk purchase. For details, contact the Special Sales Manager by email at or by mail at The Quarto Group, Attn: Special Sales Manager, 401 Second Avenue North, Suite 310, Minneapolis, MN 55401, USA.

Digital edition: 978-1-63159-638-4
Softcover edition: 978-1-63159-404-5

Digital edition published in 2018

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lynch, Tavis, author.

Title: Mushroom cultivation : an illustrated guide to growing your own mushrooms at home / Tavis Lynch.

Description: Beverly, MA : Quarry Books, 2018. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017045760 | ISBN 9781631594045 (flexi-bind)

Subjects: LCSH: Mushroom culture. | Mushrooms.

Classification: LCC SB353 .L96 2018 | DDC 635/.8--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017045760

Design: Kathie Alexander

Page Layout: tabula rasa graphic design

Cover Image: All photos by Shutterstock, except: Dewitz Photography/Travis Dewitz: upper right, middle right

Photography: All photos by Dewitz Photography/Travis Dewitz, except:

Shutterstock:

Author:

Receipe development: Sonia Turek

I dedicate this book to my daughter, Julia. Thank you for all of your help and for being such a good sidekick in the woods.

Mushroom lovers and fanatics of the worldwe mycophilesunite! For centuries, even millennia, many peoples throughout the world have foraged or cultivated mushrooms for food, fiber, and medicine. Often the knowledge of which mushroom was safe and edible, and in some cases cultivable, was kept locally and passed down orally as part of tradition and culture.

In North America, where I live, this was never really the case. The Native Americans from different regions had their own ethnomycological and ethnobotanical knowledge, of course. But the recent immigrants, who now make up the vast majority, somehow lost this knowledge along the way. In sharp contrast to the rest of the world, North America had become mycophobic!

But a revolution is under way. In the short span of three decades, I have seen, indeed all of us mycophiles have seen, a sea change in public attitude toward mushrooms and other fungi in North America. In previous decades, Americans attitudes toward mushrooms have ranged from suspicious to downright fearful, to accepting as foodbut only a single variety, and usually purchased off the shelf in a can. During the thirty years that I have been a mycologist, I have witnessed American consumer tastes, and demands, switch from sad wilted button mushroom to exotic cultivated mushrooms (shiitake, oysters, cremini, and portobello). Americans began moving away from factory-farmed vegetables (including mushrooms) to more organically-grown produce, and lately more and more people are striking out on their own, into the woodlands, to forage natural foodsincluding mushrooms. The final step in the complete reversal in attitude toward mushrooms has been with the explosive upsurge in interest for mushroomsboth wild-foraged and cultivatedas a source, not just of nutrition, but of perceived healthful, indeed medicinal, properties. Mycophobia to commercialized mycophilia. All in the span of about three decades.

What will be the next big trend? Growing those wild and exotic, and medicinally important, mushrooms right at your own home, just as people throughout the world have done for centuries. Nothing could be more rewarding. And sustainable, considering that you can use lawn and other cellulosic wastes, kitchen scraps, even newspaper and cardboard waste.

Enter Tavis Lynch to tie it all togetherand show the home cultivator how its done. And to make it look easy.

Tavis is an expert on all things mushroom. For years, he has been a source of mushrooms, and information about mushrooms, for many in the Midwest. He has supplied cultivated mushrooms from his extensive farm to restaurants and farmers markets for years. He has long sold foraged wild mushrooms, as well. At the same time, Lynch has been a regular on public radio programs during spring (morels, naturally) and fall wild mushroom seasons, offering expert advice on how to safely identifyand then prepare in the kitchenthose foraged fungal treasures. His extensive experience in the woods, on the farm, and in the kitchen comes together in this wonderful book, that all may benefit from and enjoy.

Possibly the best part of this book is its universal appeal and usage. The mushrooms that Lynch tames from the wild and demonstrates how to cultivate are well-known from fields and woodlands over most of the globesuch as blewit, wine cap stropharia, and oyster mushrooms. Other species, such as shiitake and nameko, once curious exotic mushrooms in restaurants, are now commonplace on grocers shelves. Wouldnt it be nice to be able to pick your own at homefreshand to use them at the peak of their flavor and nutrition? Dear Reader, now you can!

Britt A. Bunyard, publisher and editor-in-chief, FUNGI

Over the past few years, it seems as if mushrooms are popping up everywhere: on restaurant menus, in grocery aisles, and at local farmers markets. And not just the ubiquitous white buttons weve seen for years; what once were exotic are now almost commonplace. Shiitake, chanterelle, cremini, enokithe list grows longer every year. Maybe its because theyre so healthy: mushrooms are just packed with vitamins and antioxidants. Maybe its a desire for new flavors and texturesas foreign cuisines become more widely shared, so do their once-unusual ingredients. Or maybe its just because they taste so good.