Thursday, January 23, 2014

Lion's Mane Mushrooms

A few years ago, I became interested in mushroom cultivation.  I've grown oyster mushrooms in the past, and I just harvested some Lion's Mane mushrooms that I got for the holidays.  I've heard some pretty cool things about these mushrooms.  Apparently they can increase you memory and mood.  Paul Stamets is a mushroom expert with some interesting thoughts about Lion's Mane.  You may have seen his TED talk, 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World.



I saw Paul give a talk about mushrooms at Burning Man this past year.  The talk was very interesting, and one of the things he mentioned was that Lion's Mane promotes growth of cells in the brain.  He also mentioned that they taste like lobster when sauteed with butter.  I had to give it a try! 

I prepared the grow kit around December 27th, and I made a mushroom fruiting box a few days later.  The fruiting box is a large clear bin with holes drilled in it, and moist perlite at the bottom.  This keeps the humidity high so that I don't have to mist the bag as often.  I still fan out the box once or twice a day.


From Jan 15th-ish?




 I harvested on Jan 20th







I sauteed them up with some red onions and butter, and a little salt and pepper.  They were pretty tasty, though not my favorite.  I am excited to harvest another flush in a few weeks, and hopefully I can prepare the next batch a little better, and they'll taste more like lobster!



Here's Paul's website where I got the kit:




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