DIY Mushroom Cultivation
Growing Mushrooms at Home for Food, Medicine, and Soil
by Willoughby Arevalo
With applications in permaculture, urban farming, cooking, natural medicine, and the arts, interest in home-scale mushroom cultivation is exploding. Yet many beginners remain daunted by the perceived complexity of working with fungi.
DIY Mushroom Cultivation is the remedy, presenting proven, reliable, low-cost techniques for home-scale cultivation that eliminate the need for a clean-air lab space to grow various mushrooms and their mycelium.
Beautiful full-color photos and step-by-step instructions accompany a foundation of mushroom biology and ecology to support a holistic understanding of the practice. Growing techniques are applicable year-round, for any space from house to apartment, and for any climate, budget, or goal. Techniques include:
- Setting up a home growing space
- Inexpensive, simple DIY equipment
- Culture creation from mushroom tissue or spores
- Growing and using liquid cultures and grain spawn
- Growing mushrooms on waste streams
- Indoor fruiting
- Outdoor mushroom gardens and logs
- Harvesting, processing, tinctures, and cooking.
Whether you hunt mushrooms or dream about growing and working with them but feel constrained by a small living space, DIY Mushroom Cultivation is the ideal guide for getting started in the fascinating and delicious world of fungiculture.
Click here to view an excerpt and here to see the table of contents.
About the Author
Willoughby Arevalo is a mycologist, artist, kitchen wizard, father, and educator who has been sharing his knowledge of fungi for the past decade. He has presented at and organized numerous mycology convergences, courses, and workshops and serves on the Education Committee of the Vancouver Mycological Society. He works on an organic vegetable farm, while growing mushrooms at his home in Vancouver, Canada.
