Easy Kits for Growing Mushrooms at Home

As a child I never liked mushrooms. Strike that—I never had the opportunity to eat mushrooms because my parents didn’t like them.

Entering adulthood I just stayed away from encounters with mushrooms, picking them off the late-night pizzas ordered with friends at college and steering clear of them on Chinese food takeout menus.

Time has moved on, and so have my taste buds. I now love mushrooms. The earthier the mushroom, the better. Every shopping trip sees me sorting through the bins of different kinds. What a silly kid I was, I think as I marvel at the fresh and dried fungi.

This is the year I stop relying so heavily on store-bought mushrooms and I attempt to grow my own. With the popularity of “grow-your-own” everything—from bean sprouts to dinosaur kale to heirloom tomatoes—several different companies now offer grow-your-own mushroom kits. There are two that I know of.

Back to the Roots

This is the one I currently have growing in my kitchen. Probably the most well known of the mushroom-growing kits, the Back to the Roots kit promises to produce up to 1.5 pounds of pearl oyster mushrooms in about 10 days, and it can produce at least two crops of mushrooms—maybe even three crops.

Each box, which is shaped like a cardboard milk carton, contains 100% recycled plant-based waste, which performs as the growing medium. I believe this one Back to the Roots kid consists of tightly packed coffee grounds that are inoculated with mushroom spores. Just open the lid, peel back a portion of the plastic bag, mist with water twice a day, and set it in indirect sunlight. How convenient to grow indoors!

Happy Cat Organics

Happy Cat Organics is an organic seed producer from Southeastern Pennsylvania that offers a Shiitake Mushroom Log for outdoor mushroom growing.

The log comes inoculated with a strain of mushroom spawn. Given proper shade and moisture, the log will produce shiitake mushrooms every 8-12 weeks for several years. Just place the log right on the ground in a place such as a shaded mulched planting bed and keep it moist. If it dries out for more than a week, soak the log overnight in a container of water and it’ll be as good as new.

I have heard these inoculated mushroom logs have also been spotted at local farmers markets and offered in other ways (from local farms, CSA programs, etc.). If you spot one, try it! Your pizzas will taste way more spectacular than that late-night nosh from college.