Because it’s getting colder outside, it’s time to start finding ways to entertain yourself indoors. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still play with nature. If you like growing food, then a mushroom kit is right up your alley.

To make this project as carbon-free as possible, I started out by looking for mushroom kit companies closest to my Mother Earth News home base in Topeka, Kan. I also wanted the logs and mushrooms to be certified organic. Luckily, I found Lost Creek Mushroom Farms in Perkins, Okla. Not only are they close, but their mushroom logs and mushrooms are “grower certified” organic. Another bonus was that a portion of their sales go to their Mushrooms in Ghana project.

Last year the two owners, Doug and Sandra Williams, visited Ghana to teach farmers how to grow shiitake mushrooms. In Ghana, they were growing oyster mushrooms in sawdust bags, which were contaminated and not producing even a moderate level of mushrooms. In hopes to help the production in Ghana even more, they’re trying to raise money to bring one particular farmer, Bernard Bempah, to the United States. They will take him to various shiitake farms to learn more about mushroom farming, so he can return to Ghana and hopefully change mushroom production in the country.

This seemed like a good cause, so I called them up, and they helped me determine which kit would be best for my mushroom-eating needs. I decided to start simple and get a 10-inch log to grow shiitake mushrooms on. So we’ll see how it goes, and I’ll keep you updated on my experience. Please post a comment below if you have any mushroom-growing advice to share.

For further reading, check out Grow Your Own Mushrooms.

One of the best parts of photography, especially wildlife photography, is the magic moments.  You know what I mean: Everything just falls in place in the most unexpected and beautiful way that you know, you just know, you just got something special. The setting, the lighting, and the subject come together to create something you […]

Growing up completely off-grid only using low-tech energy sources, including candles and kerosene for lighting with an occasional battery-operated device, such as our shortwave radio, made me desire to figure out how to avoid needing to constantly buy these items. When The Farm, an intentional community near us, had an alternative energy fair in 1990, I […]

Learn how to attract birds and butterflies to balance your garden as nature intended. Advice on how to raise butterflies from caterpillars is included.

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