It's Mushroom Time!  

I started growing some oyster mushrooms in a five gallon bucket before steem came along, so I don't have any photos of the preparations made prior to this phase of the mushroom experiment, but I am going to run another batch soon. I will document the whole process.

 I used two methods, the five gallon bucket and the bag method, I didn't like the results of the bag method since I couldn't pack the substrate in good enough. The bucket method was far superior in my opinion, it was sturdy enough to be able to stack two or three buckets so you could double or triple your production for that growing space.

Preparations

I started with several five gallon pickle buckets I picked up at a local diner, they are food grade and ready to uses except for trying to remove as mush of the pickle smell as possible. I then drilled several 1 inch holes around the bucket and in the bottom for drainage. The substrate needs to remain moist but you don't want water to pool in the bucket. I used a second bucket without holes to set the other bucket into during the colonization phase. 

 You will also need your substrate, straw or sawdust seems to be the preferred item. I used straw, although I have a large sack of rice hulls I am going to try for the next go round. 

You will also need your choice of mushroom spawn, you can buy this ready to inoculate or if your a scientist you can work up your own strain from scratch. I'll just buy it ready to go.

Pasteurization 

 You will want to pasteurize your substrate to kill off any unwanted strains of fungus that might take over before your strain gets rolling, I did this step on a propane cooker with a large pot. Stuff your substrate in the pot fill it with water and heat and hold at the 140 - 160 degree range for about an hour. After that spread your substrate out on a sterilized table and let it cool down a bit, then mix in your spawn.

In The Buckets

 Once your spawn is mixed in thoroughly, begin filling your buckets(with the holes drilled) with the spawn/substrate mix. You will want to pack in it firmly, but not to the point where you have a solid block. Then place these buckets in the non-hole buckets and put a lid on the spawn bucket, in between the two buckets, place a small stick or some folded paper towel to allow for a little bit of air exchange. Now set the bucket out of the way in an area away from extreme heat or cold and let them do their magic.

And Now We Wait

It will take a day or two to start seeing some activity, the substrate will start to look fuzzy, this is a good sign. The mushroom that we all know and love is really the "flower" of the actual fungus that is colonizing the substrate. Once the fungus colonizes the whole bucket, it sends up the fruiting part of the mushroom, to send out more spore, in the wild that is the way mushrooms propagate. In this setup, we want to harvest the mushroom before it has a chance to release spores, they start to deteriorate quickly after that event.

On to the Photos

So I did manage to get photos of the growth process, once you see the fungus has colonized the bucket, you will want to remove it from the other bucket and allow the holes to be exposed.

Here is a photo of the substrate that has begun colonization, this was in one of the batches that I used the bags on. See the white fuzzy stuff?   So after this whole thing is covered with it, then you pull the bucket out. Or in the case of the bags, cut some slits in the side.

 This is after two weeks after complete colonization, you will start to see a little crazy looking mound of bumps in the holes, known as pinning. This is the baby mushrooms, after this, they grow pretty fast.

This is a day or so later.

Here we have several holes pinning, this is the desired result.

Two days in.

About three days in.

And so on,

ETC,

Until they start getting a good sized cap on them.

Until you see the caps begin to curl upwards, this is the sign that they are ready to harvest, if you left them a day or two more, they would begin to spore. Not what you want!

At this point you can break them off or cut them with a knife flush at the base. These should produce a few more times before you need to start over. 

And there you have it, fresh ready to eat , or dry them out and use them later. 

I sauteed these if butter and garlic and we had them for dinner, best shrooms I ever ate. It always tastes better when you grow it yourself!

Stay tuned, The next time I get another batch ready I will document the whole preparation process.

Check out these other mushroom posts by @hunterisgreat and @ivet!

https://steemit.com/health/@hunterisgreat/eat-more-mushrooms-why-you-should-and-how-to-grow-your-own

https://steemit.com/photography/@ivet/oyster-mushrooms-home-harvest