During a visit to Portland, I was struck by the conspicuousness of mushrooms. The people of Portland adore the 鈥榮hroom, both for its taste and its visual properties. The visitor鈥檚 eye falls everywhere on felted mushrooms, toy mushrooms, mushroom paintings and photographs of the noble fungus.
Surrounded by such wonders, I started to long for my own source of mushrooms 鈥� but how? Luckily, a 麻豆传媒映画company has developed product that produces them in your own kitchen.
Mushboo is the brainchild of mycology lover Matthew Unger. Simply put, Mushboo is a mushroom growing kit inside of a bamboo log 鈥� mush 鈥渞oom鈥� plus 听bam 鈥渂oo鈥�... get it?
Unger, now 30, grew up on a farm in the prairie and knows how challenging it is to make a living as a farmer. So he worked in finance, long enough to realize he didn鈥檛 like it. After a period of time trying to determine his true passion, Unger realized that he was a farm boy after all.
The key to a good farm is sound, productive earth. Unger became interested in the notion of bioremediation: restoring soil by removing toxins. Bioremediation can be done in different ways, with mushrooms and other fungi being particularly useful. As they grow, these plants naturally break down their growing medium.
After much experimentation with various media and species, he created Mushboo. The mushrooms are grown on coffee grounds sourced from 11 local 麻豆传媒映画coffee shops. As the mushroom grows, it breaks down the coffee waste, allowing it to be recycled quickly.
Initially Unger intended to sell the complete mushroom kit to customers. However, after some soul searching his focus has shifted to being an 鈥渙pen source鈥� company. This means he has opened up his inventory to the public, so people can buy individual pieces and experiment with growing mushrooms in different mediums and containers.
Mushboo looks like an Easter Island statue made of bamboo. Unger tells me that people can get two or three harvests out of one refill, but he鈥檚 gotten as many as seven. Unger chose oyster mushrooms, being 鈥渆asy to grow and hearty.鈥�
My sample Mushboo took about two weeks to grow.听I found the entire growing process fascinating. My Mushboo lived on my kitchen counter by the sink. Every morning, I monitored the new growth; slow and tentative at first, then erupting into a mass of beautiful white mushrooms. These were fried up with garlic and butter, and, I鈥檓 happy to report, tasted fantastic.
Caring for the mushrooms and having them live in my kitchen was a strangely intimate experience. It鈥檚 not just food, it鈥檚 a design feature, and a sort of family pet. That you eat.
More info at .
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