Mushrooms belong to the fungi kingdom. Neither plant nor animal, they are nonetheless truly fascinating and their lifecycle sounds like something from a sci-fi movie.
The mushrooms we eat are actually the fruiting bodies of a mycelium that grows on a substrate such as straw, sawdust, logs or even used coffee grounds.
The growing mycelium slowly colonises and consumes the substrate before the fruiting bodies, or mushrooms, emerge from the mycelium. Once mature, the mushrooms release spores that land on the substrate and begin the cycle again.
(If you’d like to read about this in more detail, the book Milkwood by Australian permaculture experts Kirsten Bradley & Nick Ritar has a whole chapter on mushroom cultivation, including a detailed run-through of the mushroom lifecycle.)
Mushroom foraging can be fun and rewarding, but only if…
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Good Organic Gardening (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue #12.4 - 2021