Mushroom Blue Oyster Countertop Kit

Plants
Item #31020
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Description

Water, harvest, and eat—it's that easy!

These mushrooms are Certified Organic, GLOBAL G.A.P, USDA Organic, Certified South Carolina, and Certified Appalachian Grown™ products.

Oyster mushrooms are some of the most popular mushrooms in the world. Blue oyster mushrooms are not only delicious, with a mild flavor that resembles seafood, but also beautiful, with a shell-like appearance and stunning blue color in the early stages of life. Cooked blue oyster mushrooms have a chewy, meaty texture, which makes them an excellent option for a vegan protein meat substitute. Blue oyster mushrooms provide beneficial fiber, vitamin C, riboflavin, folate, thiamine, pantothenic acid, niacin, and various minerals.

With this Countertop Kit, blue oyster mushrooms are super easy and fun to grow. This self-contained, ready-to-fruit kit is highly rewarding because it's highly productive. It usually begins fruiting within 2 to 3 weeks of arrival—with fruiting temperatures between 65° and 80°F—and typically produces 2 to 3 pounds over several flushes. This kit is fully colonized, inoculated with Pleurotus ostreatus mushroom culture, which is among the easiest species to cultivate. Just spray with water, harvest, and eat. It really is that simple.

In addition, the Blue Oyster Countertop Kit is environmentally friendly—made with compostable substrate and bio-degradable cardboard and plastic bags.

This item is available to ship May through September only. Please allow up to 2 weeks for your kit to be custom-made for you. Humidity tent and directions included.

Details

Skip Product Specs
Genus Pleurotus
Species citrinopileatus
Item Form Plants
Fruit Color Blue
Additional Characteristics Edible, Easy Care Plants
Light Requirements Part Shade
Moisture Requirements Moist,  well-drained
Uses Cuisine, Houseplant
Restrictions *Due to state restrictions we cannot ship to the following:
Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands

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Creating a Spore Print

Spore prints are used for three main purposes: mushroom cultivation, mushroom identification (as different mushrooms have different colored spores), and, of course, art.

Making spore prints is not only an easy, fun way to get to know mushrooms but also a very cheap way to cultivate more mushrooms at home.

For mushrooms with gills (spores lie on the gill surface) and mushrooms with pores (spores inside the pores underneath the cap), follow these instructions.

  1. Cut off the stem and place the cap, with the gills facing down, on a piece of aluminum foil, a white piece of paper, an index card or a glass microscope slide.
  2. Put a drop of water on the top of the cap to help release the spores.
  3. Cover the cap with a paper cup or glass and leave for 2-24 hours, depending on the humidity and the freshness of the mushroom. The spores will fall on the paper, foil or glass, making a spore print pattern.

If you don't want to separate the cap from the stem, make a hole in an index card, place the card on a paper cup and slide the stem of the mushroom through the hole until the underside of the cap is resting on the card; then proceed as above.

If the mushroom is hard, it is more difficult to obtain spore prints. Some polypores not only take a long time to mature and produce spores but also can often live a long time after they’ve produced and dispersed their spores. Try wrapping them in wet paper towels or newspapers overnight before putting them down on foil, paper or glass to make a spore print. Note that the spore bearing surface always faces down toward the ground as the polypore grows.

To study the spores with a microscope, scrape off some of the spores from your spore print with a needle or scalpel onto a microscope slide. Place a drop of water on the spores and cover with a cover slip.

To preserve your spore print, spray them lightly with an artist spray or hair spray. Hold the spray at least 12 to 15 inches away from the print.


Making Extracts

A double extraction will pull out water-soluble beta-glucans and alcohol soluble triterpenes. Beta-glucans are a form of soluble fiber strongly linked to boosting heart health, improving cholesterol, and regulating blood sugar to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Oyster and shiitake mushrooms are believed to have the most effective beta glucans. Triterpenes compounds have revealed anti-inflammatory, anticancer, anti-tumor, antioxidant, anti-anxiety, immunomodulatory activities, and liver protective effects. Reishi mushrooms are considered the best source of triterpenes.

Ingredients:

• 80 proof or higher alcohol (vodka and brandy are popular choices)
• Organic dried mushrooms
• Purified water

Directions:

1. Fill a quart-sized glass jar halfway with dried mushrooms.
2. Fill jar with alcohol, completely covering the mushrooms, but leaving about a 1/2 inch of space at the top of the jar. Secure lid.
3. Let it sit for a month. Shake daily.
4. After a month, strain mushroom-infused alcohol into another jar and set aside.
5. Next, make a water extract by bringing a half gallon of water to a simmer in a stock pot. Add the mushrooms from the alcohol extract to the simmering water.
6. Simmer the mushrooms for about 2 hours, until the water has reduced to approximately 8 to 16 ounces. Make sure to keep an eye on the water level, as you don’t want it to completely evaporate. You may need to add water to the stock pot throughout the process.
7. Let it cool.
8. Strain and compost the mushrooms using a funnel and cheesecloth, reserving the mushroom-infused water.
9. Combine the water extract with the alcohol extract.


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