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Mushroom Portabella Kit

Plants
Item #56902
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Description

Grow Fresh, Gourmet Mushrooms at Home

This easy-to-use kit will bear several pounds of the premium mushrooms for grilling and broiling

Please note: This item ships from October through the end of May.

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

One bite of a fresh Portabella and you'll never settle for those rubbery supermarket mushrooms again. The gourmet 'shroom for grilling, broiling, and fresh eating, Portabellas command top prices at the store, yet are so easy and fun to grow at home with this Mushroom Kit.

As soon as your kit arrives, open it, read the instructions, and begin growing several pounds of this yummy treat. Portabellas can reach up to 6 inches across—the largest of the cultivated mushrooms! A close relative of the more common white and brown mushroom, Portabella has a longer growth cycle and much richer, meatier flavor and texture.

A great gift and indispensible part of the "living pantry," the Portabella Mushroom Kit will bring you hours of scrumptious eating. Expect to harvest about 2 to 3 pounds of mushrooms. Kit measures 8½ x 12½ x 9 inches.

Details

Skip Product Specs
Genus Agaricus
Species bisporus
Item Form Plants
Additional Characteristics Edible, Gift
Restrictions *Due to state restrictions we cannot ship to the following:
Canada, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Alaska

Product Review Summary

Based on 3 reviews
The average rating for this product is 5 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 5.0/5.0

Customer Reviews

December 20, 2013

So easy!

This shopper rated the product 5 out of 5 stars

Loved this kit. The mushrooms grew like magic. Someday they would triple in size. Wonderful. I cooked many a recipe with this kit.

Rachel from CT
April 09, 2012

Yummie!

This shopper rated the product 5 out of 5 stars

we love Portabellas and wanted to try growing them ourselves. We just harvested our first batch which came in at just over 1 lbs. New pinheads are already appearing!

Pascale, first time mushroom grower from
January 25, 2012

Portabella Mushroom Kit

This shopper rated the product 5 out of 5 stars

This is a reorder because they are so good and testy.I love to cook with them.

RTR from NY

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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