Perfect for beginners, garden giant mushrooms are easy to grow, quickly colonizing wood chips, and easy to identify, as it looks like nothing else. The mushroom has the taste of potatoes cooked in a mild red wine sauce and the texture of asparagus. It's best sautéed lightly in a little salted butter or made into a healthful extract. Making an extract is easy. Check out the simple instructions below to learn how.
It grows in fresh hardwood chip beds or hardwood mulch outdoors and pasteurized straw indoors. It fruits at temperatures between 55 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, fruiting lightly in spring and heavily in fall.
A landscape beneficial mushroom, it not only produces water, increasing water in the soil, but also releases a compound called octanol which attracts earthworms that aerate and fertilize the soil. Predatory on coliform bacteria, it mulches the floors of livestock pens and chicken runs. It's the perfect mushroom for gardening and permaculture projects but also grows well indoors on pasteurized straw encased with soil.
This 5 lb. bag of sawdust spawn contains sterilized sawdust colonized by garden giant (king stropharia) mushroom mycelium, which feeds on the sawdust until it is ready to be spread on a new substrate (fresh hardwood chips or mulch commonly used for landscaping in gardens and on pathways or trails) from which the mushrooms will later fruit. The mushroom fruits for up to two years and creates a beautiful, rich soil after it decomposes the wood chips, perfect for soil building and gardens. One bag of sawdust spawn inoculates around 100 linear feet or 30 to 40 logs, depending on the size of the logs and distance between your holes.
Some mushrooms are poisonous, so it's always important to know your mushrooms. An easy way to identify any mushroom is by creating a spore print, so we have provided instructions below.
*Full instructions are included*
These mushrooms are Certified Organic, GLOBAL G.A.P, USDA Organic, Certified South Carolina, and Certified Appalachian Grown™ products.
| Genus | Stropharia |
| Species | rugoso-annulata |
| Item Form | Plants |
| Fruit Color | Brown |
| Additional Characteristics | Easy Care Plants, Edible |
| Harvest Season | Early Fall, Mid Fall, Mid Spring |
| Light Requirements | Shade |
| Moisture Requirements | Moist, well-drained |
| Uses | Cuisine |
| Restrictions | *Due to state restrictions we cannot ship to the following: Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Alaska |
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.
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.
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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