You Bet Your Garden

Too cold for greens? Plant some "gray" instead!
By Mike McGrath

Wish you could grow something to eat now, despite the short, cold days and often frozen soil? Well, you can! Not 'plants,' but a whole other class of edibles: mushrooms!

Although we eat them like vegetables, they're a completely different form of life and one you can grow indoors with no special equipment.

Gourmet varieties like Shiitakes and Portobellos, and "medicinal mushrooms" like the Reishi (known in Asia as the "Mushroom of Immortality" for its reputed health enhancing properties) are available in inexpensive (generally $20 to $25) kits that include a growing medium (like sawdust) and mushroom spores.

They'll produce a nice harvest of delicious gourmet mushrooms under a sink or in a closet. Then, some varieties can be moved outdoors to extend their production over the summer!

Among the most popular are kits that grow super-tasty Shiitake mushrooms (expect to harvest a nice sized batch every two weeks for up to four months!); a very pretty oyster mushroom that's so pink its called the Flamingo Oyster; an 'oyster' that you grow in your old coffee grounds (playfully called the Espresso Oyster); and the famed Portobello, a mushroom prized both for its delicious flavor and reported health-enhancing properties.

And, after you harvest a nice indoor crop, you can take that kit outside where it will continue to produce Portobellos for you!

A quick Internet search will reveal lots of suppliers of kits and growing spawn. My personal favorite is a company called "Fungi Perfecti." Run by legendary mushroom expert Paul Stamets, their products are all certified organic. You'll find them on the Web at www.fungi.com, or call them at 1-800-780-9126 and request a catalog.

You Bet Your Garden can be heard Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WHYY 91FM.

Information about the program and more of Mike's gardening tips can be found at You Bet Your Garden online.