our winter project
for a preventative against mutual assassination during the short, cold days of the stircrazy season, the boywonder turned to fungi perfecti for mushroom kits. never one to avoid going overboard, 7 kits soon found their way via browntruck to the red house next to the whoajeeeeezus building, and our adventures in mycology began. unfortunately, it didn't occur to us to take pictures till the tail end of our adventure, so mushrooms in progress shots won't happen until next year.
our most impressive fungus was purely the
fruit of boywonder's labors, having been cultivated in his office (A. we had
no more shroom room at home and B. the moldworks has come to expect such
things from the boywonder). this is the s-l-o-w growing reishi mushroom 4 months
post-spawning, the present tense being february. the baby popped up a month or so ago and illustrates what the
monster shroom looked like in december. the reishi is alleged to have health
stimulating properties (the main allegers being the chinese who call the
reishi ling chi). we brewed tea from it (as advised by the chinese) but
didn't feel stimulated healthwise. to give scale to things, the baby shroom
is about 2 inches long. and yes, we're well aware of how phallic it is. the
brown powder dusting virtually everything drives home the phallic tendencies
of the reishi - the spores were released suddenly, violently, explosively,
stickily. if you have patience, this variety definitely gives the most bang
for the buck.
here's another view of the mongo reishi
that better shows the dusting of sporage. you'll notice the spores
especially cover the top of the mushroom, further demonstrating how
violently they were released. the only clean area is the white underside
from whence the spores were ejaculated and the baby mushroom (the young
being exempt from sexual activity?). fortunately, the entire growing
assembly is kept under a plastic bag. the spores are wickedly adherent and
resist normal cleaning methods.
the other varieties we grew had a much
faster timeframe than the reishi, producing 5-6 healthy harvests each. by
the kits' ends of life, we became somewhat negligent and let the last of the
portabellos and enokitakes die of drought. after that morbid thought, some
comic relief: What do you call a mushroom that buys all your drinks? A fungi to be with.
how about a limerick:
Said mycologist Linda, verbatim,
"When it comes to the earth stars, I hate 'em."
So asked by her master
To key a Geaster
She growled out a curse, "fornicatum!"