We're hoping that the morels are doing better than the brown oyster mushrooms we've been trying to grow. Each week since we planted our m...
Last supper for our morels—it’s a good thing

We’re hoping that the morels are doing better than the brown oyster mushrooms we’ve been trying to grow.

Each week since we planted our morel habitat, Team Mushroom has headed out to the top secret location on the Sunset grounds to enrich the soil with fresh compostables so the morel “spawn” will grow. We’ve just reached a milepost for our project: the final feeding.

In honor of the occasion, we piled the tasty kitchen scraps on a platter in the test kitchen and paraded them outside. (So much for the secret location.)

Here are Brianne and Erin heading to the patch.

The soil has gotten nice and light with all the turning and amending. I’m imagining the morel mycelium (the main part of the plant, which is microscopic and lives underground) feeling very well-fed and cozy and beginning to stretch and expand. Who knows–over time, maybe it will get as big as the amazing fungus in Oregon that covers 2,200 acres. Well, maybe not.

Now we just water our patch if the weather is dry and wait for “morel spring.” As far as I can figure, “morel spring” is the perfect combination of wet weather followed by heat that will cause the mycelium to send up small, white, toothpick-like mushrooms above ground which will mature into big fat morels!

When exactly is “morel spring”? The directions that came with the habitat say it could be as soon as 30 days from now…or as long as two years.

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