Are Edible Mushrooms Creeping Into Local Food?

Locals are growing them in urban basements and on logs on apartment decks, it seems, delicately spraying them and caring for them until they're ready. They are mushrooms, the latest in local food. No, we're not talking about those mushrooms. Not the spotted ones, not the ones of fairy tale lore and hallucinogenic properties. These ones are the next urban food trend, a delicacy of fungal proportions. We've had urban bees and urban chickens and we're all over urban agriculture. Urban mushrooms seem to be the next hot - actually, cool and damp - trend.

Why grow mushrooms? Well, mushrooms are expensive to buy. A little bag of local or imported fungi will cost you upwards of a few dollars, and that's for something that is a garnish once cooked. Mushrooms are also the ideal winter food. They're fairly space-efficient and can grow in any season, since they aren't all that picky about light conditions. Of course they can also grow outdoors too, and their versatility makes them ideal for the large yard or the small urban balcony.

There are environmental reasons to grow your own local mushrooms too. Like many foods, mushrooms are also shipped around the country. However, unlike oranges and mangoes, mushrooms are easy to grow at home. There's also the question of large versus small mushroom production. Large mushroom companies grow mushrooms in compost, a mixture of manure and other decomposing items. Now, while a small batch of compost is rather inoffensive, a large mass of fungi growing in a larger mass of manure has a rather distinctive odor. It's so distinctive that some people shy away from living near a mushroom-growing facility.

Mushrooms are also a very nutritious food. They are high in fiber and contain potassium, riboflavin, and selenium. Best of all, this local food makes a wonderful burger or a garnish, and they taste best when they are very fresh - perfect for the home grower.

Mushroom kits come in a log or as a fungal inoculant for compost or wood chips. Some even come in bottles, which is a little odd but sounds like the perfect desk decoration for those passionate about local food. Growing mushrooms is a matter of having the right spores and the right substrate. Put them together and you can grow your own delicious oyster or wee button mushrooms. Log-growing mushrooms tend to produce more crops per kit than the compost-growing kind, since a rotting log produces a lot of nutrients for the mushrooms as it slowly decomposes.

Growing mushrooms as an edible food crop seems a little quirky, but it's worth a try. In the winter in northern climates it becomes more challenging to grow local food, and the fresh food might be worth the time spent preparing an indoor gardening space.