mushroom mania: putting the fun in fungi

At our house, mushrooms are considered very cool.  Our younger son draws them, reads about them, and talks of becoming a mycologist.    He likes mushrooms so much that he sells a line of Fungus Friends soft toys on Etsy.  Very cute, in my biased opinion, but he really does make them himself.

Our resident fungus expert has wanted to grow his own mushrooms for a long time; last summer he raised his first crop of gourmet oyster mushrooms from a Fungi Perfecti kit.  I was thrilled to post a photo of him happily surveying the crop on the Fungi Perfecti Facebook page (run by founder Paul Stamets).  

But there was much more mushroom goodness to come....
A couple months ago, he received the generous gift of another mushroom kit, this one even more convenient to use.  A little duct tape so it wouldn't fall off the windowsill, a daily misting, and look what happened!

He harvested the mushrooms and dried them, awaiting transformation into delicious mushroom gravy or soup.  The instructions on the box said to flip it over, cut another hole, and grow a second batch.  But neither of us got around to doing that.  So imagine his surprise when, a month or so later, NEW mushrooms grew from the same box!

So in conclusion,
Shrooms Rule
and Fungi truly are Fun.