Fungi in a Box

I've had mushroom kits in the past, with varying degrees of success. This last time was a comedy of errors. I had originally planned to incorporate the kits into the eco-class, I've been hosting. The timing was a bit off and the boxes arrived a week after the lesson on the Third Kingdom. Even after that, I still intended to workshop them in the class. But week after week, we would run out of time of something would come up. Needless to say I never got around to it.

The mushrooms decided to take matters into their own hands.



Time waits for no man, or mushroom.

This amazing Oyster Mushroom was absolutely gorgeous and tasted exquisite. I got this box and a couple of other kits from Fungi Perfecti. The products are great and the work of Paul Stamets is beyond fascinating. I highly recommend.

"Fungi Perfecti® is a family-owned, environmentally friendly company specializing in using gourmet and medicinal mushrooms to improve the health of the planet and its people. Founded by mycologist and author Paul Stamets, we are leaders in a new wave of technologies harnessing the inherent power of mushrooms and fungal mycelium worldwide. Fungi Perfecti® is Certified Organic by the Washington State Department of Agriculture. In business since 1980, we offer an ever-expanding product line for the mushroom enthusiast." taken from the Fungi website.



We sliced up all the lovely caps and then did a very simple saute so as to not lose any of the fungi's natural flavor.

Yummy.





The almost unexplored world of the Fungi is remarkable.

Fun-gi Facts

Fungi (singular is ‘fungus’) are not plants or animals but are in a separate kingdom.

Mushrooms are the fruit of some kinds of fungi – the rest of the fungus is made up of a mycelium, or web, of fine threads (hyphae) in the soil, tree or dead leaves.

The mycelium (a web of hyphae) of a single fungus can be huge – a honey fungus found in America, which infects trees, was thought to be between 2,400 and 8,500 years old, and covered about 10 square kilometres of the forest.

The top of a mushroom is called the cap – inside are gills, where it produces spores, instead of seeds.

Some mushrooms can release 2.7 billion spores a day.

Some mushrooms just drop their spores and let the wind carry them away, but some shoot their spores in the air, as far as 2.5 metres.

A truffle is the fruit of a fungus that grows in tree roots, and many people prize it for its flavour – truffles are very precious and in December 2007, a truffle sold for $330,000.

Some fungi live under water.

Lichens are a partnership between algae and fungi, and can be hundreds of years old.