July 3 2015
 |
| HOT water, few drops Dawn (the blue stuff) |
So this will be a slow and ongoing project. I am trying to grow oyster mushrooms on old coffee grounds. This got me interested in mushrooms in general. I learned a lot about mushroom and how they grow. How the mushroom is the "fruit" of the plant, not the plant itself!
So anyway it turn out there is this method of remediating grabage, chemicals etc. Basically they pile everything up, make sure its soaked and damp all through and the innoculate the garbage with mushroom spores.
 |
| Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince |
The real plant part of the mushroom is called mycelium. Its the white fibrous or matted mass that grows through the medium it is on. and literraly removes any type of nutrient the mushrooms can use to produce the muchrooms we know the caps or fruit. When the plant is finished it has thoroughly decomposed the substrate it on and broken up chemicals into constituent parts, destroyed colors or other chemicals that may be present. It leaves behind nice crumbly compost loaded with mycelium to be added to another site or garbage pile.
 |
| Ahhhhh nice hot soak |
The project is this:
- Thoroughly soak a hardback book (cast off from the library) until all the pages are wet through.
- punch a few air holes in a ziplock bag (freezer bag)
- On the inside cover of the book on the bottom spread a handful of sawdust that has Oyster Mushroom mycelium on it (called mushroom spawn)
- See how long it takes to completely impregnate the book with mycelium.
- See How many "fruitings" we can get from the book.
- See what the process leaves behind when its done!!
I filled a container with water as hot as it comes out my faucet.
I added a few drops of dawn dishwashing detergent. It has mild antibacterial properties. Hope fully will give our good mushrooms a chance! Its been soaking for about an hour and has swelled the water is easily soaking through the pages and they are literally just getting mushy. The water has a purplish/grey tinge probably from the purple bookcloth and the ink.
 |
| 1 Hour, book almost completely wet through and through |
I re-decided from my initial plan and put about a 1/4 cup of the spawn in the back cover, the middle of the book and the front cover! I then loaded it into a ziplock bag and tossed it on the back porch. Will be curious just how long this takes to completely cover the book in mycelium.
July 9, 2015
The book has been in its plastic bag for a few days now. I did not expect the changes it is going through already. The book has swelled considerably. Not sure if its the action of the mycelium spreading already. I kind of doubt it though. more likely the books components have finally really soaked in the moisture.
I cut a few extra holes in the bag for better air flow. I also probably need to get a larger bag for it. it is literally jammed into the bag its in now. it initially fit really nice but now with its swollen state it is straining against the zip lock.
July 27, 2015
So almost about three weeks. The book looks mostly unchainged. It is still very swollen and while the colors in the covers are bleeding a bit there is no wholesale mycelium covering the book. However I did move it to the cooler darker basement to see if that has any effect! Check back for new pics and more information
August 7, 2015
So the book has been in the dark cooler basement for two weeks now and the changes are amazing. I took some pics but they are hard to see. The mycelium is clearly working its way through the book! It seems the handful of spawn put in the middle of the volume has done the most work. I have a few pics. By no means is the book consumed with mycelium yet, but it is well on its way. Been saving coffee grounds to try next!
 |
| Easy to see the mycelial creep! |
August 28
There has not been much change to the book in recent weeks. I have noticed a new spot of black mold :(. Not sure what this means but it seems the mycelium has stopped expanding or itsworking its way through the book. In other news I innoculated by second shot at coffee grounds and it seems to be working spectacularly. Pics soon. It seems the mycelium is spreading quickly through the coffee grounds. I have them packed in a ziplock bag with some airholes cut in the bag. I tried to make them drier than my first try which turned into a giant lump of green mold.
September 20
Lots of pictures today. It seems the entire outside of the book itself has beencovered with mycelium. In fact the black mold is gone! The entire book has a lovely earth mushroom smell. I have decided I will see if we can get it to fruit! I cut down the center of the giant ziplock and excposed the book to air. I found a nice shady spot in the back yard on top of a disused plant stand and we will see how this goes!
Found a cool hand painted warp scarf project in an older issue of Handwoven magazine. It features strips of warp you hand dye and then flip them alternately to vary the pattern. The weft is a single color that blends will with your other colors. The warp is sett at 30 EPI which is slightly higher than the warp yarn calls for so it packs a bit tighter and gets a bit more emphasis.
