It’s not just fruits (apples) and vegetables (potatoes) receiving some love this month. September is also National Mushroom Month! And I want to start this article with a glowing review of a must-watch movie on Netflix. “Fantastic Fungi,” released in 2019, is an absolutely stunning documentary in which you “delve into the magical world or fungi, from mushrooms that clear oil spills to underground fungal networks that help trees communicate.” It’s narrated by Brie Larson – Captain Marvel – and it showcases the marvelous milieu of mushrooms.
The Mushroom Council is hitting the road this month to showcase all that mushrooms have to offer from coast to coast. Each week, the council will take followers to a different U.S. region – Northeast, Midwest, West and South – to share on its social pages an array of facts and inspiration at each pit stop, including
- Recipes reflecting regional flavors – such as “One-Pot Mushroom Tater Tot Hot Dish” in the Midwest and “Chicken & Dumplings with Mushrooms” in the South
- Spotlights of restaurants who helped elevate mushrooms on menus – from pizza joints like Wild Tomato in Egg Harbor, WI, with their “Fun Guy Pizza” to Mamaleh’s Deli in Boston, dishing their “Smoked Mushroom Reuben”
- Fungi fun facts, including where and how mushrooms grow, their nutrition profile and outstanding sustainability scorecard
- Stories from individuals and organizations nationwide – like the James Beard Foundation – that have helped make mushrooms a top culinary trend
- Profiles of well-known and up-and-coming mushroom varieties
Visitors to the council’s Explore page can also enter a weekly giveaway for a regional themed kitchen kit, featuring a Mushroom Council cutting board, apron and reusable tote, as well as a spice kit with flavors reflective of that week’s regional spotlight. What’s not to get mushy about?
Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies (like apples on an apple tree) of various fungi, and they can be used for tons of different things, from faux leather in fashion to biodegradable packaging material (like they make at Ecovative in Upstate New York) to myriad food options. The global mushroom market is projected to jump from $34.1 billion in 2015 to $69.3 billion by the end of 2024, amid growing consumer interest in functional foods and food as medicine.
But say you want to grow your own mushrooms, as many people started to while staying home during shutdowns these past many months. Since they’re not livestock and they’re not plants, but something in between, cultivating them is an entirely new experience for many.
You can buy starter kits, with growing media and spores, from a wide variety of places. Generally, the medium is sawdust or something similar. It just needs to be kept moist while the mushroom spores incubate. They don’t need any light to grow, unlike plants, so a damp cellar could be the perfect spot for them.
There are also growers who sell inoculated logs at farmers markets and food festivals. They take pieces of wood, drill holes in them, fill the holes with mushroom spawn and seal the holes with wax. All you have to do to reap the rewards is place the logs in a spot they’ll stay moist and wait for the mushroom fruits to pop up.
