The official start of Summer was not going
to be a sunny day, so I was happy to have registered for the ‘Permafungi
workshop’ in stead. I first read about the possibility of growing oyster
mushrooms on coffee grounds while visiting an exhibition called ‘Safe food from
the Fridge ‘ held at the Belgian seaside town Bredene last Summer. Then I had
the chance to visit their ‘caves’ at the Tour & Taxis site in Brussel and have a taste. 
They were so yummy but taking into account
the precautions necessary to keep ‘bacterial intruders’ out of the coffee
grounds and straw mixture, I figured I would never be able to do this myself.
Till yesterday …
The workshop wasn’t cheap, 50 € to be paid
twice since my daughter decided to join me. But it would last from 11 am till
1630 pm, and so, I figured, worthwhile.
And it WAS ! I returned home with two large
‘sausages’ each, good to harvest 4 x 1,5 kg of oyster mushrooms at home in just
a few weeks from now.
How did it go? Well, Stein, our Flemish
speaking host took us around the production site first. Growing mushrooms occurs in three phases:
1.
inoculation
2.
incubation
3.
fructification
To keep the temperature stable in the three
rooms and not to ‘infect’ the different processes, we were only offered a small
glimpse of the fructification.
For lunch we had omelette, salad and cheese
together with plenty of the oyster mushrooms from the permafungi place. Then it
was time for us to try…
Per 2 persons we received a big white
plastic box we had to disinfect first. Stein would then weigh and distribute
1,25 kg of coffee grounds. Next, 5% of the total, i.e. 125 g of mycelium is added to the coffee grounds. At last, another 1,25 kg of pasteurised straw
is mixed with the coffee grounds. The mixture, called substrate, is then
squeezed into large transparent plastic bags, closed by tying a knot. Nerjis and I made two each, four in total.
They now hang in the space of my loft where
the heater is. Ready for the incubation. With a permanent 20° C the temperature
in there is right and it is permanently dark in the room too. In 20 days from
now my now dark brown bags should be white.
When the bags will be entirely ‘colonised’
I will have to take them out of there and hang them where there is more light
and where it is humid to allow for the fructification to start. Up to ten days
later I should be ready for my first harvest !
Time to figure out a recipe ! Or with 6 kgs
of oyster mushrooms on the way, more recipes than 1.
If all goes well, I will give it a try at
the Marcel de Buenos Aires, the small ecological boutique hotel I am soon
launching in Buenos Aires. I already have a beehive, a henhouse, now I
hopefully know how to grow mushrooms from the coffee grounds of the hotel…
