My Kit

I have never had so much fun with a "house plant". I received a Portabella kit for my birthday and started it Dec 11th. It is now mid-May, and it has finally slowed down production. My house stays pretty cold in the winter, so the rate of production may have slowed while the time span increased, but I stopped counting mushrooms somewhere in the hundreds. This was a great experience; thank you for making it so easy.

Regards,
Melinda

Thought you'd like to know!

Dear Mushroom Adventures,
My uncle sent us kit #19, Portabello Mushrooms, for Christmas. It arrived 15 Dec '07, & I set it up right away. This was the 2nd mushroom kit he had sent us: 2 yrs ago it was Shiitakes, I don't remember the origin. Your kit was so simple to grow, & not fussy about temps; good thing, in our drafty old farmhouse. We were buried in Portabello mushrooms it seemed; they just kept coming for 2 mos. We ate them every way we could dream up. Then when it appeared the culture had run out, a friend who was staying w/ us (& loving the mushrooms) stirred the top layer w/ a fork. Soon another flush of mushrooms came. Today, sadly, I dumped the remains on the rhubarb patch. I don't know what my uncle paid for the kit, but it must have paid for itself many times over. And the simplicity of it: the shiitake kit required more attention, warmer temps, & was only mediocre in production. Pretty fussy for the results.

REALLY enjoyed your kit. Thought you'd like to know!

Sincerely,
Judy

LOVE your mushrooms

I have looked at kits over the years and thought yeah right. Received your kit (button & portabella mix), got it started & anxiously awaited the results. I will never be able to buy a store bought mushroom again.....

I can't believe how much flavor and texture a real mushroom has (store bought are fakes). I took less than 3 weeks for the button mushrooms to grow for harvest and a couple more days for the portabellas.

Nobody at work believed that (1) we were growing our own, and (2) that they could be any different than store bought. So we brought in some and now they are believers and will soon be growing their own.

I can see for summer we will need a kit of each, thanks for such a great and satisfying Mushroom Adventure. Healthy eating has never been so much fun.

Gina

I don't know why I waited so long...

I've been in the horticultural industry for 26 years with several degrees and I don't know why I waited so long to try growing my own mushrooms.

The White Button kit has begun to produce enough mushrooms for three or four big mushroom omelets per day if I like.

I knew the quality would be good but I had no idea it would be this good! I have never in my life eaten White Button mushrooms this fresh or this tasty. I shop at a high end grocery store in which they have several varieties of loose mushrooms and they look really good but they in no way compare to what I'm getting out of the kit.

The first time I simmered a few sliced White Buttons from the kit in some butter I was surprised that they never turned that pale gray color. The mushrooms remained white and crisp! I'm hooked. It's almost winter here and I can't wait to cook my first pot of cream of mushroom soup.

Thanks,
Stephen
Wylie, Texas

Enamored with mushroom growing

Dear Don,

I wanted to write to you to offer my testimonial on your kit. Last month my Dad sent me a Happy Spring gift of one of your Portabella/Crimini kits. I was very keen on this since, upon buying our house two years ago, I wanted to grow mushrooms in our basement. Until my Dad got me your kit I never realized how EASY it is!

I am VERY impressed and pleased with my kit. My first fruiting was so prolific that I had to chop and dry some of the mushrooms as we couldn't eat them fast enough. The second fruiting looks to be as prolific if not more so than the first. And I am so enamored with mushroom growing now that I will definitely get more kits to try, putting them in the cellar as the weather warms.

Thank you so much for this fabulous idea! As a home schooling mom your kit has also turned into an impromptu science experiment as my kids examine and spritz the mycelium every morning, comparing the daily progress.

I do have to wonder though: when we do save up enough to buy some more kits, can we mail you a check for payment? We are a credit- and debit-card free family.

Sincerely,
Michelle

Our Kit

Our daughter, Nancy in Oakland, sent us a portabella kit last Christmas (we are on Cape Cod in MA). Unfortunately, we hit a time problem. We go to Florida during Jan, Feb and Mar. So we had to find a cool place in our cellar to put the kit away - the instructions indicated only a couple weeks was max,and of course we cringed.. The cellar temperature was in the neighborhod of 50 degrees. So we crossed our fingers.

Off we went.

And when we got back in early Apr, the cellar was still in the 50's so we waited until it got up to 60 degrees. And then we opened the box only to find it was all moldy. We did what the directions told us, but really had little faith that anything would grow - we thought we ruined it. Well lo and behold these little things that looked like miniature Q tips started popping up.

Well to make a long story short, we have just harvested our third crop, and it looks like we'll get another, maybe more?, we'll see.

Anyway we just wanted you to know that the kits are heartier than one might seem from your information.

Thank you and thanks Nancy

Don and Betty

What a surprise!

Several years ago we purchased an agaricus bisporous kit for our son for Christmas. Toward the end of the kit's fruiting, we threw the remnants out in the back yard to hopefully seed the yard. For two years we looked for signs of mushroom with no luck.

This fall we took a walk in our woods (some distance from the back yard) and guess what we found? HUNDREDS of buttons popping up. Further scrutiny of the area turned up more bisprous, leading back to twenty feet of the original "seeding" area.

What threw me off was that I never expected them to fruit in the woods, and at this point we had even forgotten about the kit. I hunt agaricus campestris, and I knew these were not them, so I took my time identifying what agaricus I had before (duh) realizing the kit had, indeed, seeded and thrived.

Since we are in Michigan, I am carefully watching the weather and tarping when frosts are expected--trying to get as much as possible out of our patch before snow flies!

Thanks so much for all the fun you've brought our family! I'm definitely looking forward to our next Mushroom Adventure.

Elise

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