Ever since my time as a Peace Corps volunteer, I have been intrigued in the potential for growing mushrooms as a food source. Over the last several years, the work of a very dedicated few self-taught mycologists and fermentation gurus (like Paul Stamets, Jeff Chilton, Peter McCoy, Sandor Katz, Daniel Reyes and Tradd Cotter to name a few) has pushed the mysterious, bordering on miraculous, workings of the fungal world out into the spotlight. When I say spotlight, I’m really talking about the growing community of permaculturists, DIY mycelium cultivators, forest fungi hunters, homebrewers, mycofiltration aficionados and many more folks, all fired up about building, growing and just experiencing in general some aspect of what fungi have to teach us about the way the world around us really works. With millions of hours of practical experimentation and tireless information sharing over the likes of Youtube and dedicated chatrooms, this fungal network (Fungi Fans) has exploded the boundaries of our medicinal, social, biological, economic and even cultural relationships with the mycological world that surrounds us.

After being astounded and mystified repeatedly at the myriad ways the agricultural world depends on and is continuously reborn at the hands of fungi, I am proud to count myself as a Fungi Fan!

Did you know: that most plants have intricate relationships with multiple species of fungi both above and below the soil that give them all kinds of nutrients and even resistance to different types of pathogens!

Also: It is believed that over the millennia, cultures have taken advantage of the different properties of mushrooms to give them different skills or traits, including Vikings on the battlefield.

 

This is only the beginning of my life as a Fungi Fan-Guy!!!

Keep Wondering!