Mushroom Grow Kits. Yay or Nay?

It is not often that an invention comes around that completely changes the landscape of a whole industry. In a single industry, that event might come around once every decade. All pre-existing business models are rendered useless, and a new age of profitability is introduced. A great example would be the original iPhone released in 2007. Not only did it revolutionize the tech industry, in a more powerful way, but it also revolutionized the way people interacted with the world around them. It removed the single biggest hurdle associated with the smartphone, a screen that was too small to use in any meaningful way. All they could possibly do was be used as a phone or perhaps the occasional visit to an online banking website. The experience wasn’t smooth, the UI was always too complicated to understand. The ‘smartphone’ was the result of a claim that a phone could be more. However, it was still missing something. The iPhone brought along that revolution complete with a parade of new features and ease-of-use. You could watch movies and YouTube on the go on your phone. The idea was fresh and new, it still sells in spades today.

A much smaller analogous example is the entry of mushroom grow kits into the market. There are mushroom growing kits such as pink oyster grow kits that completely revolutionize the way we consume organic food. For most people, the dream of being able to have homegrown food is simply impossible. With a huge chunk of the population living in apartments and others living in houses that simply don’t have enough space to accommodate a garden, being able to grow your own potatoes is impossible. Mushrooms have always been a good option for such indoor farmers. They can grow inside garages or in basements as they do not require sunlight or much space to grow. However, the supreme issue is that mushrooms are extremely sensitive when it comes to changes in conditions. You could forget to provide water to your mushrooms just one random day and lose quite a bit of growth. For the average person who simply wants to grow his or her own food, the headache of this is simply too much.

How Mushroom Grow Kits Make the Process Easy

On the other hand, mushroom grow kits have completely revolutionized the way we consume mushrooms. A grow kit is a block that has been sterilized and a live mycelium culture is added to it. In simpler terms, it means that a lot of the work has already been done for you. There is no need for you to procure sawdust for yourself and set up a whole system. All you need to do is to hit the metaphorical ‘resume’ button by exposing it to fresh air. This is done by first cutting the grow kit in order to let air in and then misting it. Misting is done by adding tiny droplets of water which increases the humidity. Mushrooms like blue oyster mushrooms are known for being able to grow quite aggressively. You will be seeing results before you know it.

The Impact

The pertinent question to ask at this point is: What is the impact of this? The impact is the fact that it opens up mushrooms not to just indoor farmers but ordinary people as well. You do not need to have knowledge of the complex biological processes in question in order to use a grow kit. All you need is a bit of patience. Considering that people are moving towards an organic way of living, the demand for mushroom grow kits has only gone up. With these, you can expect to see a healthy supply of mushrooms coming your way. This enables you to replace other foods from your diet. If you are a fan of fried chicken and just can’t seem to leave it, then ‘replacing’ it might actually be a much smarter move. Mushrooms are known for their savory taste that can mimic the taste of meat quite closely. So, instead of fried chicken, you will be consuming fried mushrooms.

The difference that a change of diet ends up making is that instead of KFC which has high sodium, and fatty acids and is considered to have adverse negative health effects, you will be consuming a home-made and all-natural dish. In fact, many dishes that have meat can also be made with mushrooms instead. It is quite a good formula to try. 

How to Fry Mushrooms

Let’s get into a recipe that you can use in order to fry mushrooms. 

Cleaning and Parboiling

In order to clean your mushrooms, you can use a wet cloth to wipe any dust or dirt that might have accumulated. When that is done, you can parboil the mushrooms in order to decrease the cooking time. After parboiling for a while, it will be evident that the mushrooms have lost quite a bit of their turgidity and are quite soft.

Cutting

In order to make sure that the frying process is applied evenly across all parts of the mushrooms, you need to chop them into little pieces. The smaller the pieces are, the easier they will be to fry since there will be a greater amount of surface area that will be in contact with the heat which will expedite the process of frying. Smaller pieces also make it much easier to stir.

Marination

This is a step in which you have a lot of room to improvise. It depends on your taste how much you need to marinate the mushrooms and exactly how. Take a container, and add garlic ginger paste to it with red chili powder, cornflour, and salt. The quantity depends completely on you as the results will be completely subject to your taste. Add a small quantity of water and make sure to keep mixing. Only stop when the marination has completely taken hold across all the surface area of the mushroom. There might be some spots where the chili powder might have accumulated, make sure to watch out for those.

Frying

Add oil to a non-stick frying pan and turn up the heat to a medium setting. After a while, you will start to feel the smell of the oil quite strongly. Add the mushrooms to the deep-frying pan and wait for them to get fried. This is arguably the most crucial part of the process. You need to make sure that you fry the mushrooms just right. If you take them off the heat too early, they will feel more boiled than fried. If you take them off the heat too late, they will get burned. For, most people, the sweet spot is when they just start to show a brownish color. Be vigilant as it only takes a few seconds for the mushrooms to get burned. If you are interested in a crispier taste, then you could take them off the heat a little bit later.

Sautéing

Now, if you are interested in adding some onions or green chilies, you can take another pan and heat a small amount of oil to it. Add onions and green chilies to it and then fry it for a minute. After that, you can add the mushrooms to it as well and keep the heat on for another minute. Once that is done, the taste of the onions will seep into the dish, and you will have a beautiful result ready. If you are interested in adding more to the dish, you are welcome to do so since mushrooms are quite versatile and will be able to make their space in any dish. They can be served as the main course with a little wine to wash everything down or even on the side playing a supporting role in what is known as the food opera.

Mushroom grow kits are a powerful statement from farmers across the world. In a world that is completely dominated by the spirit of commercialization, we encounter a very rare thing. A product that has no processing and can be produced even with ethical standards kept in mind. The vast array of health benefits that consuming mushrooms provide is quite apparent anyway. One can see it like this: the organic revolution has come, and it is here to stay now. People are rejecting supermarkets for farmer’s markets, and it is a much-needed change.