The World of Mushrooms

It's not a secret that I've been wanting to learn how to grow mushrooms at home.  I'm taking a class at The Hort next month to learn all about mushrooms, how to identify them in the wild and how to grow some at home. I am so excited to take this class!  We are going to learn how to innoculate wood with mushroom spores.  I love mushrooms, if I could, I would put it in everything I eat. I can barely contain my excitement. If you are in NYC in April, you can sign up for the class here!

Photo screenshot from TheHort.com

And today, I saw that the Back to the Roots Mushroom Kit is on sale for $16 on Fab.com, 20% off it's regular price.  I've been pining over these mushroom kits for awhile, but cheapskate as I am, I haven't taken the plunge to buying one.  Now that it's on sale, I have a good excuse to try it. The sale can be seen here. The kit grows 1.5 pounds of Oyster mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms are one of my favorites.  I love them simply sauteed with salt and butter. Delicious.  And it grows in recycled coffee grounds which is so sustainable.  I think I can chuck the whole thing in my compost bin when it's finished growing too! So no waste, sweet! (Update: one of readers mentioned that you can continue regrowing the mushroom kit more than once and even use the spores to innoculate a log of wood.  I am sooo going to try that!)

Photo screenshot from Fab.com

BBG's Making Brooklyn Bloom

I got an email today about an event next Saturday, March 10th, that I am definitely excited about. Brooklyn Botanical Garden is hosting it's 31st Annual Making Brooklyn Bloom.  It's a Free all day conference that is focusing on sustainable growing innovation.  From their website,  the "event features exhibits and workshops on the cutting edge of sustainable urban gardening—from growing food on roofs and windowsills to reducing your garden’s carbon footprint."  I looked at the day's schedule of workshops and the ones I am most excited about attending are

Lasagna Gardening - The Lazy Composter’s Friend
The Farmer on the Sill: High Yields at Window
Testing Soil for Toxins: Now What?

A FREE event all about sustainable urban gardening????  Hell yeah! Sign me up!

Screenshot from Brooklyn Botanical Garden Website

Regrowing Scallions

Last month, my cousin Kathy told me about re-growing scallions by putting the white ends in water near a sunny windowsill, I have been telling everyone I know about this amazing trick! It's so easy, everyone has to try it!  It's like a never ending supply of scallions and incredibly sustainable. I love it! My friend Jason happily showed me his bunch of scallions that he re-grew.

He told me that it takes about week in a very sunny window to re-grow all this! This is absolutely the most fun and best experiment ever!  Why have I never known about this before? I can't wait to try to re-grow celery by sticking the bottom crown in soil to try to re-grow it.  Have you every tried it before? Were you successful?

Unexpected Blooms

I saw something that literally stopped me in my tracks today.  The daffodil bulbs are blooming in my front yard. It's February 27th and I have blooming bulbs!  What the frak! We are an entire month and 1/2 ahead of schedule from last year's display of blooming daffodils. We've had such a warm winter, where temperatures sometimes went up to the 60s. This is extremely unususal for this time of the year in the Northeast.  This definitely startles me somewhat. I hate to say the words "climate change" or "global warming" because I've gotten into many disagreements with friends about whether climate change actually exists.  However, the fact that spring bulbs are blooming in winter, really kinda scares the beezus out of me.  I would be lying if I said it didn't.  It feels all very abnormal. This time last year, we were dealing with blizzards and this year, it feels like spring is already upon us.  One thing I know for sure, I'm pretty sad that the flowers are already showing off their blooms, what happens when April gets here?  I'm afraid that there will be no bulbs left to show off.  That makes me feel very, very sad.