BOOKREVIEW
Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation
By Peter Oei C
helsea Green has recently pub- lished Organic Mushroom Farm-
ing and Mycoremediation, a book written by Tradd Cotter from Mushroom Mountain. This book is an excellent guide for new- comers to the various ap- plications and
complexities of mush- rooms. It is also an inter- esting read for
professional and experi- enced growers who want to examine mushroom growing practices from a broader point of view. The entire book reflects Tradd’s absolute passion for mushrooms and sus- tainability and documents his more than twenty years of experience. Con- trary to what the title suggests, the techniques
described in the book are not limited to applica- tions in the certified or- ganic growing sector. The first nine chapters of the book devote many pages to mushroom growing and the neces- sary knowledge of biology this requires, illustrated by many excellent photo- graphs.
The seven chapters in the next section deal with specific subjects such as urban farming, brewing beer and making wine us- ing mushrooms, recycling residue flows and how to organise mushroom-re- lated marketing. That particular chapter is mainly based on his own experiences with small- scale cultivation and marketing. A separate chapter explores in- depth how mushrooms can be used in education, providing detailed exam- ples of experiments suit- able for students of all ages ranging from prima- ry to further education. Tradd offers a fascinating perspective on growing food in space; he pays at- tention to aspects such as spore-less mushrooms, capturing and reusing carbon dioxide and the decomposition of com- plex plant fibres such as lignin.
The six chapters that 42 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
comprise the third section of the book focus on stor- ing varieties, lab tech- niques, cultivating morels and mycoremediation. The chapter on cultivating morels gives an outstand- ing update on the
ground-breaking progress in that field. The role of nutrient-poor substrates and new cultivating strat- egies for this valuable mushroom offer new per- spectives.
Mycoremediation One subject covered in the book that is still re- ceiving relatively little attention in Europe is mycoremediation: using fungi to capture and de- grade contaminants or how to cleanse the soil using them. In Amster- dam, a project was re- cently started (de Ceuvel) that uses plants to help decontaminate the soil, but few projects have been realised in practice that use mushrooms. Tradd introduces a num- ber of simple methods that can be utilised to pu- rify waste water using in- cubated substrate. Spent substrate from oyster mushrooms, for instance, is extremely suitable to help decontaminate soil polluted by oil.
On the subject of interac- tions between bacteria
and fungi, the book also proposes simple tech- niques aimed at ‘training’ fungi to produce specific metabolites that can sub- sequently be harvested. The final section of the book provides detailed cultivation information about 24 varieties or groups of mushrooms un- der the title ‘Meet the Cultivated Mushrooms’. Tradd describes how to grow many of these varie- ties outdoors as well as under controlled condi- tions indoors. He de- scribes many varieties about which little has al- ready been published, such as the Beefsteak fungus (Fistulina), Ram’s Head (Grifola frondosa, Maitake) and Clitocybe. The book is a highly rec- ommended reference work for all those wishing to look at mushrooms with a new way of think- ing, and is an ideal way of introducing the wonderful world of mushrooms to newcomers to the field.
The book can be ordered for $29,99 on the Mushroom Mountain website http://
shop.mushroommountain. com or via
Amazon.com.
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