Growing mushrooms from a mushroom kit is not hard, in fact, mushrooms are one of the easiest crops I have grown. Anyone, even a child, can grow their own mushrooms. Eat them fresh or preserve them by canning them, dehydrating them or freezing them – whatever you do with your home grown mushrooms it is sure to be a hit!

When your mushroom patch arrives you will notice it is covered in plastic. This is the incubation bag. The patch will look like a bunch of white popcorn that has been melted together with some brown patches on it. The brown patches are future mushrooms.

The first step in the process is to find a saucer large enough for your mushroom patch to sit in. Once you have done that, remove the mushroom patch from the incubation bag.

Put thesaucer in the humidty tent which is the plastic bag with holes in it that came in your kit. Sit the empty saucer with the humidity bag in a dark, cool spot.

Put the mushroom patch in the saucer and fill it with cool rainwater. Do not use chlorinated, filtered or distilled water!

Put some skewers, chop-sticks or knitting needles into the top of the mushroom patch. Pull the plastic humidity bag up over the mushroom patch and fold it down. Fasten the top of the bag with clothespins or paperclips.

Several times a day you will need to open the bag to mist the top of the mushroom patch and the sides of the bag. Use rainwater.

Within about two weeks you will have mushrooms. This process can be repeated several times by allowing the patch to dry out, then repeating the entire process. Some mushroom patches can then be incorporated into logs and established in your yard.