Skip to main content

Pop!

 I started my gourmet mushroom growing adventure (!) on Monday and have been carefully following the instructions, which basically means misting the substrate three times a day using my little Victoriana-style spray mister thingummybob. The kit is sited on the kitchen window sill which was the best place I could think of that offered good daylight but not direct sunlight. 

Anyway, just as I was getting to the end of Day Four in the Big Mushroom House, and wondering if anything was going to happen, and if I was going to be the first person EVER to murder a gourmet mushroom crop before it had even got started, I spied this:


A baby mushroom!! I can’t tell you how excited I was, but then today has been pretty non-eventful. I did move the bed this morning to vacuum underneath and tried not to look at the remains of a very large spider which may or may not have crawled over me whilst I slept. Instead, I gave thanks that Bambino Bobble Wilson was fulfilling his Chief Spider Assassin role, and vacuumed up the remains with barely a shudder. 

According to the instructions, the mushrooms will now double in size every day and be ready for harvesting around Day Twelve which is Sunday 13th April. There will then be a second flush, possibly a third, decreasing in amount each time but still showing a good return for my outlay. Of course, high on the arrival of this little ‘shroom, I am already thinking about setting up a mini mushroom farm in the woodshed. 

Up in the greenhouse, fifteen lupins, thirteen geraniums and a little sprinkling of asters have popped up. No sign of the tomatoes, though, which is odd, given the warm weather we’ve been having. I’m not growing chillis this year; I don’t eat them and there is still a box of last year’s in the freezer. It’s time to tackle the raised beds, too, as I am keen to get some green leafy stuff going - kale, rocket, spinach and chard - and also some beetroot. I don’t think I’ll bother with runner beans. They seriously drive me nuts every year and I can do without the aggravation. Courgettes, though? Definitely. Wouldn’t be a successful gardening year without a courgette glut, would it? 


Comments

Anonymous said…
I’m very excited for you but will confess to be more excited about your vegetables than you mushrooms.
KJ
5 April 2025 at 19:00
Denise said…
Not a fan of mushrooms, KJ? I love them!
6 April 2025 at 10:09
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Frosted Dawn Enigma

The decorators are in at the moment. Stairs and landing. Given my previous history of 'Hoo Ha Occurring on Stairs ' - reference the Trapped Under the Sofa Incident and the Foot Wedged Between Bookcase and Stair Rise Debacle - I thought it wise to pay for professionals to decorate the stairs and landing rather than get myself in a mix with ladder and plank combinations and achieve the Magic Three of staircase accidents. The decorators are a father and son combo who go by the  names of Craig and David. This automatically causes me entertainment. 'Came in on a Monday, prepped, filled and undercoated, back on Thursday, first top coating, by Friday finishing touches...' Okay, not as frisky or well-scanned as the original song, but you get where I'm coming from. Anyway, before they started the job Craig asked what colour I wanted for the walls. 'Same colour as the downstairs walls, please,' said I. 'Dulux Frosted Dawn.' And then white for ...
2 comments
Read more

Sun Puddles

A few weeks ago, I met up with a dear friend for a meditation and healing afternoon, both of us being light workers on the spirit pathway. It did me good to re-engage in a bit of focused energy channelling (because I have let my practice slip somewhat) and during the afternoon the words ‘sun puddles’ popped into my head.  Now, I know this wasn’t my human brain thinking these words because I have never heard the phrase before; when I arrived home, I looked it up and said to myself, ‘Aaah, you mean sun spots!’ This is a sun puddle... ...there! That thing that Flora is lying on. No, not the sofa - the warm patch of sunshine on the sofa. Here are Flora and Bambino sharing a sun puddle... This proves that no matter how much they scrap with each other and try to denude each other of fur all over my rugs, they secretly share a mutual and fond admiration. I think. And here is Bambino on a sun puddle that has come to rest on my legs... It’s his casual, ‘I’m so cool’ pose. Metaphorically coo...
3 comments
Read more

Day 1 - Decisions Are Made Beyond the Author's Control.

‘Well,’ I say, looking at the expectant faces gathered around the huge table in the Great Dining Hall of Much Malarkey Manor, ‘I didn’t think it was going to happen this year, but it is!’ There is a sharp intake of breath as everyone wonders of what I speak. I’ve been muttering about all sorts recently, and I’m not talking liquorice here either.   ‘The Much Malarkey Manor Annual and Traditional Christmas Story!’ I say, and wait for the expulsed air of relief to settle before I continue. ‘I thought we had done it all. I thought we had covered every Christmas story there was. I’ve been wracking my brains for a full two months now, trying to come up with something we haven’t done before and then it hit me! We haven’t done a version of one of the Great Christmas Films of Yore!’ ‘Your what?’ says Mrs Slocombe, who is more interested in the selection of pastries I have brought to this breakfast meeting, because that is what one does, isn’t it? Eat pastries at breakfast...
8 comments
Read more