Fun with Fungi

One of the Six-Button Cowgirls, a very enterprising sort, grows gourmet mushrooms in her living room. Contrary to popular belief, mushrooms don't have to be grown in manure--a fact for which Charmaine's fellow residents and guests alike are grateful, I'm sure. Mushrooms do, however, have to be grown in a relatively warm environment, which makes Charmaine's outdoor garden near the mountains less than ideal for her mushroom endeavors. Thus, Charmaine's sunny living room is the place to be if you're a baby bella or young shiitake.

Charmaine is a proud member of a mushroom-of-the-month club that sends her monthly mushroom patches (mushroom mycelium growing on a sterilized medium, or substrate), which Charmaine places under a humidity tent in said living room. She's also active in a mushroom growers support club. She reports that club members skew heavily toward the "grown-up Dungeons and Dragons nerd" demographic (Charmaine excluded, of course).

At any rate, she has grown beautiful and delicious mushrooms that taste far better than the grocery store variety. Pictured here are her pearl oyster mushrooms sprouting at the tender age of four days.