Book Review: Mycelial Mayhem: Growing Mushrooms for Fun, Profit and Companion Planting by David Sewak & Kristin Sewak
Paperback – 288 pages, 7.25 Inches × 9 Inches (w × h),
Weight: 579 Grams ISBN: 9780865718142
Publisher: New Society Publishers. Publication Date: 2016-03-14
I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of this book, and wrote an endorsement for it. Now it is hot off the press, and a very attractive book it is too. The dedication includes the exhortation: “Keep spreading the spores”, by which the authors mean becoming a proponent of mushrooms, as well as growing them yourself.
Initially, from just the title, I thought this book would be about mycoremediation or mycorestoration, improving polluted or depleted soils by inoculating them with fungi. But the subtitle and the photos on the cover make it plain that this is a handbook for people wanting too grow diverse mushrooms for food and medicinal uses.
This is not a dull textbook – it is written by a couple inspired by and knowledgeable about mushrooms, and eager to bring along beginners, or those whose efforts have so far been limited to shiitakes. It’s accessible, friendly and lively. It demystifies this less known life-form with clear explanations, step-by-step instructions and some stunning photos. The sections of the book are labeled Mycelia, The Stem, The Fruit of Your Labor and Spreading the Spores, mimicking the development of the mushroom to lead us through what we need to know to become a successful mushroom grower.
The first section covers mushroom basics,life cycle, requirements for growth and place in the ecosystem. Along with infectious enthusiasm for including fungi as part of a small-scale sustainable farming venture, or simply as a backyard hobby.
Another thing this book is not is a field guide to identify wild-growing mushrooms. There are tips on wild-crafting along with cautions against misidentifying, or harvesting from herbicide- or pesticide-treated areas, or from naturally poisonous trees. There is a checklist of 15 tenets of safe collecting and 9 tenets for purveying (did you know you might need to get a permit to collect wild mushrooms for sale?)
Photo Ezra Freeman
The second section covers growing mushrooms both outdoors and indoors, descriptions of various kinds, wild-collecting, and sustainable growing methods, including alongside vegetables. The different types of mushrooms are classified by ease of growing, so we can start with an easy one. Many different methods, using media such as wood, sawdust, straw, hemp rope, logs and tree stumps are discussed. How to set up an indoor mushroom grow room is explained, along with how to avoid disasters.The book explains the pros and cons and best choices for the various types of fungi. It also considers economics versus ecology, sustainability versus resilience, taking nature as a model, permaculture principles, and how you might pull this all together to design a system for your particular circumstances. I appreciated the thoughtfulness and the checklists – a refreshing change from some ardent scripts I have seen. I put this down to the balance of the two authors and their combined skills. It makes for an impressively grounded and practical book.
Photo Ezra Freeman
The third section explains umami, nutrition, medicinal mushrooms, and the business side of growing for market, selling and evaluating your marketing efforts.
The last section (Spreading the Spores) includes resource info, references and photographed examples of marketing materials from Berglorbeer Farma, the authors’ previous home and business in Windber, PA. Their new ventures are in Montana, where Kristin Sewak runs Natural Biodiversity, a non-profit dedicated to restoring biodiversity in landscapes, and David Sewak is a fly fishing guide as well as a mushroom grower.
To sum up, a very good book for anyone wanting to grow edible or medicinal mushrooms!