Grow Your Own Mushrooms, And Eat Them, Too!

In Cooking from Every Angle, we hear from our fearless leaders: Food52 co-founders Amanda & Merrill.

Today: Amanda grows mushrooms with her kids, then cooks them up for a snack.

A few weeks ago, we began featuring Back To The Roots' grow-your-own Mushroom Garden in our Shop. We loved the idea of raising a bunch of mushrooms right inside your home, and bonus points went to Back To The Roots for making their mushroom soil with recycled coffee grounds. We ordered a box so I could tackle the mushroom project with our kids, Walker and Addie. City living be-damned, we were going to grow, harvest and eat our own oyster mushrooms! Here are the bountiful results:

To get started you cut a large, deep cross in the interior bag that's filled with the coffee grounds soil, and soak the bag in water for 12 hours. Then you slide it back into the box, open the front square, mist the opening of the bag twice a day and watch it grow.

For the first few days, you may feel alarmed by the lack of activity. But once the mushrooms decide to spring up, watch out! This is what happens in a matter of days.

For the harvest, we decided scissors were the way to go.

Cut as low as you can.

Admire the fine specimens you've grown.

There are lots of different sizes.

Cook them in olive oil until brown. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt.

Eat like potato chips!

Photos by James Ransom