FUN WITH FUNGI
January 21 and 27, 2009
OYSTER MUSHROOM PROPAGATION
Tim and Bob have been planning their mushroom and tempeh businesses for a couple of months. Now they are in the lab stage of their project. Tim brought some equipment over to Camelina and sterilized three jars of agar.
While the agar the pressure cooker was steaming, Tim disinfected his “glove box.”
When the agar had cooled, Tim used the glove box to pour it into Petri dishes. Bob and Tim then inoculated each dish with Oyster Mushroom mycelium and placed them into a temperature controlled box to incubate.
TEMPEH STARTER
Every time Bob makes Tempeh, he lets some of the soybeans continue to grow Rhizopus oligosporus spores until they are black and fuzzy. Then he grinds them and sifts out the fungi spores.
He adds white rice flour and refrigerates the starter to use the next time he makes a ten pound batch of Tempeh.