It’s been virtually a decade since I’ve moved.
Moving back when I was in college (or even post-college) was easy. You would pack up your stuff into crates and then just drag them to the nicer dorm room down the hall (or up the elevator). No furniture, no kitchen equipment – just clothing, books, and maybe a computer or other knick knacks. Even post-college, my move hardly involved furniture or kitchen stuff. Instead, I just sold my furniture to the next roommate moving in.
Man, let me tell you, it’s so much harder to pack up 10 years worth of accumulated stuff.
I’ve been packing for over a week, and I feel like the end is nowhere in sight. Alas, sadly that means I’ve done very little creative cooking. This past week I’ve been raiding the freezer and the refrigerator, scraping together random meals in a vain effort to clear out my fridge before I have to move it.
Meanwhile, during all this frantic packing, I have been quietly growing mushrooms in my living room.
Mushrooms? Indoor tiny urban garden? really?
The folks at Back to the Roots were kind enough to send me a sample box of their own indoor mushroom garden growing kit. This stuff’s really fun! It’s easy, fast, and the resultant mushrooms are really delicious.
Once you take the pack out of the box, you cut a few slits, and then submerge the bag in water overnight.
Put back in the box, and just mist it twice a day.
After about 5 days, I started to see something! See the little white bit near my fourth finger?
Once it starts growing, it goes fast! Here it is, the morning of Day 6.
When I came back from work, it had visibly grown more! This is afternoon of Day 6!
Two more days later, it was close to being complete! Here’s Day 8.
By day 9, they were clearly ready for harvesting. In fact, I think it let it go a bit too long because the edges were starting to dry out. Gorgeous aren’t they?
Since I was furiously trying to eat whatever was in the freezer, I invited a friend over and the three of us (my friend, Bryan, and I) enjoyed two sous-vide steaks, bacon-wrapped scallops, fresh tomatoes from Hay Market, and oyster mushrooms sauteed in the residual steak browned bits in the pan (yum!).
These oyster mushrooms were wonderfully nutty and (of course) ultra fresh since I “harvested” them literally right before cutting them up and throwing them on the grill pan. It was a great complement to the random “whatever-meat-I-have-in-the-freezer” meal.
I think these kits are a great idea. They’d be a fun gift for anyone who cannot have a garden. It’s a fun project for kids as well. Best of all, you are rewarded with fresh, delicious, “locally grown” mushrooms at the end. The soil inside is composed entirely of spent coffee grounds (currently from Peet’s Coffee!). The box has two side, so you can harvest two bunches of mushrooms from each kit.
Back to the Roots has kindly offered to give away one mushroom kit to a lucky Tiny Urban Kitchen reader. For those of you who don’t win, you can still buy the kits on their website. You can get 10% off your order by using the discount code: mushrooms4me10. To get 20% off, “like” Back to the Roots on facebook.
To enter, please comment below telling me your favorite mushroom dish. For one additional entry, please either “like” Back to the Roots on facebook or follow them on twitter. Please write a separate comment for each entry. For facebook or twitter, please leave your twitter handle or facebook link in the comment below so I can check.
Right now, if you post a picture of your kit on their facebook page, they will donate a kit and a sustainability curriculum to an elementary school of your choice.
Contest closes this Friday, August 5th at midnight EST.
Good luck!
Disclaimer – I received this kit to try for free from Back to the Roots
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My boyfriend would really love this! I’d love it to, cause it would mean he could cook us dinner!
My favorite mushroom dish is wild rice & mushroom soup. Had it on a vacation and it was wonderful.
i love to just stirfry shitakke mushrooms with a bit of garlic oil served over some jasmine rice 🙂
just liked them on facebook!
just followed them on twitter as well!
What an awesome idea! I love their story on ditching the corporate world and being mushroom farmers! My favorite shroom dish is Mushroom Risotto
my favorite mushroom dish has got to be crabmeat stuffed mushrooms! …with a little brie melted on top of course!
Portobello w/ goat chese and tomato sauce?
Favorite mushroom dish is wild mushroom tart!
I would really love this, but it would skeeve my husband out big-time to see fungi growing in the kitchen.
Thus, pick me, pick me!
My favorite mushroom dish is mushroom risotto.
stuffed mushrooms
I would love to try these! I wonder if I could keep my cats away from it! haha.
My favorite mushroom dish is mushroom risotto or good sauteed mushrooms.
The chemist in me is wondering about what exactly is in their packaging that induces the fungal growth.
I like sauteed mushrooms with parsley on mayo spread on a sliced baguette.
I’ve seen this little mushroom growing kits pop up all over lately – kind of neat!
This is like the world’s best chia pet!
I love mushrooms, and eat them all the ding-dang time. Portobello burgers, shiitakes sauteed with seaweed, mushroom-and-tomato frittata… I can’t get enough fungus!
Love this kit! It looks so pretty and stylish coming out of the box. My favorite mushrooms dish is a mushrooms soup with a splash of cherry and some cream.
I love chicken marsala with lots of mushrooms
I love mushroom risotto!
ooh, i’ve seen these and thought about picking one up 🙂 very cool, and i’m amazed at how fast they grew! i made a crepe cake with sauteed mushrooms that was pretty amazing recently!
My favorite mushroom dish is this sort of beef stew/soup thing my mother used to make,
I, Ting Li: http://www.facebook.com/WayoftheDonut , liked you on facebook.
What a fun kit! I don’t think I’ve met a mushroom I don’t like.
I love cream cheese and sausage stuffed mushrooms!
Wow mushrooms are always delicious. You can have a lot of simple recipes out of it yet flavorful. I have also a homegrown mushrooms and I already made several recipes. One of the reasons why I also love eating mushrooms is that,it’s helpful in losing weight!
I love sauteed mushrooms on crostini!
sauteed over high heat in the same pan used to pan fry steak…throw in minced garlic, lots of fresh chopped herbs (thyme, flat leaf parsley), a bit of butter, fresh ground black pepper, a sprinkle of salt
Sauteed mushrooms with Cognac served over grilled steak can’t be beat!
Mmmm, this kit looks so fun and also delicious! I love mushrooms in almost anything (sauteed by themselves with butter and herbs; chopped and thrown into a stirfry; added to soups), but perhaps my favorite mushroom-venture to date has been a modified version of this wild mushroom soup recipe: http://gourmetfood.about.com/od/appetizers/r/wldmushsoup.htm.
P.S. Facebook link: www.facebook.com/serena.chang! As a preschool teacher, I’d definitely post photos of my kit on my FB page! 🙂 Since there are two packets in each box, I’m thinking I’ll keep one to use at home, and bring one in to class to share with the kids!
Mushroom pizza!
faceboon url: bnb527
My favorite mushroom dish is throwing them into stirfries! Or pizzas! Or pasta sauces! I just love mushrooms!
I just love Chinese Braised mushrooms. I try to make it around Chinese New Year.
Oh no – so sad I missed out! I love mushrooms with a simple pasta and butternut squash!
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