Mushroom, Remixed

I don't want to turn this into a mushroom website, really. But I find this grow kit pretty fascinating. And frustrating.

We ate the first failed harvest of mushrooms by rehydrating them (after they dried out sitting on the counter) and cooking them in a sauce. Not bad. But what I'm really looking forward to is a steamy mouthful of those meaty, fleshy oyster mushrooms that we all know and love. Problem is, I don't have any of THOSE.

This is what the kit looks like now: a freak show.

This isn't cute anymore. Where are my mushrooms, man?!

Mushroom, The Saga Continues

More photo updates of my mushroom grow-kit, from the mushroom nerd (that's me). For the first few days, the stalks grew noticably longer and thicker, up to 12" in length. But two weeks later, the caps still haven't deployed yet. We heard that stressing the mushrooms increases yield, so my partner sliced off the larger shrooms and smashed the kit with a cardboard tube. I don't know about the mushrooms, but it made me stressed.

Here's a few neat-o facts about oyster mushrooms:

• one of the few carnivorous mushrooms: it eats nematodes
  
• considered medicinal for its cholesterol-lowering properties
• no poisonous look-alikes in North America
• it comes in white, yellow and pink colours

To be continued (again) ....

The Dark Side of Local Food

Like most Canadians, I watched last Sunday's Olympic men's hockey final, and celebrated at the top of my lungs in the company of strangers when Canada took the gold medal from the US in overtime. And like most Canadians, I felt proud to be Canadian.



That feeling was short-lived. Today, I watched a short NFB documentary called "El Contrato" (2003). This film exposes the hardship of thousands of seasonal Mexican migrant workers, who come to the town of Leamington, in Ontario, to work on tomato greenhouse farms. Life at home in Mexico is difficult, so they take the job in Canada through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), to support their family. Unbeknownst to them, they enter a contract into slavery:

• Exemptions from basic workers rights --- 10-hour work days, 7-day work weeks, without holiday or overtime pay
• Physical and verbal abuse --- from their employer, and the Leamington community
  
• Poor living conditions
• Heavy income taxes --- over 25% of their salary goes to CPP and EI, even though they cannot access these benefits
• Unsafe work --- such as spraying pesticides without wearing protection
• Threats of deportation
• Humiliation --- their employers call them "little donkeys", and call themselves "their owners"
• Difficulty in accessing health care --- even in cases of severe workplace accident events
• Resistance to organizing --- in Ontario, farm unions are illegal (though this may change soon, see "Fraser v Ontario")
  
• A deaf ear from the Mexican consolate --- they protect the growers, not the workers
  

In fact, the film notes that the workers share something in common: they are all married men with strong family ties and little to no education. These are the kind of workers that won't stick around to become Canadian citizens. Clearly, being separated from their families causes great emotional stress for these workers, and many promise they won't return next year. But still, many of them do return, in the absence of other options.

My concern is that with the local food movement increasing in force, these farms are only going to get bigger, and the issue more widespread.

CALL-TO-ACTION: What can we do to help? Here are some ideas:

1. Contact your MP to demand rights for migrant farm workers. Justice for Migrant Workers has a mock petition letter that you can use.
   
2. Contact Heinz (which uses Leamington tomatoes, and even has a Leamington factory). Tell them that you'll stop buying their products until they support migrant workers rights in Canada.
   
3. Contact the film director and/or TVO (who aired the movie) to show your support. Both were threatened with legal action by the town of Leamington and the tomato growers.
4. Support the cause. Befriend Justice for Migrant Workers, join a rally/march, get educated, spread the word.

How about some human rights to go with those 14 gold Olympic medals, Canada?

Mycophilia in Montreal

I was walking around in Montreal last month, when I came across a mushroom store called Mycoboutique. For those who don't know: I love mushrooms. And somehow I found myself in a mushroom store, in the presence of mushroom people, talking about mushrooms and surrounded by mushrooms. Does life GET any better?

Exaggeration aside: the store was just about to close, so there was no time to look around. But I did leave the shop with my very own oyster mushroom indoor grow-kit.

It's basically a block of damp straw, infused with mushroom spores and wrapped in clear plastic. You cut slits in the plastic (so the mushrooms can grow out), place indoors in indirect sunlight, and maintain humidity. The humidity part was a bit tricky, since Toronto winters are so dry. I set it up so that the mushroom block sits on top (but not touching) a basin of water, and enclose it inside a clear plastic garbage bag which is tied at the top to make it a "closed system". About once a day I spray water into the bag to make it extra humidi-tastic.

At first, it looked like only mould was growing. There seemed to be fuzzy white mould everywhere. My heart sank into my shoes.

But then this morning, I noticed that the "mould" was forming creepy alien-looking structures, about 1/2" long and poking out of the plastic bag. Could this be the beginning of mushroom colonies?

To be continued....

P.S. I'm not sure how sustainable this growing method is... probably just for sh-ts and giggles. For future mushroom adventures, I might join a foray group: the Mycological Society of Toronto

offers them in the spring and fall.