Sustainably Cultivate Commonly Foraged Mushrooms

Faith Bugman '24 grows oyster mushrooms using recycled materials

Allentown, PA (10/25/2022) — Faith Bugman '24 spent her summer trying to find an easy and entirely sustainable way to grow oyster mushrooms (which are fairly popular). Faith attempted to only use recycled materials, and to harvest my own mushroom spores from a singular mushroom that were foraged. It was meant to have minimal impact on the Earth, and may be a way to more quickly degrade harmful materials. While mold was a common problem, Faith was able to come up with a loose step by step of how to grow mushrooms at home, with grocery bags, coffee beans, and a mixture of straw, cardboard, and discarded plant material.

"In the future, I'm hoping to teach these mushrooms to eat plastic, as they are able to clean up oil spills."

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