Gardening on a shelf: Manitobans welcome mushrooms to their homes

Interest in growing mushrooms at home has really boomed in Manitoba.

“It’s new, different and exciting,” Tom Nagy from River City Mushrooms said in an interview with CTV Morning Live. His small Winnipeg-based business aims at sharing passion for fungi.

It provides mycological literacy as well as mushroom growing kits. Whoever interested can try, since mushrooms can grow in a box filled with sawdust right on your shelf, all year round.

“To grow apples you need to grow an apple tree. To grow mushrooms you need to grow mycelium,” he explained.

Many people who step into mushroom growing are already experienced in vegetables or ornamental gardening.

“If you are a gardener, you are already three-quarters on the way there. The process is very similar. Mushrooms are easy to integrate during growing season into gardens, in the soil, on your deck, even indoors,” Nagy said.

In March, Nagy will conduct workshops on mushroom cultivation. He has different programs scheduled for beginners and for advanced mushroom gardeners. He believes that even those who are not into growing something can benefit from his activities.

“I’m introducing people with the idea of welcoming mushrooms and fungi in their lives in whatever way that they can. Growing them or just understanding their ecological role, their niches and the way that they behave in the natural world. I just want people to understand them more.”

 

- With files from CTV’S Nicole Dube.