Article number: 8717953186355 View all from Fungi Factory > View more: Coffee & Tea > Fungi Factory - Growing Oyster Mushrooms on Coffee Grounds Coffee grounds: dark brown sludge, just throw it away? No, don't! Coffee grounds are the perfect raw material for growing delicious oyster mushrooms. This is due to the universal and nutrient-rich fungal substrate. With the Fungi Factory Growkit, you can get started quickly and easily, even if you don't drink much coffee. You work with small quantities at a time and in return, you receive beautiful, tasty mushrooms. The Fungi Factory Growkit consists of a bucket with oyster mushroom spawn. All you need to add is the leftover coffee grounds from your cup of coffee. You only need small quantities of coffee grounds, so you don't have to be the biggest coffee enthusiast to grow oyster mushrooms. The only thing you still need is a bit of patience! The oyster mushrooms will grow back after harvesting, so no new oyster mushroom spawn is needed. This is not a one-time use/disposable product, but a sustainable way to turn your coffee grounds into oyster mushrooms. The bucket comes with instructions for using the growkit. Did you know? this idea originated in Zimbabwe? mushrooms are a sustainable meat substitute? everyone can do this?   Growing your own oyster mushrooms is easy and fun! You only need small amounts of coffee grounds Almost all types of coffee can be used: filter coffee, coffee pods, coffee grounds from percolator and espresso machine You can reuse the kit every time (without a new bag of spawn)   Mushrooms are the perfect meat substitute Did you know that producing and consuming mushrooms is much more environmentally friendly and sustainable than meat? Mushrooms convert nutrients 25 times more efficiently than meat. An extra reason to grow your own mushrooms! Oyster mushrooms are delicious mushrooms. They are firm, contain many plant-based proteins, and have a rich, full flavour. They are perfect in pasta and risotto, but are also delicious as a base for soup or simply fried with some oil, salt, and pepper. Enjoy your meal! Tip: Want to store the kit for a while? Do so in the refrigerator. Product specifications Growing oyster mushrooms on coffee grounds Item description Growing oyster mushrooms on coffee grounds Article number 8717953186355 Occasion Birthday, Sinterklaas, Christmas Hobby Baking & Cooking Suitable for age 13-17 years, Adults Country of origin Netherlands Diameter 20 cm Height 15.5 cm Starting your growkit   We're going to help you harvest delicious mushrooms yourself. To start well, clean the growkit. Do this with water hotter than 70 degrees Celsius. It can also be boiling. This ensures that any unwanted fungi disappear.   Also, thoroughly clean the container in which you collect coffee grounds. Unwanted fungi can gather in a dirty collection container, and you don't want that! Crumbling the spawn Now, fill the growkit with a thin layer of coffee grounds, just enough to cover the bottom. Mix this with the spawn. Make sure the coffee grounds are moist enough. They should have the color of dark chocolate. You may add some water if it's too dry. Then put the lid on the growkit and wait!   After about 5 days, you will see that all the coffee grounds at the bottom have turned white. That's the time to add more coffee. Every time your coffee grounds turn nice and white, you can replenish them with more coffee grounds, and you'll see that it happens faster and faster. Growing tip 2 – Your first layer of coffee grounds has turned completely white Handling your coffee grounds Don't store your coffee grounds for too long. You want to use them as fresh as possible so that no unwanted fungi can grow on them. Day-fresh is best. If you do want to store your coffee grounds before putting them in the growkit, you can keep them in the refrigerator in a sealed container. Of course, make sure the container is clean, and don't store them for more than three days.   Don't store your coffee grounds for more than three days. And if you do store them, put them in a clean, sealed container in the refrigerator. Just-added-coffee-grounds-jpg The fungus slowly spreads through your coffee grounds. Because your fungus needs air to breathe, you cannot add too much coffee grounds at once, but rather a layer of about one centimeter each time. The fungus spreads through the new layer of coffee grounds. When that turns white, you add a new layer. You continue this until the growkit is completely full.   Do you need to go on holiday? For that one time, you can add a three-centimeter layer and put the growkit in the refrigerator. During your holiday, the oyster mushroom fungus will continue to grow calmly, and when you come home, you can take it out of the refrigerator again.   Growing tip 3 – Problems, what now? Yes, you're doing great! You add coffee grounds every few days and see them turn white. You immediately put the lid back on the growkit and occasionally check if everything is still going well. You can continue this until your growkit is full.   Just-added-coffee-grounds-jpg Filter coffee, espresso or Senseo? Did you know that you can also add coffee filters? Because boiling water has passed through them and they are made of wood fiber (paper), the oyster mushroom fungus can grow perfectly on them. You can cut or tear the filter before it goes into the growkit (with clean scissors / fingers) so that the fungus can spread more easily. The same applies to Senseo pads, just tear them open and add them.   Not enough coffee? Take some coffee grounds from your work or ask friends. They'll probably be happy to get rid of it, and your oyster mushroom mycelium will grow nice and big from it. Of course, use a clean container to take it with you.   growkit-with-trichoderma Green mold, now what?! If you're unlucky, you might suddenly see a few green spots among your beautiful white oyster mushroom mycelium. This can be caused by unhygienic practices, coffee grounds that are too old, or coffee grounds that are not moist enough. The mold you see is called Trichoderma.   If you see green spots, carefully scoop them out with a spoon that you have first dipped in boiling water. This way, you can be sure that you are not adding new dirt to your coffee grounds. Is your coffee grounds not the color of dark chocolate? That could be the cause of your green mold, and you can make the coffee grounds you add afterward a little moister with a plant sprayer.   Is your bucket turning completely green? Then, unfortunately, you're out of luck and have to start over. We, too, throw away a bag of substrate that turns completely green more often than we'd like.   Growing tip 4 – keep going Everything is going well You add coffee grounds every few days and see them turn white. You immediately put the lid back on the growkit and occasionally check if everything is still going well. By now, your growkit should be completely full up to the lid. From that moment on, you no longer need to open your growkit. It can take quite a while for your growkit to produce mushrooms. Make sure your growkit is not too warm; otherwise, the oyster mushroom will think it is still summer. A cool, light place is most pleasant for your oyster mushroom.   But what about that tape? The oyster mushroom forms mushrooms where there is light. In the growkit, that means at the holes. The tape on it is breathable and not very sticky. So the oyster mushroom can easily push it aside. On the left, you can see mini mushrooms behind the tape. A few days later, the tape has been pushed off, and the mushrooms are growing past it. Once they are past it, you can carefully pull the tape aside, but you don't have to.   Almost ready to harvest! Your mushrooms will grow into full-fledged mushrooms within a week.   Growing tip 5 – Harvesting Finally, you can harvest your oyster mushrooms! growkit-square whatsapp-image-2020-02-02-at-13.07.45 Your oyster mushrooms are ready to harvest when the cap is flat. In the photo on the left, the oyster mushroom caps are still nicely curved. You can leave them for another night. In the bottom photo, the caps are almost completely flat, which is the perfect time to harvest.   How to harvest? You harvest your oyster mushrooms by grasping them close to the bucket and twisting them. Then you twist them from the base of the substrate. Usually, a very small amount of substrate comes with the base, so you then cut that off with a sharp knife. And then your mushrooms are harvested and ready for the pan. Seal the holes with new tape or with the original tape from the holes.   Dried out mushrooms? Dried out mushrooms happen regularly, especially since our homes are quite dry in winter. The good news is that you can still use them perfectly. Rehydrate them in water and then fry them, or they are delicious in risotto. Dried oyster mushrooms are even a delicacy available in most supermarkets. And now you've grown them yourself! Package contents Please note, for advantage boxes it is not possible to cancel and return individual products. 1 x Oyster Mushroom Spawn Spawn to grow oyster mushrooms on your own coffee grounds. More information   1 x Oyster Mushroom Bucket Bucket to grow oyster mushrooms on your own coffee grounds. More information Environmental information about growing oyster mushrooms on coffee grounds Has an unsorted waste paper label Assembled by BlueCity Rotterdam Is a very nice and sustainable gift   By 2030, more than 8 billion people will live on our planet. More than 65% of them live in cities, occupying less than 3% of the world's surface. Yet these cities produce 50% of the waste and are responsible for 80% of toxic emissions. Meanwhile, we continue to import food from all over the world and incinerate its often very valuable residual streams as waste. This leads to even more waste production and further toxic emissions.   How else can it be done? Better and smarter. Among other things, by utilizing a locally abundant raw material: coffee grounds. After oil, coffee is the most traded commodity in the world. Almost 10 billion kilos of coffee beans are produced annually. The Netherlands imports 150 million kilos of coffee beans annually for its own consumption. Of this, an astonishingly small percentage ends up in your cup of coffee: less than 1%. Of the rest, we throw away more than 120 million kilos of coffee grounds, and almost all of it ends up in the incinerator. While we could also convert it into food. Sustainably produced oyster mushrooms, for example!   What are the benefits? Producing and consuming oyster mushrooms grown on locally available coffee grounds offers many benefits, namely: Reduction of the amount of waste going into incineration and thus a reduction in CO2 emissions. Reduction of transport kilometers by producing local food. All raw materials for this kit are locally available and are only supplied to local parties. Increase in the supply of plant-based food. Oyster mushrooms are an excellent meat substitute and are also much more effective in water usage than meat. 1 kg of beef requires 15,000 liters of water. For 1 kg of oyster mushrooms, less than 5 liters.