Mu Mushrooms is a Madison, Wisconsin-based urban mushroom farm that uses reclaimed logs to grow edible mushrooms. When trees are cut down in an urban area as part of a management effort, often the wood is chipped, burned, or discarded. We specialize in taking this local waste product and using it to grow delicious, medicinal food.
Logs are inoculated with mushroom spawn and stored in a shady spot outdoors for a year or more before they produce blooms of fresh mushrooms, which are harvested and offered for sale through our online store. The main crop available is Shiitake, but at certain times we also offer Nameko and Chicken of the Woods. Our mushroom logs produce blooms at varying times during the spring, summer and fall according to the outdoor temperature and humidity, so we have an online mailing list for notifying the interested when fresh mushrooms are available.
We also offer inoculated mushroom logs for sale — all they require is a shady spot outdoors to grow, requiring very little care.
We receive all of our wood from the generous donations of homeowners and tree care professionals. All trees that we use to grow mushrooms have been felled at the professional discretion of a tree care expert. We gladly accept donations of freshly cut wood in the winter and early spring months.
About Me
I am a self-taught DIY urban mushroom farmer based in Madison, Wisconsin. I’ve been experimenting with growing mushrooms on reclaimed logs since 2016, when I read Dr. Paul Stamets’ book Mycelium Running, which details the essential ecological roles that fungi play in the earth’s ecosystems, along with ways we can use mushrooms to help the environment. My first wildly successful blooms of ‘shrooms appeared in the summer of 2018, and Mu Mushrooms was born.
My background is not actually in mycology, but in sustainable agriculture, green pest control, journalism and writing. But that’s the beauty of mushrooms: growing them is fun and easy (at least, easier than you’d expect), and anyone can learn to do it whether indoors or out.
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