As soon as Bean opened one of her birthday presents to reveal a Far West Fungi mushroom mini farm log, the three of us were immediately hooked.
Like many 2 year olds, Bean is a bit farm and nature-obsessed. The animals, the plants, the silo, the farmer. The trees, the birds, the moss, the wild mushrooms. I have done the planting-seeds-watch-them-grow thing with her, but since we live in a 3rd floor apartment, we haven’t really been able to grow any vegetables or fruit. Herbs, apparently, have a limited wow-factor.
The mushroom mini farm has turned out to be a great tool for teaching a city kid how her food grows.
When we first opened the mini farm, it looked like a squishy brown log. Dave read off the instructions while I squinted at it and Bean searched for something to twist tie shut. Closed off in a plastic bag, we plopped it down near Bean’s kitchen shelves for optimal viewing.
The wait began. She insisted on checking it at least 3 times/day. Ha, how adorable we thought, as if mushrooms would just grow between lunch and dinner.
But, that’s exactly what started happening. Small mounds we saw in the morning, were little bulbs by lunch, and mushroom capped by dinner.
For a preschooler, this is exactly the right speed to watch food grow. “MOMMY, LOOK AT IT NOW.”
We harvested our first batch this morning, under Bean’s watchful eye. We sealed them off in a paper bag in our refrigerator and explained that we’d take them off as they were ready. Which launched into an entire discussion of what “ready” and “ripe” mean. Followed by a trip to the library to take out any book that references mushrooms, real or magical.
This is such an excellent learning tool, and we haven’t even gotten to the part where I serve them up as dinner. Minds will be blown.
——————————————————–
We have the Far West Fungi Shiitake Mini Farm, but Far West Fungi sells a variety of mushroom mini farms.
