Growing Your Own Oyster Mushrooms with Fantastic Fungi Fanatics

 By Daniela Vaynshtok

This March, Anabel’s collaborated with Fantastic Fungi Fanatics to help students bring their very own oyster mushrooms to life. The process started with boiling a large pot of water on the burner stove. Once boiled, students lined up to dip rolls of toilet paper into the water for a couple of seconds and were given a bag with a special aeration patch to put the toilet paper in right after. This moist toilet paper would provide the perfect environment for fungi to grow. The trick is to close the bag as fast as possible to minimize contamination from other microbes. 

At the next station, we prepared the mushroom spores. I rolled and spread the spore evenly to ensure every student would receive enough for their mushrooms to grow. Once this was done, students were provided with a scoop of the spore to inoculate their wet toilet paper. The goal was to get most of the spore onto the toilet paper as fast as possible, once again ensuring the least contamination possible. As soon as the spore was scooped into the bag, the bag was closed and sealed with a rubber band. It was very important to wrap the rubber band above the aeration patch to ensure that the mushrooms could “breathe”. 

I have grown plants before but never fungi, so I decided to make a kit for myself as well. Over the past three weeks, I have watched my oyster mushrooms transform from spores to threads of mycelium on the roll to a fully colonized white fluffy mycelium. I have found growing plants and now fungi to be a very rewarding process and I feel more conscious about what I eat when I grow it myself, giving me more freedom over my food options. And this is very central to Anabel’s mission: empowering students to build a deeper relationship with their food. Whether it's through growing mushrooms in a dorm room or learning to cook affordable, nutritious meals, Anabel’s believes that everyone deserves access not only to good food, but to the knowledge and skills that help us take ownership of what we eat. By participating in events like this, we’re reminded that food is not just something we consume—it’s something we can actively create, nurture, and share.

Curious about growing your own mushrooms or getting involved in a range of fun, hands-on sustainable food events? Stop by Anabel’s or follow us on Instagram to learn about future workshops and join us in future events.