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Food-related crafty hobby trends have had a new renaissance over the past year.

People are cycling wildly through sourdough bread, banana bread, and other food trends, filling Instagram with shots of their creations and bringing their friends who can’t (or won’t) bake to tears, with stories about how different yeasts affect the flavour of the crust.

Or whatever it affects. The last thing I baked looked more like a braai brick than a loaf of bread.

Another one that will likely pass me by, because of my track record with keeping anything living alive, is the ‘grow your own mushrooms’ revolution.

It’s really big right now. Various news outlets have done pieces on why “growing mushrooms at home is everyone’s new pandemic hobby”, with the consensus being that mushrooms are not only great with a bit of butter and garlic, but also look cool.

Still not convinced? This video by FreshCap, which sells mushroom products, has been viewed upwards of 365 000 times:

UK company GrowVeg has a step-by-step guide on how to get started:

• First, you order your spawn from a certified seller (don’s go looking for something in the forest).
• Then head off to your local coffee shop and ask nicely if they can spare some spent coffee grounds. They need to be fresh. Take it home and weigh out 2,5kg of coffee into a clean mixing bowl.
• Mix your spawn into the bowl, distributing it evenly, before loading it into your cultivation bag or container, which you close up tight. Poke four air holes into the bag.
• Place your bag/container in a warm (18-25 degrees Celcius) dark place like an airing cupboard, under a bed, or in a cupboard in a heated room.
• Watch your shrooms grow.

South Africa is also getting on board. After a bit of digging, we found MyShrooms.

On the MyShrooms website, you can purchase mushroom grow kits, which you buy in tandem with the species of mushroom that you want to cultivate.

Some mushrooms are a lot more complicated than others so it is best to start with a beginner level species like oyster mushrooms with the standard grow kit to get a feel of what’s required.

We can recommend the Blue Oysters and Pink Oysters to get going. From there as you develop your skills you can start venturing into mushrooms that require more experience.

Here’s a simplified look at the process:

You can order online and have your kit delivered to you, which is pretty cool.

It’s certainly safer than foraging, or pulling random stalks out of a bag at a music festival.

Remember those?

[sources:myshrooms&growveg]