My Mushroom Experiences

Saturday - October 17, 2020

When I was young, we used to think that every July we would look for mushroom seeds and buy them so that we could take care of our house. When it starts to rain, mushroom starts to grow. I have no acquaintance who likes to make mushroom seeds there with us. We are still looking far away and waiting, taking care of them and just letting them grow. Then harvest. or, whitewash, ‘it is ours.

August or October is the best time to grow because it is raining. When we were young I didn't know how to take care of mushrooms back then because my parents didn't want to take care of me, maybe they said it was just when I played with it so sometimes my cousins ​​and I would hang out on weekends. If it rains heavily, many mushrooms will probably continue the next day.

So when Saturday comes, we will wake up early. Even before sunrise, we prepared the plastics we would take to put the mushrooms we could get. We wait for each other on the corner or what we call a "waiting place". Because when we were young we were happy to see mushrooms we did not know why. We just enjoy it when we get mushrooms.

We would go to the hills, nearby forests because mushrooms often grow there. In those places, mushrooms grow hard. Nice to find, nice to walk. Even if you say too often, you will stumble or slip. When it comes to painting, you need to be patient and observant. Carefully lift the dried coconut or banana leaves lying down. You will check for cracks and bulges in the ground. And if you're lucky, you'll probably find mushroom-like little "umbrellas" there.

When we get home, we will compete to see who has the most mushrooms to take home. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose depending on the strategy or action of who was good at finding mushrooms then. Just a glance at the ground, he already knows if there are mushrooms there or not especially if there are many of you. It will also enhance the story of how the mushroom was discovered in hiding, how it was dug up, and how carefully the mushroom was handled to bring it home completely.

Sometimes my close cousin, he only gets two or four mushrooms because he is pure chatter. But when even so he gets that which is the biggest and widest. The size of a saucer. But he said "it was just his strategy so that we could not focus on finding mushrooms" so he always gave us funny jokes while we were looking. It was so much fun then, no one thought of a problem unlike now that there are so many responsibilities.

I know of five types of mushrooms growing in our area.

• The mamarang (Termitomyces cartilaginous). It is a dark brown, relatively small round, and round when grown. They look like little huts.

• Common mushrooms. It is cream in color. There is a hybrid, I guess. Its growth is large and vibrant. Sometimes, it has the size of a plate in diameter. In our mushroom hunts back then, we often looked at mamarang and the common mushroom. When we grew up and my cousins ​​had a capable family, we were no longer the children who enjoyed and looked for mushrooms, so we sometimes missed them. So sometimes I look for them in the markets and supermarkets there.

• The poisonous mushroom. It is easy to know: when the bottom or ceiling is black.

• The small white mushroom. It is white small and grows like flowers on the body and branches of decaying wood.

• Mushroom Rat's Ear. It resembles a rat's ear, it can be added to stewed food but people don't like it very much.

So now that I have grown up I missed those days, my experiences with mushrooms because we know that we can no longer do everything we did when we were young. After all, we have a responsibility to think about. So I thought of teaching my parents how to take care of a mushroom even if it was just at home, without having to go to the forest so that I could share it with my cousins ​​who were with me then. For even there they can think of our experiences and they will not forget even if they already have families. Of course, to help because they can earn it during the harvest.

It makes me happy every time I wake up. They remove the stress I think about every day when I see them because they are so beautiful to watch.

It is said that Caring for a Mushroom Bed is from four to five days after preparing the seedbed, start watering. Do this every two days or according to the weather conditions. In the summer months, watering is necessary, but in the rainy season, just wait for the mushrooms to grow. Excessive watering and drying of the seedbed will damage the growth of the mushroom, so the spraying bottle will be used to control the flow of water. To prevent water from seeping into the bed, watering can be done on the side of the bed. When the mushroom starts to grow, stop watering first but when the mushroom is in the middle, resume watering.

Harvesting: By two to three weeks, the mushroom seeds begin to germinate. When harvesting, make sure to include its root system in bed removal. Do not harvest new shoots so as not to interfere with its growth. The mushrooms that are in bloom are tastier than those that bloom.

"Start taking care of mushrooms now because it's raining and you can still take good care of it even if it's just at home. You can still eat for free and make more money here".

Thank you very much!