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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
A great introduction to the wide and varied world of mushrooms. I read on a B&W Kindle, which wasn't ideal for the number of color photos in it. This is part overview and part encyclopedia. Someday, I'd like to reread this and maybe try to cultivate mushrooms, but I have too many other things on my to-do list :)
About a month ago, I picked a book that had been sitting on my desk for more than a year, MYCELIUM RUNNING, and finally started reading. Within days, the Deepwater Horizon exploded and oil from below the Earth’s crust began pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. Serendipitous, that, because while my mind has since grappled with the enormity of the disaster in the Gulf—massive amounts of oil and massive amounts of dispersants pouring and shooting into our oceans—I have been saved from complete despair by the calm and practiced thoughts of a mushroom man.
Paul Stamets is a mycologist, a mushroom scientist. He hunts them around the world, cultures them for fun and profit, and slowly, over the course of thirty years, has come to realize that mushrooms—more specifically, the network of cells that grow underground beneath them, called a mycelium—can help us save and restore the planet. How? By filtering contaminants from groundwater (a process called mycofiltration), restoring old growth forests (mycoforestry), cleaning up pollutants, including oil, from the environment (mycoremediation), and controlling insect pests (mycopesticides). In MYCELIUM RUNNING, Stamets explores all these topics, collectively called mycorestoration, and shares convincing experiments that indicate he just might be onto something.
I’ll admit to being unsettled by Stamets’ claim that mushrooms (and their mycelium) are sentient organisms ... but I also have to admit to feelings of complete elation when a flush of mushrooms appeared in my front yard after a rainstorm last week (I posted a photo of these lovelies yesterday). I recommend MYCELIUM RUNNING to anyone up for an in-depth look at the world of mushrooms and environmental restoration. If you’d rather a brief overview of Stamets work and ideas, check out:
his TED lecture;
his thoughts on the Gulf oil spill;
and his Fungi Perfecti website.
Paul Stamets is a mycologist, a mushroom scientist. He hunts them around the world, cultures them for fun and profit, and slowly, over the course of thirty years, has come to realize that mushrooms—more specifically, the network of cells that grow underground beneath them, called a mycelium—can help us save and restore the planet. How? By filtering contaminants from groundwater (a process called mycofiltration), restoring old growth forests (mycoforestry), cleaning up pollutants, including oil, from the environment (mycoremediation), and controlling insect pests (mycopesticides). In MYCELIUM RUNNING, Stamets explores all these topics, collectively called mycorestoration, and shares convincing experiments that indicate he just might be onto something.
I’ll admit to being unsettled by Stamets’ claim that mushrooms (and their mycelium) are sentient organisms ... but I also have to admit to feelings of complete elation when a flush of mushrooms appeared in my front yard after a rainstorm last week (I posted a photo of these lovelies yesterday). I recommend MYCELIUM RUNNING to anyone up for an in-depth look at the world of mushrooms and environmental restoration. If you’d rather a brief overview of Stamets work and ideas, check out:
his TED lecture;
his thoughts on the Gulf oil spill;
and his Fungi Perfecti website.
Stamets is a pretty popular name when it comes to the world of fungi. Even though I'm on a casual enthusiast, I'd even heard of him. So I thought it would be interesting to read one of his books. First off, I can tell you that I'm probably not the appropriate audience for this one. It leaned heavily scientific and felt more like a research paper than a book for a layman. Which is absolutely fine, just means it's going to attract a more limited audience.
Concerning mainly on Mycelium (the part that people are less aware of compared to the fruiting bodies, mushrooms) Stamets proposes different ways in which the propagation of mycelium for different species can benefit the world. From cleaning up toxic spills to fortifying soil, there are a myriad of uses for mycelium.
While he can get a bit repetitive at times and the book sometimes meanders, I think anyone who has a foundation for the science and ecology of this subject matter would really enjoy this book. I did not have that foundation so I struggled a bit more through it.
Interesting book but definitely not one for someone who's just casually learning about mushrooms or fungi.
Review by M. Reynard 2024
Concerning mainly on Mycelium (the part that people are less aware of compared to the fruiting bodies, mushrooms) Stamets proposes different ways in which the propagation of mycelium for different species can benefit the world. From cleaning up toxic spills to fortifying soil, there are a myriad of uses for mycelium.
While he can get a bit repetitive at times and the book sometimes meanders, I think anyone who has a foundation for the science and ecology of this subject matter would really enjoy this book. I did not have that foundation so I struggled a bit more through it.
Interesting book but definitely not one for someone who's just casually learning about mushrooms or fungi.
Review by M. Reynard 2024
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
I was blown away by how amazing mushrooms are! They will truly save the world
Wow this is dense! Jam packed with information, charts and hypotheses for the aspiring cultivator
informative
slow-paced
Very intersting read that confirmed my fascination for mushrooms. I didn't read it entirely though, as most chapters are guidelines for growing mushrooms and I don't currently have the kind of space that this experiment requires.
Interesting. The later portion of the book has a lot of "how to" information that didn't hold my attention, but would be great for people wanting to use mushrooms for any variety of purposes.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced