Makes me...

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Some spores, I mean....

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]There are "kits" available and I've been seriously considering getting one or two... mostly interested in portobello and shitaki, but whatever's easiest first for a beginner.

it is a couple buck for some spores, and a couple more for some media. plus a dollar store cooler.
buy the spores you want to grow, i would say.

Two really different beasts. If its just for fun, you won't be crushed if it doesn't work out. If you're trying to sell them, you might have a hard time getting many people to try anything "unusual", probably beyond a shitake or oyster.

I've tried most of the kinds that Fungi Perfecti sells for outdoor use in my region. I had the most success with the King Stropharia and Shitake. Both produced well and in quantities that more than justified the expense, time, and materials. I also had success growing Shaggy Manes, but I consider them kind of a kitchen failure BECAUSE they seem to literally absorb sand and grit into their tissue as they grow, and no amount of cleaning, washing, peeling, etc. has ever yielded an edible product that didn't have some "grit" when I ate it -- flavor was fine, but who likes to eat sand? I had margin success with a couple of kinds of oysters, lions mane, and sulfur shelf -- small quantities grew, but not really enough to make it worthwhile. I never did get a maitake to grow.

I had "success" with morels that I tried to propagate myself from a couple of wild mushrooms in the sense that they at least grew -- I blended a couple of wild morels in a blender with water, and spread this around in likely looking spots in my yard. In the next year or two, I found a tiny handful, like 2-5 mushrooms, growing in those spots. Worked with both white and black morels to the extent that some at least grew, but I couldn't ever break the "more than 5 mushrooms" barrier, nor did they seem to live for more than a couple of years.

Right now, the only kind I have left in my yard would be the King Stropharia, maybe, didn't see any last year even though it was wet, I'm hoping maybe this year, because they can be fickle. The logs I did oysters and shitakes on have rotten away. If I were to lose another tree of the right kind, I would try again with shitakes, I got quite a few pounds from those over the 2-3-4 years the logs were good for. I would also consider doing another King Stropharia patch if I don't see any come up in the old one this year.

If you're thinking about doing this as a crop to sell at a market, I would do a lot of research, maybe buy one of the books that the guy, Paul Stammet, who owns Fungi Perfecti has written, and think about it a lot, because it can get really involved in terms of the equipment, time, supplies.

the plan is this- get up and running and have a secure food source to the max extent possible before DH retires, which is in 14 years. i want to grow as much of the food i eat as humanly possible.
after that, if i have more than i need i have 2 choices-
hopefully the little pieces of paper that we are counting on turn out to really be money, my family and their families also have food security. after that, i hope to donate excess to local food banks.
or, either we need the money or the diversion of a small business and try to do a small scale fresh market type thing. as it stands now i can pretty much probably just sell to my neighbors, but who knows what my neighborhood will be like if our little pieces of paper turn out to be worthless.
i joke about this being the plan to survive the apocalypse, but my tongue is not completely planted in my cheek.

again, thanks for all the info. if nothing else i have a couple damp, shady spots to grow some interesting plants.

But only if you want to do it all yourself.

Ordering some spawn and establishing a patch or two isn't that big a deal.

sounds pretty cool.

The outer ring is much larger than the boundaries of our yard. You really have to know your shit to eat wild mushrooms. I studied mycology three decades ago. With few exceptions, every edible species has a poisonous clone. A spore print it the only way to tell the difference. On the other side, there are some really killer mushrooms that are unique. I've only seen one Destroying Angel and I understand why it got the name. It was the most beautiful fruit I've ever seen (well, next to my wife). One lick and you're dead. Mushrooms attack the liver, kidneys, pancreas, and other vital organs. You can't reverse the damage.

if you find out, you have a lifetime supply. i would have to know.
we used to have morels in the yard occasionally when i was a kid. we never ate them, tho.

There's not too much in nature that can destroy your vital organs in such a short time.