The best-selling book on “popular mycology,” Mycelium Running, would be a useful reference book in every home, especially to anyone involved in farming (or gardening), forest management and environmental cleanup. The second half of the book is an instruction manual on growing delectable mushrooms for food and medicine.
The book is filled to the brim with valuable information on how to improve soils for farming, gardening and forestry; create simple, low-cost biofilters for waste water (mycofiltration); and clean up toxic waste (mycoremediation).
As an example, a method for building a mycofiltration bed to filter waste water is described in exacting detail. Dimensions, depth, layers and recommended materials and mushrooms are listed. This mycofiltration is useful, among other things, for filtering manure enriched farm runoff.
An added benefit of using mycofiltration beds on farms include the production of delicious food mushrooms, which sprout out of these beds. And every 2-3 years, the material in the bed can be dug out and used as a rich fertilizer on the fields of the farm.
Also useful for farmers is the information on no-till farming, which involves a method of leaving the stubble on the field until the next crops is planted. This encourages the development of saprophytic fungi, which break down old plant matter at a pace that’s highly beneficial for new plant life. In contrast, the conventional method of plowing down the stubble after harvest promotes anaerobic bacteria, which decompose organic substrate too rapidly. The saprophytic fungi also help prevent soil erosion and leaching of valuable nutrients and top soil.
In addition to helping decompose and recycle organic matter, saprophytic fungi can also help forestry by protecting its tree residents from parasitic fungi (blights), which may kill thousands of trees if left unchecked. Seeding saprophytic fungi in a productive forest may help out-compete parasitic fungi, thus functioning as natural fungicides; good fungi vs. bad fungi.
Mycorrhizal mushrooms can also be seeded to support the forest, or they may simply be encouraged to grow naturally by using more enlightened methods of forest management.
Mycorrhizal fungi help extend the reach of tree roots to better absorb nutrients and water, thus making the trees healthier and more drought resistant. Mycorrhizal fungi also manufacture and provide trees with natural antibiotics against many pathogens, especially parasitic fungi.
Mycoremediation is a term invented by the author of Mycelium Running, Paul Stamets, which is now in common use among mycologists. It refers to a method whereby toxic waste may neutralized through the use of mushrooms.
Petrochemicals and biological warfare agents can be effectively broken down by mushroom mycelium, as can dioxin and toxic industrial waste. Even toxic levels of chlorine, which is used as the universal biocide, can be neutralized by some species of mushrooms. Bacterial contaminants like Staphylococcus sp. and E. coli can be killed, and heavy metals can be absorbed by mushrooms to then be removed from a site.
At $50 per ton, mycoremediation is a very cost effective method to clean up toxic waste. Conventional incineration may cost upwards of $1,500 per ton.
This plethora of information is merely the first half of this 300-page tome. Part III, which makes up the second half of the book, is an instruction manual on how to cultivate your own mushroom mycelium, which can be used for the above listed purposes, or to grow your own medicinal or culinary mushrooms. And seriously, who doesn’t love gourmet mushrooms? In other words, this is a reference book for every household.
Dr. Rafael has worked in natural health since finishing Chiropractic College in 1996. He currently specializes in medicinal fungi, frequently consulting two reference books: Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets for medicinal, biological and chemical properties of mushrooms, and Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora as the most complete identification guide of American mushrooms.
