Produce enough mushrooms to meet local demand for mushrooms, eliminating the need to buy mushrooms. This should be as low-maintenance as possible and as automated as practical.
If this proves successful, supplying fresh mushrooms to nearby shops and restaurants should be considered, increasing the production accordingly.
After some consideration it was decided to try growing Oyster Mushrooms initially. This is because they are easy to grow, as they grow well in a wide range of environmental conditions. There are several varieties of various oyster mushrooms:
The proposed setup uses 24x5l buckets, spread out in 6 batches of 4 buckets.
Each 5ltr bucket is projected to produce an average of 0.2kg of edible mushrooms every 3 weeks, which is about 1.6kg of mushrooms / week. Mushrooms cost €9/kg, so each week will save €14.40 in mushrooms. Over 1 year it is expected to save €750, producing 83kg of edible mushrooms.
| Week | Batch 1 | Batch 2 | Batch 3 | Batch 4 | Batch 5 | Batch 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvest 2 | Wait | Wait | Harvest 1 | Wait | Wait |
| 2 | Wait | Harvest 2 | Wait | Wait | Harvest 1 | Wait |
| 3 | Wait | Wait | Harvest 2 | Wait | Wait | Harvest 1 |
| 4 | Harvest 1 | Wait | Wait | Harvest 2 | Wait | Wait |
| 5 | Wait | Harvest 1 | Wait | Wait | Harvest 2 | Wait |
| 6 | Wait | Wait | Harvest 1 | Wait | Wait | Harvest 2 |
| Item | Cost | Cost in € | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | 312 hours / year | 441 / year | Assumes 2 volunteers for 3 hours each per week at €1.26/hour |
| Straw | 1040kg / year | 195 / year | Assumes we need 5kg of straw/bucket, and bales are small |
| Water | ??? | 0 (local) | |
| Electricity | ??? | 0 (local) | |
| Air filters | 2 / year | 20 / year | Assumes new filters every 6 months |
| Respirator filters | 4 / year | 40 / year | Assumes new filters for both respirators every 6 months |
| Gloves | 0 (sourced) | ||
| Replacement buckets | 96 / year | 144 / year | Assumes buckets last for 6 months, cost €1.50 each |
| Total | 840 / year |
Mushrooms require a stable temperature. Therefore the cellar is an obvious location for the mushroom growing space.
Inside the cellar we want to create a stable environment where temperature, CO2, and moisture levels can be controlled. This environment should not be contaminated by the outside environment, i.e. prevent spores and microorganisms from outside from entering inside. It should also avoid contaminating the cellar itself, i.e. prevent large amounts of spores and moisture escaping from the enclosed space and degrading the structure of the house.
Spore exposure can initially lead to flu-like symptoms, and then develop into a permanent mushroom allergy. To avoid that, spore contamination of people should be avoided as much as possible. At the same time, when working with mushrooms, the intended growth sites should not be contaminated by things that we do not want to grow. Hence, what is needed is:
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Once the above is set up, the procedure for growing the mushrooms is:
| Task | Time estimate in minutes per week |
|---|---|
| Clean the buckets | 20 |
| Place straw into buckets | 20 |
| Sterilise the buckets | 120 |
| Introduce mushroom culture into the buckets | 30 |
| Place buckets onto the shelf in the enclosure | 5 |
| Wait for mushrooms to grow (about 3 weeks) | 0 |
| Harvest mushrooms | 60 |
| Wait for mushrooms to grow again (about 3 weeks) | 0 |
| Harvest mushrooms again | 60 |
| Place straw into compost | 10 |
| Perform maintenance tasks | 30 |
| Go back to the beginning | 0 |
| Total time | 5h55m |
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The straw leftover form the mushroom production can be added to the garden compost when in large quantities or the vegetable compost in smaller quantities eg. 1 bucket a week is ok for the vegetable compost but anything over this would have to go in the garden waste compost as it would need to be mixed with additional organic matter to compost effectively.