Learn about food production with fast growing agaricus mushrooms
Meadow Mushrooms is excited to offer our new expertly hand-crafted growing kits to schools and educational organisations. Our kits contain a mushroom farm, growing instructions and recipe ideas. Teaching resources are also available separately.
These amazing mini-mushroom farms will enable children to see mushrooms growing first-hand and help them better understand the relationship between growing and eating as our mushrooms will double in size overnight. Children can learn to pick and cook their harvest or eat them fresh from the box. As our kits are pre-prepared, mushrooms should grow within a few days, and once mini-mushrooms appear the results are super quick which is why they make a fantastic example of farm-to-table and help to retain attention before it is lost. Meadow Mushrooms have a limited number of kits to be distributed each year, that can be applied for using the forms below. Our ambition is to ensure we have a fair coverage across the country and ages so everyone has a chance to receive a kit. We look forward to hearing from you and hope you will share your mushroom journey with us too.
How to apply? Enter your details on the form below to apply for a kit to be sent to your organisation.
Then what happens? Each week we will select from applications, then will contact the school/centre to arrange delivery. If you don't make the first draw you will stay on the list.
Please note our kits are NOT AVAILABLE FOR SALE and distribution is currently limited to schools or educational centres as an aid to help young people understand and learn about food production and preparation.
Some recent shots from schools below -
The kits are pre ‘activated’ for you, meaning you don’t have to do anything except open them and they are ready to go (per the instructions inside). We recommend not leaving them too long as they either may try to grow and fail or may not activate if left too long.
We recommend you keep your kit at a temperature of 17 to 19C, however we appreciate this may be difficult in either winter or summer. In cooler seasons growth may be slower, keep your kit in a space that will be the least impacted by cooler temperatures. You may also consider closing the top down at night or even wrapping in a warm blanket. If your kit gets too cold this may reduce its yield and/or slow growth. For best results, keep the kit away from drafts and heat sources e.g. direct sunlight.
Yes! When mushrooms are first picked, the gills on the inside will be a pinky colour which will change over a period of hours to the darker colour you are used to seeing.
Mushrooms can grow VERY quickly, doubling in size over 24 hours so it is important to monitor growth and consider that what is small in the morning will need to be picked by the end of the day. Ideally you want to keep your mushrooms as a button which is 35-55mm and beforethe gills have opened and the cap has flattened.
Mushroom Compost is comprised of partially composted wheat straw, which often results in a stringy texture.
Your compost is packed with nutrition and great for the garden, especially as a mulch. We recommend you mix the layers together then distribute in the garden. It is possible – depending on how many flushes you have run and the weather conditions – that you may continue to get a few mushrooms in the garden but due to the specific environment they require it is unlikely to get many.
Sorry no, our kits were created especially for schools and education. They are also hand-built and very labour intensive which means they would be quite an expensive item to buy. However we may revisit this in future if demand is there.
This is mycelium. Mycelium is the equivalent of the root system in plants and is what your mushrooms will grow from. Through the mycelium, the mushrooms absorb nutrients from it’s environment.
Our mission is to distribute our kids around the country to ensure Kiwi kids get to have a turn at growing mushrooms, learning about food production and fungi. We have loaded all recipients we have drawn so far onto the map below to show you how we are doing.
DRAW 1St Martins School, Christchurch |
DRAW 2Edukids Papakura, Auckland |
DRAW 3Active Explorers Tai Tapu, Canterbury |