Its time to do some housecleaning!!!! Ye Gods, fish dr! Why was the pillowcase inside the Mason jar...?
Possibly with the mushrooms themselves. This might be the explanation of 1. how, and why, the pillowcase got into the Mason jar; and 2. how an (admittedly impressive) fungus could grow to this size...unobserved till now. ---Wonder what is growing even now in fish dr's other closets. Basement or garage, even. The mind boggles. Full marks to fish dr for gargantuity! I enjoy this sequence of photos. Reminds me of a page (well, half-page nowadays) in the Travel section of my local newspaper. Folks on vacation have pictures taken of themselves holding a Columbus Dispatch in front of Niagara Falls, the Eiffel Tower, the La Brea Tar Pits, etc. Fish dr's fungus is seeing the world! Maybe we could refer to it as "Waldo".
Are those eggs on the floor in the first two pictures? Your photos are rather interesting, hahaha. Did you plant these different things on purpose, or did you just cram biodegradable substances into a small confined space and kept them moist and dark? (sorry I couldn't be of more help, hope you find your answers.)
As to genus and species, I will leave that identification to our Forum fungus experts. As to "edible"...the important question is: Is it POISONOUS??? Sure, you could eat it...if you do (please don't) you're braver than I am.
lol...what an odd shaped mason jar that must have been. Did you break it once u saw this beauty growing on it to see it better? Curious...if it was growing on the pillowcase IN the mason jar...y is it growing 'side-ways' rather then from the top of the case form?
It was a standard 1 quart mason. Yes I had to smash it when I saw the primordia formed. I had used the pillowcase to drain some wild bird seed I had soaked, and there was some residual left inside. I forgot to mention that after stuffing it in the mason jar, I pressure cooked it for 1 1/2 hours and then, under the flow of a laminar flow hood, I used a dental instrument that I had flame sterilized to put a sliver of internal tissue from a King Oyster Mushroom, Pleurotus eryngii, that I had purchased in chinatown on top of the pillowcase. The primordia showed up about six weeks later. Pleurotus eryngii loves cotton and paper as a substrate, and grains as a nitrogen source. Did I mention I had moved to the country to farm mushrooms ?
fish dr. Love your sence of humor!!!! At first I thought it was a work of art someone had created, and it is in a way, I guess. One does find strange things hidden away in little used cupboards. he he he We did a major cleaning earlier this spring but just found ordinary and lost items - nothing like that! barb
Have to admit my thought was Pleurotus but I wasn't sure enough to want to stick my neck out and call it an edible fungus in case it turned out not to be so!
Woohoo! What do I win, What do I win??????? Alright, I know I won't win anything. Bragging rights will be sufficient.
