IKEA’s future lab shows us how to grow mushrooms

A cookbook packed with recipes based on future food trends, including a guide on how-to grow mushrooms.

IKEA’s future living lab SPACE10 has made their first ever cookbook with a collection of recipes based on future food trends.

Titled Future Food Today, you can expect an explosion of the quirkiest flavours. Recipes include extreme ones like “bug burgers” and “microgreen popsicles”. Others like the “Dogless hotdogs” and “algae chips” are probably easier to, well, swallow.

SPACE10 dogless dog — Dogless Hotdog | SPACE10

SPACE10 bug burger — Bug Burger | SPACE10

Are you salivating yet?

Besides the out of the ordinary culinary delights, the book also includes simple guides to producing food locally and sustainably. It explains how to use alternative ingredients to counter the planet’s excessive dependence on meat. As well as delves in technology such as hydroponic farming to grow your own food.

Which leads us right to this guide on mushroom farming.

I’ve used an oyster mushroom farming kit before and harvested a batch. But couldn’t keep it growing the second or third time.

The mushrooms from the farming kit

It’s great to know that I can make my own mushroom growing kit from coffee grounds, since I drink litres of coffee everyday.

First things first, I did not know after running my coffee grounds through my trusty moka pot, I’ve harnessed less than 1 percent of the coffee beans’ nutrients.

I mean, I knew they were spent but did not realise that they still had 99% firepower for growing things. (Brewed coffee grounds can be used to fertilize plants and added to compost too.)

Now, that’s all good news to me. So, let “Project Grow Mushrooms” begin.

Materials:

Microporous tape — available online or at your local pharmacy
Big glass jar with an airtight lid (preferably metal lid)
Spent coffee grounds — cool them down before using
Mycelium — the vegetative structure of fungi. To find this, get in touch with local mushroom farmers
Patience — it takes 6 to 8 weeks before you can enjoy the goodness

This is how you grow mushrooms in coffee grounds

Take the jar and unscrew the metal lid. Drill two holes into the lid, about 20mm in diameter each.

Sterilization is very important in mushroom growing. So, sanitize your hands thoroughly. Submerge the jar and lid in boiling water for about one minute.

Dry, then cover the two holes in the lid with microporous tape to make sure bacteria can’t get in.

PÅTÅR coffee | IKEA.com

Then, mix the mycelium and your freshly brewed coffee grounds in the jar. (Cool the grounds first as the heat will destroy the mycelium.) Cover and store in a dark place. Keep the temperature at 20-25°C (68-77°F).

After 2-3 days, you’ll see the grounds completely covered with white mycelium. Then top up another 1-2 cm of spent coffee grounds. Again, set aside to let the mycelium spread.

Repeat the process above until you’ve got a whole jar full of coffee grounds. When the substrate is covered with white mycelium, that means all things are going great.

Now, set the jar in a humid and light place at about 20-25°C (68-77°F). Avoid direct sunlight.

After 10-14 days, the oyster mushrooms will pop up from the holes of the lid, forcing away the microporous tape.