Matt Silverton admits that as a gardener he’s got a black thumb. Except when it comes to fungi.
“I could never grow a plant,” Silverton says, “but I can grow mushrooms.”
Silverton is a co-organizer of the Arizona Mushroom Growing Group, a bunch of ’shroom-gardening enthusiasts who are figuring out the best ways to grow mushrooms in Tucson.
His and others’ experiments are housed in a small section of a small greenhouse at the Las Milpitas de Cottonwood community farm. The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona provides the space.
A waist-high, maybe 10-foot-long shelf is divided into sections where each participating member grows oyster mushrooms, the easiest kind to grow in Tucson. The shelf is full of 5-pound bags and 5-gallon buckets that contain growing material from which mushrooms grow.
The growers share the cost of the misting system that helps maintain the ideal humidity for growing. A floor-to-ceiling white plastic curtain also helps keep the humidity in.
