Odds and Ends... But More Odds, Really

Just catching up on a few things I've had sitting around in my iPhoto folder.

This was from a food exhibit we saw at Mass MOCA this past March. Entitled "Mushroom Weightlifter" it was from a series of photographs from the book Food Play by Saxton Freymann.

It's a little creepy really.

And here's another one with a mushroom village and lots of mushroom antics taking place. They obviously like to give each other flowers and dance around. I'd be keeping my eye on that pepper though.

A Box Full of Surprises

Most product companies try to keep varying types of fungi from being shipped with their product... ecovative design, a New York-based company is doing the opposite - they want to ship your product WITH fungi.

EcoCradle Packaging is an innovative alternative to the decidedly un-ecofriendly use of polystyrene, packing peanuts, plastic bubble wrap, and paper-based "filler" materials you're often stuck with when you unpack your delivered package.

That's because ecovative design's packaging material is grown. That's right, grown, with vegetative hulls. In just 7 days, miles of mycelia (mushroom roots, if you will) are produced, harvested, molded into a packing shape, and ready to accompany your favorite internet order.

Now I'll be the first to admit that this sounds suspiciously like the beginning of quite a few monster movies. Some crazy scientists (or government agency) holed up somewhere, discover a new process for doing something they think will help mankind... a beaker spills, a lightning storm, and BOOM!, you've got blood gushing everywhere and teenage couple being slaughtered in the woods.

So I contacted ecovative and requested a sample (for the good of mankind, of course). It arrived the other day, and though it wasn't a large sample, you can definitely see where they're going with this.

The mycelial "chunk" is light, surprisingly sturdy (I can pinch it between my thumb and forefinger... I hear a slight crackling sound, but I can't shatter it) and is somewhat attractive (as fungi goes). Both my wife and I did the same thing after first eyeing it... we smelled it. I mean if it were to smell like a old sock in a waterlogged basement, you probably wouldn't want your brand new Amazon package smelling like it, but was pleasantly surprised that it didn't smell like anything.

It's appearance reminds me of the Oyster Mushroom kit I buy once a year for the home school classes I teach (minus the actual mushrooms of course.)

The sample that I was sent was too small to actually use for packing material, but I did take a picture of one of my rubber apes in the box with it. I wouldn't hesitate at all sending Stamp Ape (well, that's his name) through the mail with this stuff. (Actually for now, it'll act as a nice little table for when he has his other ape friends over.)

With a recent article in Scientific American, and a nod as one of the 100 best innovations of 2009 by Popular Science, it appears this melding of fungi and sustainability may be in a box heading your way. You may want to peruse their website to get the full picture. My favorite part is from their FAQ:

Q. Can you eat it?

A. Well, you could, and because it's all natural it wouldn't hurt you. But, it's non-nutritious and doesn't taste very good, so we don't recommend it.

Merry Christmas from MycoBabble... I Think

It seems that this Christmas ornament recently sold on eBay for $76.00. Auctioned as a "realistic" mushroom ornament, it appears to be a carved bolete with large oatmeal-like mounds pasted to it. Oh, with eyes. There aren't any boletes that I know of with red caps with white spots. Or eyes.

But really, this is meant to be an Amanita muscaria (Fly Amanita). You know, the mushrooms commonly featured in children books and fantasy landscapes. You know, the ones with thinner stems. And a fleshy ring. And a multitude of small, white spots. You know, the ones without eyes.

But really really, the full description on eBay states this is a "realistic Mario mushroom" ornament... from the line of Mario video game and cartoon characters. And though I'm often familiar with video games featuring fungi, Mario is a little after my time.

But you can see a nice collection of Mario Mushroom pictures here on Google images. So if that's the criteria, then yes, this is a very realistic mushroom tree ornament.

Mycoprotein at MycoBabble

Tired of all those supplemental foods that are described as "tasting like chicken"? Tired of knowing exactly what it is that you're eating? Then you are a candidate for mycoprotein. Note, that's not microprotein... no, we're talking mycoprotein.

Actually I'm quite late to this party. Mycoprotein has been around in some form since the early 80's. I've only just become aware of it, probably because they moved it closer to the Haagen-Dazs in the freezer aisle. Meatless and soy-free, I chose the Cranberry & Goat Cheese Chik'n Cutlets. Hey, wait a minute... how can it be meatless and a chicken cutlet? Oh wait... I'm sorry... it's a chick'n cutlet. That missing e makes all the difference. So exactly what is mycoprotein? Well it's not exactly a mushroom. It's a fungus. We know that all mushrooms are fungi, but not all fungi are mushrooms. So it's a special fungi. Actually it's "the processed cellular mass that is obtained from the filamentous fungus Fusarium venenatum strain PTA-2684," according to this Wired article from 2002. Okay, okay, like I said, I was a little late on this one.

Other offerings from Quorn include: Chik'n Nuggets and Turk'y Roast. I have to admit my mouth is wat'ring just thinking about th'm.

So what do they taste like? I think you can guess. I don't see what the drawback would be to just calling them fungus patties. I think our society has come around on this whole fungus thing and is a lot more welcoming to our filamentous friends.

Stamp of Approval (update)

In an entry from earlier this month I noted that the US Postal Service doesn't have a great history of glorifying our beloved mushrooms on its postage stamps. It seems there have been a grand total of four. Compare this to say, Paraguay, which has at least 14.

So which four mushrooms have been honored? Well none actually. All of the mushrooms listed are in the background/foreground of other wildlife focuses. The Eastern Chipmunk stamp (right) seems to have a couple of Russulas or maybe Gymnopilus growing from the forest floor. The Red Fox stamp (left) includes what looks like Trametes and an orangey polypore.

And that's as good as it gets. The other two are but yellowy, orangey splotches scattered on rocks which are more likely lichens. Those would include the Mountain Goat stamp, and the Pika stamp.

The two sites you should visit if you'd like to get further info on mushroom stamps are The Puffball, a great site that has collected all the mushroom stamps (though it doesn't appear it's been updated in some time - so there may even be more!) and Jim's Stamp Album, the kind of site you spend hours poking around in. (The stamp photos came from there as well.)

So there you have it. It seems the US could use a little nudge in this area to bring the proper attention to mushrooms that they deserve. If you know of any others, leave a note in the comments!

Fungi Get the Stamp of Approval

In its ongoing "Fauna + Flora" series of postage stamps, Ireland's An Post has issued 4 new stamps featuring a variety of mushrooms found in Ireland. Neither Fauna nor Flora, the series is now referred to as "Fauna + Flora (fungi)." I guess that works.

The 4 lucky choices? Well you've got:

* Pink Waxcap (Hygrocybe calyptriformis)

* Scarlet Elf Cup (Sarcoscypha austriaca)

* Parasol (Macrolepiota procera)

* Orange Birch Bolete (Leccinum versipelle)

The Elf Cup and Parasol are fairly common in New England and can be found in most regional field guides.

You can see the whole collection here. And you can peruse the An Post website and see their entire line of fungi stamps here!

This is hardly the first time a country has featured mushrooms as means of decorative delivery. You can see a great list of stamps here. The page will take a minute to load as everything is on one page. This is a great site as you can click on each sheet of stamps to get a higher quality image. Notice a few countries not on the list? Yes that's right. The US is not represented! Our neighbors to the North and South have mushroom stamps... but not us? I mean we're thinking of doing Holiday Nutcrackers and we can't have any beloved fungi?!

If you know of any out there, let me know. I've googled the last half hour and came up with nothing. Well not exactly nothing... I did find this service. I guess I could make my own.

Mushroom Men

Okay... I was going to wait until I finished the Matango posts before I moved on to these, but I guess there's nothing wrong about running them simultaneously. So... here's just a sneak peek at what has to be the Citizen Kane of Mushroom games. This game's been out for awhile but no jumping onto YouTube and searching for lots of cool clips! I'll roll 'em out here for your enjoyment.



You'll notice a bunch of Fly Amanitas wreaking havoc. Fly Amanitas, of course, are one of the most commonly recognizable mushrooms in pop culture. They've appeared in lots of kids' books and 70's poster art. Here, it appears, they finally fight back for the negative portrayal we've heaped on them for years. Oh sure, being poisonous is bad enough... but shooting lasers? Good stuff.

Downlinking

Okay, so it would be sort of a lame, tired blog post if I called attention to a business just because their name was Mushroom Networks. Right? Well thankfully there's a bit more to it. See, Mushroom Networks isn't content with just naming their company after fungi... no they carry it to the next step.

What is it that they do? Well, this San Diego based company provides networking solutions. But just not any old solutions. Currently they have a $2,995.00 unit called the Truffle BBNA that "combines multiple Internet access lines, each on a 10/100baseT Ethernet interface, into a single aggregated Internet access line for HTTP downlink traffic, again on a 10/100baseT Ethernet interface."

But there's more. They also have a less expensive Porcini device that does something cool too. I'm not exactly sure what, but there are a lot of press releases and articles about it like this one.

What I hope is interesting about this is that they've placed the Truffle above the Porcini in the hierarchy of gourmet mushrooms. Hopefully they haven't backed themselves into a corner when they want to release their next product line. Oh sure, you could work your way down with a Morel or Chanterelle, but they've set the bar high if they want to top themselves.

photo from the broadbandbonding.com website

Coprinus chocolatus?

In February I wiped out while snowboarding, tearing my MCL, bruising my ACL, and ending any chance to look for mushrooms in the early spring. Not that there are a whole lot, but it's fun to find some before the Amanitas, Russulas, Coprinus, and others begin popping up.

Made by Meiji Seika in Singapore (you can see many of their products here) these chocolate mushrooms have a habit of popping up in our kitchen. And like wild, foraged mushrooms, they don't last long. At the moment we have chocolate-capped mushrooms with cracker stems, and white chocolate-capped mushrooms with chocolate cracker stems. They are a bit easier to identify than your usual small spring mushrooms. The Amazon.com listing is here.

In fact, if I was really desperate for finding mushrooms I could set up a little photo shoot with these chocolate mushrooms in a more natural setting... well, if you consider a slice of bread and a jade plant to be a more natural setting.

Here's hoping my knee heals quickly, or you may be subjected to more entries like this.

Fungus Face

If you pay attention to television commercials you may have noticed Aveeno skin products advertising mushrooms as a main ingredient in their line of Active Naturals Positively Ageless Lifting and Firming Night Cream.

Their website features 5 of these "active naturals" and some of the benefits they provide.

*Soy - Improves skin texture, Visibly diminishes brown spots, Evens blotchiness...

*Feverfew - Soothes irritation, Reduces redness

*Oats - Relieves dry skin, Soothes itchy irritated skin

*Lavender, Chamomile and Ylang-Ylang - Soothes, Calms, Relaxes

and Shiitake Mushrooms... well, except they call it *Natural Shiitake. And they are not including the benefits yet, as a "coming soon" banner has been there since I first looked last week. (I can just see a bunch of people crowded around a table trying to decide what the best wording should be.)

Which is not to say there aren't a lot of healthy benefits to fungi... but this is one of the first I can recall being advertised on such a wide scale. You can even request a free sample, though I'm not sure sure if you'll receive the shiitake variety or not.

Good for you Aveeno! Mushrooms are one step closer to taking over the world. One face at a time.