Living in a tiny Chicago apartment, he nevertheless wanted to grow some organic food of his own. herbs did fine on his window sills and he even grew radishes, lettuce and peppers in a couple of big window boxes. But his happiest, and most pleasant, experiment was with mushrooms. He found they thrived in trays under his kitchen sink, in the bottom of a large closet, and in a spare bathroom cupboard. But by far, his best mushrooms can from under his kitchen sink. (As did bianca's)

The moral is this: mushrooms are a lot easier to grow than most people think. Provided their requirements of darkness, humidity and temperature are met, they take very little care and are great fun to grow - and even more fun to eat!

Growing mushrooms is a kind of "reverse gardening." Being fungi instead of plants, mushrooms have no chlorophyll. Thus they are grown in darkness, having no need for sunlight to synthesize their foods. Instead, they rely on the richness of the compost on which their dusty black spores sprout and grow. A mushroom farmer, such as bianca, wears a miner's lamp on her head, rather than a straw hat. :)

You can of course, buy prepared trays, complete with compost and planted spawn. Put in a cool, damp spot, and they will bear a fairly good crop. But that itsn't much fun, and the mushrooms you will grow will do nothing for your head.

You should instead get your hands on some yummy mental mushrooms from say Washington state (bianca has friends there see) and start your mushroom patch from scratch by following some simple guidelines.