Let's Grow Mushrooms!

In director/presenter Marc R. Keith's comprehensive two-disc Let's Grow Mushrooms, which is divided into 13 chapters, viewers learn how to grow edible fungi in a variety of mediums (including brown rice flour, rye grass seed, and other grains) using careful and sanitary preparation methods. Some of the tools featured here are a little esoteric (syringes, Petri dishes), but most are fashioned from common household materials (including a clear storage tub with two holes cut out for rubber-gloved hands to enter through). A little knowledge about the subject is helpful (as is having a brown thumb) since the initial terminology used in this program is a bit daunting (an introductory overview would have been helpful). But the onscreen instruction is detailed enough that even newbies will be able to follow the step-by-step directions on the first disc for growing mushrooms in the aforementioned bases (of brown rice flour, etc.), as well as manure and straw. More advanced mycology techniques are featured on the second disc, including isolating and cloning different strains. Highly recommended. Aud: P. (C. Block)