Read: How to grow tabletop mushrooms, via a recipe from Ikea’s Space10 lab

The recipe sits in the book Future Food Today, which was compiled to challenge notions around food, and demonstrate how we can eat sustainably right now.

What does the future of food look like? In a world threatened by frequent droughts, floods, crop failure, loss of biodiversity, and lack of food security, what should we eat? And more importantly, how should we eat? These are questions that simmered in chef Simon Perez’s mind as he experimented at Copenhagen-based design, research and innovation company Space10’s food lab.

The result is Future Food Today, a “future-proof” cookbook developed with Perez, and creative studio Barkas in 2019.

The book

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Materials

Microporous tape (A). Find this at your local pharmacy.

Airtight lid (B). We use a metal, screw-on lid — it’s easier to drill through than glass.

A big glass jar (C).

Spent coffee grounds. Make sure you let the coffee grounds cool down, otherwise the heat will kill the mycelium when you mix the two together.

Mycelium. Mycelium is the vegetative structure of fungi. It typically grows in a web-like pattern in soil or other organic matter (like a bowl of food you forgot at the back of your fridge). To find this, get in touch with local mushroom farmers or make your own. We suggest doing a little online research beforehand if you decide to go DIY.

(Future Food Today, Space10)

Instructions

Step 1: When growing mushrooms, sanitation is key. So before you begin, thoroughly wash your hands with soap and hand sanitiser.

Step 2: Drill two holes in the lid (B), about 20 mm in diameter each (as shown above). To avoid messy edges on a metal lid, sandwich the metal between two pieces of scrap wood, clamp the whole thing to a work table, then drill through the wood and metal in one go. Search for more detail online if you’re uncertain.

Step 3: Next, sterilise the lid and jar (C) by submerging them in boiling water for about one minute. Dry, then cover the two holes in the lid with microporous tape (A) to make sure bacteria can’t get in.

Step 4: Mix the mycelium and your freshly brewed coffee grounds in the jar, cover, and store in a dark place. Keep the temperature at 20–25°C for 2–3 days, until the grounds are completely covered with white mycelium. Then add 1–2 cm of freshly brewed coffee grounds and wait for the mycelium to cover it up once again. Proceed until the jar is filled with coffee grounds.

Step 5: When the last coffee grounds have turned white, place the jar in a humid and light place at about 15–20°C. Avoid direct sunlight. After 10–14 days, the oyster mushrooms will pop up from the holes of the lid, forcing away the microporous tape. If the tape doesn’t come off on its own, give the mushrooms a little help.

Step 6: Harvest when there’s a cluster of oyster mushrooms and the heads appear horizontal. After the second or third harvest, the jar won’t produce any more mushrooms. Remove 80 percent of the substrate, put on new microporous tape and add fresh coffee grounds to the jar. Now you’re ready for a second round.