Random word #1: Unicorn Bags
One thing I love about mycology is there is always something like weird and mysterious in there, that just like…. What? Haha this was one of them. Also the word in the index that gave me the idea to do this, which has given me a direction to take this blog so I will be forever grateful for unicorn bags. Even though ITS NOT EVEN A WORD IT IS A PRODUCT. Which is fine, totally fine, im not upset.
This is a really good one to start on though, because its weird. And luckily by randomly choosing words I chose words that really describe what mycology is as a whole. Growing mushrooms is a huge part of what mycology is today because their tasty and useable so a lot of what mycology is is about these things listed below, a perfect way to start this blog and this discovery of the most random words I could find! So, what are they?
“These pre-modified, high temperature tolerant bags are industry standard for cultivating and fruiting mushrooms. Unicorn Bags is the biggest producer in North America, selling a wide variety of bag and filter size options.”
Peter McCoy, ‘Radical Mycology’
I was a little bummed to know it wasn’t an actual like vocab word, but a product… also this is NOT A SPONSORED AD BY UNICORN BAGS (but if they find this and want to sponsor me I’ll totally take it!)
To dive in to what you would use a unicorn bag for I had to back up a little bit. More like 15 pages because there is SO MUCH INFO IN THIS AWEOME BOOK! This could be an ad for this book but I’m going to try to interpret the information as best as possible to help me and you learn!
This falls under chapter 8; working with fungi and is mostly about growing/cultivating fungi. Why would someone do that? Peter McCoy puts it beautifully when he refers to fungiculture (insert that sly faced emoji because that’s a cool word to say, try it) as “a life enhancing skill that can be practiced under a range of conditions, budgets, and climates to create food, medicine, soil, building materials, and new perspectives on how to live one’s life.”
Quick side note- one of my favorite things that I’ve found and experienced about loving mushrooms is just a complete adoration for the organism. All my mushroom forums and groups and videos I watch and information I find is soaked in a tone of just absolute infatuation with this beautiful “creature.” Its so precious! Hopefully I enthuse the same tone to all of you!
ANYWAY- growing fungi. Something I myself have experience with is one of the coolest things. You start with spores (mine came in a syringe!) and you inoculate an agar/ nutrients of some sort so the mycelium has something to eat and survive off of. If you’re already lost by mycelium- check out my post about the basics of fungi! A new idea for a post I just though of- again winging it and figuring out as I go! so once you inoculate the agar, this network of mycelium grows and takes over! I inoculated jars with agar in it and in 3-4 weeks (patience is a virtue) the whole jar was white with fuzz! Something similar looking to mold! Cool right! JSo you inoculate, grow the mycelium network, then transfer to an area for the mycelium to fruit- or in other words a place for the mushrooms to grow! This is the fruiting phase- and its super important during this whole process to keep the area as sterile as possible. Since were talking about microorganisms, the agar encourages fungi to grow, but also anything else that gets in there… So these unicorn bags or polypropylene (PP) filter patch bags (or according to the book, space bags- who woulda known) are definitely an option although upon further reading it says “Where possible, it is encouraged to use jars and other reusable containers for cultivating spawn and fruiting mushrooms.” (which is what I used! WOO!)
so. There ya have it, unicorn bags people, not a vocabulary word, but a product, and apparently not even that good of one. Still thank you for reading along- I hope this sparked some interest in the mushroom cultivation process and gave me some inspiration for articles to write! Be looking forward to learning more about mushrooms and mycology basics and the cultivation process!
Thanks for reading along! Prepare yourselves for this journey, you’re about to learn a lot of mushroom knowledge you didn’t even know existed *I don’t know how to do emojis- so imagine a sunglasses emoji here. * comment below if youre interested in mushroom cultivation or going to go buy yourself a unicorn bag just because of the name!!! 