What a joy this was...and still is!
We had so much fun with this. Thorough but simple enough instructions are provided in the box. My son (aged 5) read them with a little help and understood what we needed to do and this made a fun weekend project which just kept on providing interest for weeks. You just dunk the bag of cardboard / coffee / root mass into a bucket of water over night, cut crossed slits in the front bit visible through the panel in the box, then wait. Spray a little water on everyday and after about a week the mushrooms start to appear.
It was absolutely fascinating! Once the mushrooms started to grow they changed shape and size quite rapidly and it became a very exciting daily ritual for my 5 year old (with the 2 year old in tow) to rush in from school and see what had happened to the mushrooms today.
We even kept a photographic mushroom diary [on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter].
Within 3 weeks we had a lovely crop of oyster mushrooms and although this hasn’t convinced the kids that they like eating mushrooms, they had fun watching and learning about growing food. AND we had a delicious celebratory risotto – made even more delicious knowing we had grown the mushrooms ourselves!
This would be a perfect gift for the foodie in your life. Great value for the amount of interest and enjoyment you get out of growing the mushrooms. And you just let the bag rest for a few days, re-dunk in water and it all starts again! We’re currently on our 3rd very ample crop.