The Caley Brothers present ‘Project Mushroom’, a curious display of edible and medicinal mushrooms sitting upon home-grown mycelium plinths, that can be seen nestled amongst a wildflower meadow.

With a variety of projects from our new debut book ‘Project Mushroom’ at the heart of our display, we want to inspire visitors to get growing their own delicious mushrooms through a series of easy to grow projects. Regardless of space, budget or season - we have a mushroom project to suit.

You can read about each mushroom and project as we have listed them below, even how we made our own mycelium columns.

Showcasing the very best of indoor mushroom growing with a variety of gourmet mushrooms on display. Each mushroom has been hand grown, as a demonstration of a project that can all be found detailed within our book ‘Project Mushroom’.

Contrary to belief, not all mushrooms are grown in the dark, all our mushrooms on display have been grown in natural night, in our kitchens, living rooms, sheds and gardens.

Showing that you too can get growing - read more bout each project below.

Download our Press Pack HERE.

MUSHROOMS AND PROJECTS ON DISPLAY

Pink Oyster Mushrooms

Grown on Oak sawdust and soy hulls

Pink Oyster Mushrooms are stunning to grow and resemble hearty rose petals, but don’t let that deceive you, this mushroom packs an umami punch whilst still having a delightful delicate texture. 

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Pink Oysters typically like the warmer weather and once they start growing, they develop quickly and in a short space of time are ready to harvest.

They can be grown at home, in your kitchen through out the year from ‘ready to grow kits’, or as part of a home grown project from our book Project Mushroom.

Yellow Oyster Mushrooms

Grown on Oak sawdust and soy hulls

Also known as the golden oyster mushroom, these bright mushrooms grow in dense clusters and have tubular shaped caps.

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Yellow Oyster mushrooms are a summer fruiting mushroom that love the warmer weather. However, once harvested they don’t like to travel, so by growing these delicious and delicate mushrooms yourself allows you to sample their unique flavour – which is great for any mushroom lover.

Easy to grow in just 3 weeks from our ‘ready to grow’ kits or can be grown as part of a home growing project from our book - Project Mushroom.

Grey Oyster Mushrooms

Grown on coffee & straw, books or jeans

Grey Oyster mushrooms are a hardy and versatile mushroom that can be grown indoors and outdoors all year round.

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Here we’re displaying them growing on a variety of readily available substrates such as coffee grounds and straw, books and soyhulls.

Grey Oyster mushrooms have a classic mushroom flavour, they can be eaten raw or cooked and are brilliantly versatile in all areas of cooking.  

Their subtle flavour means they are delicious if eaten on their own, but this also allows them to take on stronger flavours.

Tarragon Oyster mushrooms  

Oak sawdust and soy hulls.

Tarragon Oyster Mushroom is a rare oyster mushroom which is thought to be only found in the British Isles.

It has a distinctive and delicate trumpet shaped cap – as it's name suggests – it's smell 

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and taste resembles the herb tarragon making it probably the finest tasting oyster mushroom there is.

Grow you own with our ‘ready to grow’ kit for a harvest of delicious and unique mushrooms. Your first crop will be modest but guaranteed delicious.

Found and cloned from the wild by Adrian Ogden of Gourmet Woodland Mushrooms.

Reishi

Grown on Oak sawdust and soy hulls in ceramics and Dr Marten Boots.

Reishi has shiny, deep red and brown coloured caps and bright white tips. Our Reishi on display has been growing since Christmas. We've adjusted their environment to allow them to be grown in these delicate and sculptural forms known as Reishi antlers. They're a stunning and fascinating project.  

Reishi substrate by Marvellous Mushrooms

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Reshi loves the warmth and thrive in a sunny room or greenhouse. The can be grown from a ‘ready to grow’ kit bought from a reputable supplier such a Marvellous Mushrooms.

When grown they’ve a tough and woody texture, but they can be dried and turned into powders and used in cooking or made into tinctures.

Straw Bale Project

Grey Oysters growing on straw in cages

This is a really simple project, detailed in our book ‘Project Mushroom’ is a great way of growing a steady supply of fresh oysters mushrooms on a simple straw mix. You can create your own ‘cage’ with chicken wire, an old laundry basket or metal cage like we have here.

Cordyceps

Grown on brown rice

Cordyceps are traditionally a parasitic fungus that feeds off and inhabit a variety of insect bodies.  However, Cordyceps are also commercially cultivated here we have them growing on brown rice, making them more vegan friendly.

Cordyceps grow by Kaizen Cordyceps

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These mushrooms have been grown in a sterile environment with filtered air patches. They like cool, stable and light environment and can take 3 months from start to harvest

Used in traditional Chinese herbalism, steeped in tea and now commonly made into powders, Cordyceps have a mild mushroom flavour and can be used fresh or dried.

Lion’s Mane

Grown on hardwood sawdust and bran.

This mushroom has a stunning pale, mane-like appearance.  Packed with protein and vitamins Lion’s mane is classed as a medicinal mushrooms and can be grown from a fresh, ready to grow kit over the course of 6-8 weeks.

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Here in the U.K. it is rare to see it growing in the wild it is a protected species and illegal to forage. Luckily for us, it is an easy mushroom to cultivate and will happily grow indoors on a hardwood sawdust substrate or outdoors on inoculated hardwood logs using the dowel method. 

Lion’s Mane has a delicate aroma that intensifies when griddled or dried; it can be sliced or shredded and is packed with protein.

Button Mushroom Project

Grown on coir and peat free compost & manure

Your classic button mushroom but grown peat free. The common, white, closed caped and button mushrooms are essentially all the same, just harvested at different stages of growth.  In this project we get you growing your own crop in your shed or dark space.

Compost donated by Melcourt, manure collected by hand.

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Button mushrooms don’t require any light and can be grown in boxes at home any time of the year.

A versatile mushroom with a classic but mild mushroom flavour that can be cooked to accompany most meals, or simply sautéed and served on toast.   

Mycelium Seed Pot Project

Grey Oyster Mycelium & Sawdust.

Mycelium is the root system of the mushroom and in this project we’ve used it to form and bind together a substrate mix that’s created these stunning pots to support our freshly sewn seedlings. When finished with they will compost down and go on to nourish your soil, 

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disintegrating into food for your worms, while nurturing your growing plants.

At Caley Brothers HQ, we like to show you how easy it is to make stunning products from mushroom mycelium. A process used by many mushroom packaging companies.

As part of our Seed Pot Grow Kit, we send out the freshest grain spawn – this will need to be kept refrigerated until you’re ready to make your kit.

Growing on a Book Project

Yellow Oyster Mycelium & Book.

Oyster mushrooms are the world’s great recyclers, and this project is a wonderful way to learn more about how mycelium travels through and inhabits something as simple as a book. Its a fascinating project accessible to all.

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Our Book Grow Kit comes with everything you need to get growing; you just need to decide which book.  

This fascinating growing technique was pioneered by Adrian Ogden of Gourmet Woodland Mushrooms in 2004.

Growing in a Vase Project

Pink, Yellow or Grey Oyster Mycelium, Sawdust & a Vase of your choice.

Displaying the ornamental beauty of mushrooms. At Caley Brothers HQ, we like to show you how easy it is to get going stunning mushrooms amongst your own plants and ornaments. 

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Our Vase project kits are an easy and fascinating project allowing you to utilise your own container to grow and display a variety of delicious mushrooms.

Wild Flower Meadow Turf

Supplied by Pictorial Meadows, grown by Clare Hester.

Our stunning Wild Flower Meadow surrounding our home grown columns and mushroom display were donated by Pictorial Meadows and grown by the talented Clare Hester @clarehester

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Wildflower combinations were designed by Nigel Dunnett in collaboration with PMT to ensure ‘succession’ of plants each year in each collection.

The wildflowers are grown on a specially designed mesh that holds the turf together for transport, but it’s more than that. It has been designed with slow release nutrients and with materials that will biodegrade at the end of its life so there’s no plastic left in the soil like you sometimes get with weed suppressing fabrics.

Project Mushroom

Our debut book - Project Mushroom - A modern guide to growing fungi.

With over 30 simple projects that will inspire you to grow mushrooms at home - some of which you will find on our display and within the UBS Monument Garden by Rosie Hardy and Emma Tipping. 

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We cover the basic growing techniques but you’ll also discover how to ‘garden’ with mushrooms; experiment with unique and beautiful mushroom displays; and prepare a variety of home grown, shop bought or foraged mushrooms for crafting or for the pantry.

Mycelium Columns

Grey Oyster mycelium and a variety of substrate mixes.

We have been making and growing our own columns for display this year to demonstrate the power of mycelium - a fast growing network of hype, similar to the root system of a plant. 

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It’s described as the egg in the cake mixture and is vital in any healthy, biodiverse soil. It binds the materials together, going quickly to create these stunning, and versatile structures.

Home made using reclaimed materials from our new grow room, we created simple moulds and filled them with a variety of substrate mediums such as sawdust, recycled card and straw. With a health mix of grey oyster spawn, it would take just a week to colonise.

We then removed the mould and left them to finish growing, naturally drying gout in the process. But not before a flush or two of delicious oyster mushrooms that have fed both our families over the curse of the past few months.

After the show they will be stored for future use, but when finished with they can be composted or crumbled up and mixed into the ground to decompose naturally - adding more nutrican and goodness to the soil.

You can lean more about this technique from our new book Project Mushrooms.