Growing & Cooking Oyster Mushrooms with Prêt à Pousser

I like the idea of growing our own food but most of the time, the reality is that it just doesn’t happen. I’m a bit of a fair-weather gardener so for me, it just isn’t that fun to be out there in all conditions, pulling potatoes and carrots.

If you follow the blog regularly, you’ll know that we grow strawberries each summer. These are fairly low maintenance and I can just about manage to keep them alive. We have a few herbs in the garden too but that is it.

I was introduced to Prêt à Pousser a few weeks ago. They are a Paris based start-up, which develops and sells food that people can grow at home. I really like the idea of it as you can see how things grow and then cook them. This is especially great for the children.

What I liked:

• The kids enjoyed seeing the mushrooms grow each day and spraying the water on them. I quite enjoyed it too!
• They are low maintenance, don’t need a garden or lots of light.
• The mushrooms are organic.
• It takes 10 days to get the finished product – kids can get impatient so they were happy to see them growing quickly.
• If you share a picture of your grown mushrooms with the brand on Facebook, they will donate a box to a school of your choice.

What I wasn’t as keen on:

• Only issue I had was the price. For the grey oyster mushrooms like we tried, it is £14.90. Pink and yellow oyster mushroom kits are £19.90. You get around 400g mushrooms, which is great, but even for organic mushrooms, they are cheaper to buy elsewhere. You can refill packs for £7.45 for approx. 400g mushrooms, so the initial price is just once, but it is still a little more than I would normally pay (comparing to oyster mushrooms at my usual supermarket are £3.60 per 300g).

Overall, I really like the idea behind this. I think growing your own food is great and for my kids to see this and learn about it is fab. I think they are worth buying if this is something that you are into, as the reward of seeing them grow is great.  Personally though, I think they are overpriced for the amount that you get. If I was to do this again, I would look for a cheaper alternative. I like that they will give a box to a school of your choice to grow some, making each box around £7.45. That is better but still expensive.

If you are growing your own mushrooms, or just want a scrummy mushroom soup recipe to try, then this one below is a great. It is quick and needs very few ingredients. Let me know if you give it a try.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:6]

What do you think about the mushroom growing kit? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Rebecca x

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*the mushroom set was gifted. All thoughts are my own.

Linking up to Tried & Tested and Tasty Tuesday.