Hey all, Since May, I've been MIA from Badwater Mushroom Group – no managing, no new posts. I'm a wildland firefighter in the summer. That means two weeks of fighting fire, then a quick three-day breather at home to crash and hang with family. Rinse and repeat for five months. Come fall, I'm spit back into the real world with a whole winter to dive into my personal stuff. BMG has grown since I started it earlier this year, and I want to thank everyone who's contributed to the community—whether through likes, comments, or other means! In the coming month, I plan to reach out to those who want to be more active in our group. I'm pumped to show folks how to grow mushrooms and help others who want to spread the knowledge too. It's super cool that we're in a time where anyone can grow mushrooms right at home. This awesome food, medicine, and supplement isn't just for big farms and industries anymore. If growing your own mushrooms is a way to stick it to the man, I'm totally here to support that! So here’s an update on my re-entry to mushroom cultivation: I purchased an updated version of the North Spore BoomRoom martha tent to improve my current tent setup. The BoomRoom II’s humidifier capacity is 2 or 3 times larger than the last one, and it’s set up on the outside. For years now, I’ve had to refill the humidifier each day; if I forgot one night, it would be dry the time I wake up. Bumping up the capacity to 4.4 gallons seems like a game-changer. The old humidifier also took over two shelf spaces that could have been used by a few more bags of Lion’s Mane. This at least a 20% increase in capacity for the whole tent. Lastly, the exhaust fan used to awkwardly take over the top shelf, connecting to a 4-inch tube that stretched to the floor, which constantly pulls at the plastic it’s attached to. After multiple reinstallations, the plastic tent tore at the exhaust fan's entry point, further compromising the tent’s seal. While I appreciated the first BoomRoom's convenience in assembling a martha tent with the right tools, its design felt clunky. The shelving didn't seem made to accommodate the humidifier and exhaust fan effectively.

My new guide, "How To Extract Lion's Mane (The Easy Way)", will be out soon! Whether you've grown your Lion's Mane or grabbed it from the store, this guide has all the simple steps to making it a medicinal supplement. This guide is my way of fighting back against confusing mushroom info. No more cryptic acronyms or vague instructions! My goal is to turn anyone, even a total mushroom newbie, into an growing and extraction pro. This means following simple, easy-to-follow instructions while also understanding the fundamentals of why without creating a new language. I'm still trying to figure out the best format for this guide, which is just text (awaiting photos) so far. Have you tried mind maps or slideshows for guides before? What worked for you? Your feedback will help me make this the best, most user-friendly resource out there on hot water extraction. Let's keep turning mushroom newbies into mushroom experts!

From March 22nd to May 3rd, I gave myself a challenge to start growing Lion's Mane mushrooms from scratch, and to end up with fruiting bodies by the end of the 6 weeks. I'm glad to say it was a success, though with a few hiccups throughout the period. On March 22nd, I sterilized 3 grain jars and the next day injected them with 2.5ml of Lion's Mane culture. By April 4th, the grain jars were colonized and ready to be mixed into substrate, so I prepared and sterilized grow blocks. By this time, however, I started to get sick, and didn't want to touch the process until I felt better, so by April 9th, I mixed the grain jars into the grow blocks. Over 2 weeks, the grow blocks were colonized, and by April 23rd, I cut open the grow blocks and set them into fruiting conditions in a humidity tent. By May 1st, the Lion's Mane fruiting bodies began to emerge from the bag! And by May 3rd, the end of the challenge, they were only one day from harvesting. Today, May 4th, I am going to harvest them and extract them to make more Lion's Mane Capsouls. This is a great success, and probably the fastest I've ever grown Lion's Mane from scratch! I think that I can optimize times even better and get it down to 5 weeks, especially since I got delayed a few times while being sick. I'll be coming out with a few videos and photos that tracked the process. But for now it's easiest just to write about the timeline. I'm happy that my estimates were semi-accurate, which you can see attached as images.

I'm finally starting to get to the Classroom, where you can find step-by-step instructions on how to grow Lion's Mane, Oysters, or any other gourmet/functional mushroom that you want. The production quality is low, but I wanted to start getting videos uploaded on each step of the Lion's Mane growing process. You'll also find in the module step-by-step instructions and a list of what you need to successfully complete the process. Once I have more time, I'll be able to have a more detailed video on how to create Grow Blocks But for now, "Step 7: Preparing Grow Blocks" is fully built out, but let me know what I can add to it to help you better prepare Grow Blocks!

If you want to support the BMG community, please use this North Spore affiliate link while purchasing your gourmet liquid cultures, lab supplies, substrates and more! We get a small kickback with your purchases, which helps support the costs of hosting this Skool community. 🙏 If you're new to North Spore and want a little extra incentive to purchase, use this link to get $20 off your first order when you spend over $40! We use North Spore for liquid cultures all the time, as they have some of the best quality assurance I've seen for syringes, with over a 95% success rate when going straight from syringe to grain jar. We love supporting North Spore, and appreciate that they provided an affiliate status for us! 💗