On 7th march 2013, seven volunteers of Green Sun Association visited a local mushroom grower: Szőcs Csongor. This offered the opportunity for us to ask him some questions about his activity and discover the technology to do it. Photos taken at the event can be viewed on the facebook page of the association.

Szőcs Csongor cultivates in his garden the Ciuperci Pleurotus since he finished his studies. He is the only one in Kezdivàsàrely to do that and there are only four in Covasna County. He uses two different methods to cultivate these funguses: -The first one is in wood. He makes some holes in Trees trunks, and put wheat and mycelium on it (the mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus). He can harvest with this method in autumn and spring, like in the nature, for five years. -The second one is in bags. He begins to make compost with straw, cut in little parts, and warm with water. That accelerates the process of degradation. After that he can mix the mycelium with the compost, put in a bag and makes some holes on it. These ones allow the mushroom to grow up out of the bag. He must wait one month to see the first mushrooms appear. A bag is good for only three months. This method enables to have fungus all long the year. Szőcs Csongor explained us that there are four important thinks for a mushroom: First is the temperature witch must be between 10 and 20 degrees. The humidity, the best is 80%. The Cellulose (main component of the plant cells) in the substrate. And at last, light. If all of these conditions are satisfied, it can grow in four or five days. For the moment, the sale is make at his address: Kézdivásárhely, Molnár Józsiás street. You can find him also in front of some factories or on the local product’s market, the first Saturday of each month. You can cook his mushrooms in a pan with eggs or on a grill, it’s delicious!!

Author: Elaine Ivassenko Photo: Ieva Brikmane