Turning used bedding into food?

[obboi34]

So I recently received one of those grow your own mushroom kits. They start you off with a brick of compressed wood fiber saturated with mushroom mycelium (the main body of a fungus). It's supposed to be able to grow one or two harvests of mushrooms. I've just grown my first crop and eaten it and am trying to grow a second. Since these mushrooms grow well on wood pulp, coffee grounds, grad school rejection letters, and straw it seems like a good idea to me to recycle my used aspen bedding into mushrooms food to feed myself.

Of course, I'll need to work with the aspen a little bit first. I'll have to remove as much snake scat as possible to minimize any zoonotic disease transmission. Then I plan to microwave the used bedding as needed to hopefully kill off any bacteria/life forms that may be in the bedding in the course of normal events. I don't imagine that salmonella would be able to survive a microwave, possible uptake into a fungal body, and cooking with heat.

Anyone have any thoughts that might help me out? Has anyone tried anything like this before? Usually I've composted my bedding in some way or brought it to my local woods to enrich the soil. I'll be sure to send pics once I get started in ~10 days after my post winter cleaning.

 

[vetusvates]

Seems to me, as long as the type of mushroom is consistently grown that that would be more important tan trace pathogenic organisms in the medium itself.
I am no expert on composting, but have known many non-experts who have done it for ages...with everything but the kitchen sink...and they started no worldwide epidemics.
As I googled (link), I found everything from cat litter (seems intuitively to me the most questionable) to rabbit litter to horse dung to cow dung...used for composting to grow red worms AND/OR mushrooms. Also chicken manure, chickens known to be sources of Shigella, Salmonella, and Campylobacter...I don't know if native to their gut flora or just prone to grow on processed poultry products.

I do validate and agree with your concerns that you do not want Shigella, Salmonella, or pathogenic E. coli or Staphylococcus on/in your mushroom crop.

I wish Dave P. were here to comment.

I wonder if freezing or adequate drying would remove the desired pathogens........similar to microwaving...

 

[diamondlil]

I'd be wary of microwaving shavings, as getting them hot enough, long enough to kill bacteria would perhaps be a fire risk. Even compost and dung heaps can catch fire as they break down. Freezing might be a better idea IMO

 

[kc261]

If you try microwaving, I would do it with damp shavings. For one, that should eliminate the risk of fire (as long as they are damp enough). Also, I don't fully understand how microwaves work, but from my limited understanding, I believe they tend to focus on water molecules. I'd also be rather worried about what it will smell like, because you won't be able to totally remove all waste material. Mmmm... steamy snake waste smells in my kitchen...not something I'd want to experiment with.

A general rule of composting I've heard is that manure from herbivores is ok, but feces from carnivores is not. I think it is because the compost doesn't necessarily get hot enough to be sure any pathogens are killed off, so your idea of microwaving it first is a good one. But I'm not sure how you'll know if you've done enough to kill off the pathogens. It also doesn't totally make sense anyway; it isn't like herbivores are always pathogen-free. But just relaying what I've heard.

I experimented with vermicomposting (worm composting) a few years back, and in my research I found a reference to a scientific study that showed vermicomposting was very good at removing pathogens as long as it was left with the worms long enough to be fully composted. I don't know if the vermicomposted material would be good for the mushrooms, though, or if the prefer something that is more compost and less composted.

Overall, I think it is a great idea, but I'd be too concerned with how to be sure you've killed off any potential pathogens to want to try it myself.

 

[sumguy]

thanks for the post. I am moving soon and want to start composting and gardening. I was worried about bacteria or parasites persisting in the compost then being added to a vegetable garden. I guess a second compost pile could be managed for ornamental plants without worrying about nasties.