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https://uproxx.com/life/diy-magic-mushrooms-uncle-ben/
There's a subreddit for just about everything, but if you're a legit Uncle Ben's fan who is also a serious Redditor (that's a lonely island), you might be disappointed to find that the subreddit r/UncleBens isn't so much a gathering of hardcore pre-cooked rice fans, as it is an online sub-community of DIY psilocybin cultivators who are using Uncle Ben's and other supermarket staples to grow magic mushrooms.
[...] What makes Uncle Bens the perfect vessel for psilocybin, according to the r/UncleBens crew, is that mushroom cultivation "requires a sterile, nutrient-rich environment in which their spores can grow," and since Uncle Ben's rice is pre-cooked, sterilized and vacuum-sealed, it provides the necessary environment for cultivation.
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Sunday July 05 2020, @08:45PM
I would buy at least one or two of those ready-to-go grow kits first, just to see if you enjoy it and get an idea for how much you will need to spend creating an environment for them in your area. A proper environment is required to get good yields.
Culinary mushrooms (I've only ever grown shiitake) will grow on a pretty wide variety of substrates. People tend to pick what's available cheaply in their area and then adjust the nutrient profile/water retention/PH etc with things like lime and perlite from a supermarket or garden store. For you it might be sawdust, brown rice, barley, coffee grounds, kitchen scraps etc. Stumps and logs can be a good option if you have the space. You can buy spawn or cultures online from companies that sell grow kits.
I would suggest getting as much as possible done in a system of wide-mouth mason jars is a pretty hassle-free way to go about it. They're available, cheap, re-usable and useful in many other ways. You can use the S/S mesh lids for mushroom growing, sprouting and making vinegar. If you use the vacuum adapter with a canning lid you can make lacto-pickles, suck the air out to prevent mold and then have it transform itself into a self-burping lid as it begins to create CO2. Ball has the largest ecosystem of accessories.
I've seen the mushroom luminary Paul Stamets say in TED talk that he eventually learned it's better to brine the substrate rather than sterilize it because you end up with a controlled culture of beneficial microorganisms which is more healthy for the mushrooms but the cultivation community doesn't seem to have embraced this. Knowledge I have from my fermentation hobby and studying food science suggests to me that Stamets is probably right however I haven't tried this yet or read any of his books.
Good luck!