If you love coffee then you probably don’t think twice about throwing away the grounds – but they could be put to good use instead. Growing mushrooms on spent coffee grounds is a highly productive synergy that’s available for home and commercial growers alike. Mushroom coffee sprouts are a great substrate for mushroom cultivation because it already contains lots of nutrient-rich waste materials (like sugar, fats, proteins, lignin, and nitrogen) that Oyster Mushrooms crave. Moreover, the substrate is pasteurized during the coffee-brewing process, so it doesn’t require sterilization like other growing materials.

Mushroom Coffee at Sprouts: A Shopper’s Guide

Mix the ground coffee with straw and a few percent of spawn. It’s important to weigh your materials and clean all the utensils you’ll be using before starting to avoid unwanted bacteria getting into the mix. Place the bag/container in a dark and warm place to wait for the mycelium to take over the mixture and turn it white. Keep an eye on the mixture over the next two to three weeks – it should all be white, but don’t worry if there are some patches of green — this is competitor mold and will not allow the mycelium to fully colonize the bag/container.