And yet, if you part the herbs growing wild on the forest floor, you might be lucky enough to find mushrooms ready for picking. While you’re explaining how it’s all impossible, wild things are growing in the woods all by themselves!
Read the article you linked a bit closer. You will find the agar is only a very small percentage of the weight of the medium which also contains dry malt extract and other substances depending on the method (aka example). The agar is added to the medium mix. It is not itself the growth or inoculation media. It is simply the nutrient portion of the media.
[quote=“oncebce, post:20, topic:52942”]
What’s wrong with insect protein?[/quote]
Nothing, but to Western ears it still reeks of desperation and lowered standards. And because of that bug meat will likely first get used for cheap, shabby foods aimed at folks who don’t read labels.
I think bugmeat could go a long way to feeding the world, not only directly but by using it to feed fish and chicken and other more-familiar-to-us livestock.
And heck, why not use it for dog and cat food?
From the patent:
On an agar medium containing 1.5% by weight of agar, a concentration of 0.2 to 0.7% by weight of dry substance of malt extract is the optimum for the formation of fruit bodies
That’s a normal malt extract agar preparation for growing fungi- the unmentioned 98% is water. The agar is just a support matrix, with the malt extract providing nutrients (at a low concentration in this case, to encourage fruiting instead of mycelial growth). Agar only ever needs to be a very small percentage in microbial media, as it’s such an effective gelling agent.
Microbial culture media never contain just agar- they always have added nutrients targeted towards the organism groups they’re intended to feed.
P. cubensis will also fruit on malt extract agar plates- I have seen this for myself (back when it was still legal here) though they were nowhere near as pretty as Heim’s P. mexicana.
But are they growing at the same rate, on the same edible and tasty substrate, during the same season (or at the same temperature and light exposure), and in close enough proximity that I can take a bite and get all of this in my mouth at once? And nothing else?
And if try to make this all happen on a piece of pastry will that pastry magically not grow anything I don’t want to or can’t eat? I’ll put it this way: It’d be easy enough to assemble this without the 3d printer to try it out.
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Which is what I was saying in the first place…
Not!..
“The mycochitin composition of mushroom cell walls, as opposed to cellulose walls of plant cells, is difficult for humans to digest. Our stomachs resent indigestible items, and often forcibly reject them without further ado. The cooking process helps break down fungal cell walls, rendering mushroom flesh not only more readily digestible, but also releasing significant nutritional value contained within the cells.”
http://www.mykoweb.com/articles/EatingRawMushrooms.html
Generally I also ask myself: what is more tasty? Raw or cooked? My tastebuds say cooked. I guess its sort of an opinion, which I am fine with.
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“The mycochitin composition of mushroom cell walls, as opposed to cellulose walls of plant cells, is difficult for humans to digest. Our stomachs resent indigestible items, and often forcibly reject them without further ado. The cooking process helps break down fungal cell walls, rendering mushroom flesh not only more readily digestible, but also releasing significant nutritional value contained within the cells.”
http://www.mykoweb.com/articles/EatingRawMushrooms.html
Hey, please show some respect! If you have a question, ask nicely. I am happy to learn and to share, and it makes me want to engage more if I feel like people respond respectfully, even when they are initially baffled.
As I responded to someone else below, I tend to ask myself: what is more tasty? Raw or cooked? My tastebuds say cooked. I guess its sort of an opinion, which I am fine with. myself
Cheers 
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“There’s not a mysterious “natural defense” that all immature plants have to prevent animals from eating them” - Ryuthrowsstuff
Yes, yes there is:
“Some seeds have evolved strong anti-herbivore chemical compounds. In contrast to physical defenses, chemical defenses in seeds to deter consumption by seed predators by using chemicals that are toxic to granivores or inhibit the digestibility of the seed. These chemicals include non-protein amino acids, cyanogenic-glycosides, protease and amylase inhibitors, phytohaemaglutinins” - Wikipedia for Seed Predation
If you think about it, there has got to be some sort of safety mechanism that helps the plant grow to some level of maturity before it is possibly eaten.
Take a look at the ‘Plant defense against herbivory’ on wikipedia:
I tend to think it makes perfect sense that sprouting plants have much higher levels of herbivore-repelling chemicals so that they can get a foot in the door!
What do you think?
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