Mark den Ouden

Mushrooms have played an important role in my life for more than forty years. It all started when I was a young boy back on my father’s farm. That’s when I noticed that mushroom growing is more than just repeating a trick. It’s different every time, and you have to combine instinct with expertise and experience. During the past decades of giving advice and training I have come across countless problems in practice relating to composting and cultivation. By sharing my own expertise, experience and instinctive feeling with the students or clients many problems have been solved along the way. But I never stop learning either.

My ‘mental database’ is filled with many nuggets of mushroom information which I am happy to share and spread. In this way, I try to help others take another step forward. It became clear that the time had come to put pen to paper and record that knowledge, so others have an understanding of the basic principles against which they can benchmark their own experience and intuitive feeling. Hopefully many readers will learn lots to their advantage, even if the only reaction is an ‘Oh, yes. Now I remember again’ moment!

But, it’s easier said than done, as I now know. A few years, and buckets of blood, sweat and tears later, I proudly present the result. The wonderful book in your hands. While writing the book, I had to face up to the difficulty of describing every aspect of mushroom growing in 150 pages, while keeping it easy to read! The result is not a comprehensive overview, but it does contain the most important elements to pay attention to. There are so many ways of making compost and growing mushrooms that writing an exhaustive reference work doesn’t really make much sense.

The book presents the basic principles, but as ever it’s the exception that proves the rule. And there are certainly plenty of exceptions.

I hope that readers - composters, growers, advisors or others involved in mushroom growing - can apply this knowledge in practice.

Enjoy reading the book and I hope you will discover some new tips or refresh some old skills.

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·      Mushroom Signals