Country Life: The Kiwis growing fungi from fairytales

An evening wander through the Richmond Community Garden's Fungi Farm might send chills down your spine - if you don't know what you're looking at.

Tattered books wrapped in flax can be found tied around tree branches, or hidden in the ground cover.

It's not some mysterious ritual, but what will happen to these books over time is magic all the same.

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If the weather plays ball, and the books stay warm and moist enough, edible mushrooms will begin to protrude from their pages.

Country Life joined the garden's last Fungi Whānau workshop of the year, held on the aptly named Fungi Farm.

The workshops, run by Inga Robinson of the Foraging and Growing Corner, share facts about native fungi, and how some of them can be grown to eat - like native phoenix oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus pulmonarius).

"Mushrooms are just the babies [of fungi]," she said.

"It's like fruit. It's like an apple from an apple tree."

Growing mushrooms starts with a seed, literally. A bag of grain spawn - barley or similar seeds that have been inoculated with mycelium (the root-like structure of the original fungus) - get sprinkled into the growing medium of choice.

The fungi grows out of its host seed, in the book, and eventually grows those tasty mushroom morsels.

It has to be something porous, that retains moisture, and stays relatively warm. Egg cartons and straw bales are commonly used, but Robinson has opted for something less conventional: books.

"It's an experiment from Melrin Sheldrake's book; It's called Entangled Life.

"He fed his own book to oyster mushrooms. And I thought it was hilarious to repeat it in the garden."

Attendees used old books donated from the Shirley library, soaked them in water, and scattered grain spawn through their pages.

The mushrooms will be ready to pick in three to six months' time, depending on the weather.

Richmond Community Garden director Morgane Honoré said it felt a "bit criminal" to treat books that way but the activity made use of books that would otherwise end up in the bin.

"They're old books, nobody reads them anymore. So, we're giving them a new life."

Giving life to empty spaces is the garden's purpose. Twelve years ago, volunteers came together to reestablish a vegetable garden which had been destroyed in the earthquakes.

"A lot of the land that we're standing on was red-zoned. Our board of trustees who are still the same people to this day, 12 years later, advocated for this piece of land to be used by the community."

The project has reclaimed three acres of red zone land, using it to grow herbs, host beehives, and teach people about gardening in their own backyards with workshops.