Andrew Kay: In the dark

The advent of spring brings on an urge to grow

Stepping outside my front door the other day I was struck by the grim state of my plant pots. Last year I produced a fine display of sweet peas, hellebores and ferns, all of which seemed happy enough in the stairwell that leads to my semi-basement home.
Years of working with estate agents have taught me that I could refer to my home as all manner of things, lower ground floor being amongst them, but the truth is, it is semi-basement, as the property is on a hill.

This means that from one aspect I look out onto a pretty terraced garden and from the other a bright white wall. It serves me well as in a previous home the lovely and expansive gardens took up a huge amount of time, mowing, weeding, pruning, watering, sitting around with a G&T …
Now I have pots that are far less demanding and in a way as satisfying. Pots, that right now need some love. I planned to give them some of that love over the Easter break but the arrival of a nephew and his partner, and the pressure of Food Festival business put paid to that idea –well almost.
I love the Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival and the work I do for it and after a heavy night at our punk wine tasting event Make Your Case (there is another one in May), a wander around the Sussex food market in New Road was about as much as I could take.

There I happened upon Merryhill Mushrooms. I have in the past had mixed results trying to grow mushrooms at home. The first were in a huge box and I successfully managed to make my wardrobe, and all the clothes in it, smell musty and damp. There were no mushrooms either, sadly. The second I grew in a pack containing coffee grounds and were good but my lifestyle meant that I rather neglected them and the crop was depleted by my inattention.
Now I have two boxes of Merryhill spores that are already giving me a huge number of lovely fungi every day.
The chestnut mushroom box was cropping after only three days and is continuing to give me plenty on a daily basis.

The yellow oysters are blossoming well, like aliens right now, but not ready for cropping as yet. In a few days I will no doubt be cropping more mushrooms than a single man can sensibly consume on a daily basis. So it will be time to make dishes I can freeze, a passtime that I engage in on a regular basis as I seem to be incapable of cooking for one and always have left-overs.
Most importantly of course is the quality of the mushroom. So with my first crop I gave them the best test and made a simple mushrooms on toast. Well I say simple, but of course it was sour dough toast and careful cooking.

The first thing I noticed was that the mushrooms took a lot longer to cook. Going from earth to pan in less than a minute meant that they had not dehydrated at all so to achieve that golden brown outer crust took a little longer and a higher heat. I used a 50/50 split of rape seed oil and good butter to cook them in and seasoned with sea salt flakes and ground white pepper, yes white!
They were superb, meaty and plump, full of nutty flavour and with a great texture too. I am delighted and feel that at £12 for the two boxes they offer great value as well as fun.
www.merryhill-mushrooms.co.uk