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Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets has been the perpetual best-seller on popular mycology since published in 2005. It’s an indispensible reference book for anybody working the land, especially foresters, farmers and environmental cleanup contractors. It’s also a great book for anyone interested in growing their own food mushrooms.

Mycelium Running is filled to the brim with useful tips on things such as using mushrooms to improve soils and boost productivity in forestry and farming (gardening) with decreased use of expensive fertilizers and pesticides; filtering waste-water (mycofiltration); and clean up toxic waste from the land (mycoremediation).

As an example, a method for building a mycofiltration bed to filter waste water is described in exacting detail. Dimensions, depth, layers and recommended materials and mushrooms are listed. This mycofiltration is useful, among other things, for filtering manure enriched farm runoff.

An added benefit of using mycofiltration beds on farms include the production of delicious food mushrooms, which sprout out of these beds. And every 2-3 years, the material in the bed can be dug out and used as a rich fertilizer on the fields of the farm.

Another piece of useful information for farmers and gardeners found in Mycelium Running concerns the no-till farming method as opposed to the conventional method of plowing the fields after harvest. No-till farming helps promote saprophytic fungi (decomposing fungi), which break down organic material at a pace better suited to plant-life than the rapid and heat producing breakdown by anaerobic bacteria, which are the primary decomposers when stubble is plowed under. The mycelium of saprophytic fungi also binds the soil to prevent erosion and loss of valuable nutrients.

For forestry, not only do saprophytic fungi help break down and recycle organic matter. They also help combat many parasitic fungi (blights) that may kill large numbers of trees. Stamets gives useful suggestions on how to seed beneficial saprophytic fungi in blight infested forests as a natural “fungicide,” fighting fire with fire, so to speak.

The symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi can also be seeded in forests to promote healthy trees. Or they can be protected and naturally promoted through wise and informed forest management.

Most plants form symbiotic relationships with mushrooms. The mushroom mycelium more effectively absorbs water and nutrients, exchanged with trees for sugars, making the trees healthier and more drought resistant. Mycorrhizal fungi also provide trees with natural antibiotics against pathogens.

Mushroom mycelium can also be utilized to clean up toxic waste sites through a method known as mycoremediation. The term was invented by the author of Mycelium Running, Paul Stamets, but was in common use before the publication of this book.

Synthetic toxic compounds including petrochemicals, dioxins, neurotoxins, toxic industrial waste and much more can be effectively broken down by fungi into harmless compounds. Bacterial contaminants such E. coli can be killed by anti-bacterial compounds excreted by the fungi. And toxic levels of heavy metals may be absorbed and concentrated by mushrooms, which can then be harvested and safely deposed.

Mycoremediation has also been shown to be the most economical method of cleaning up toxic waste sites, up to 95% cheaper than some common conventional methods.

This plethora of information is merely the first half of this 300-page tome. Part III, which makes up the second half of the book, is an instruction manual on how to cultivate your own mushroom mycelium, which can be used for the above listed purposes, or to grow your own medicinal or culinary mushrooms. And seriously, who doesn’t love gourmet mushrooms? In other words, this is a reference book for every household.

Dr. Markho Rafael has worked in natural health since finishing Chiropractic College in’96. He currently specializes in medicinal mushrooms, frequently consulting two reference books: Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets for medicinal, biological and chemical properties of mushrooms, and Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora as the most complete identification guide of American mushrooms.

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Compost Bin is generally a large vessel especially designed as a storage receptacle for biodegradable matters. Biodegradable matters refer to materials which have the characteristics for decomposition like food, leaves, papers, barks and other organic matters. This type of receptacle is an excellent substitute for the traditional compost pit. It can transform biodegradable matters and waste materials into organic plant food.

Compost Bin can produce compost which is another type of organic fertilizer which is very much needed by the plants and soil. The by-product produced out of this bin is an excellent plant food. The primary dietary needs of living beings are supplied by the products of the soil. The produce of the soil are basically the plants which come in peculiar shapes and different sizes according to their species.

The quality of these edible products depends on the type of soil where they are grown. Plants that grow may or may not bear fruits yet they still offer edible produce. The yields or crops that they grow can be under the soil such as the root crops, or may be grown above the ground with leaves and flowers which are edible.

This is the reason why it is indeed important to feed the soil with fertilizers to supplement and aid it to be always healthy for the growing plants for sustenance and survival. Compost Bin can manufacture the desired substances and other organic elements which are very much needed by plants to sustain growth. These plants also need to eat the minerals and nutrients of the soil, and in so doing it makes the soil unhealthy in the process.

Compost Bin manufactures the essential organic plant food which is very vital to both soil and plants and these do not contain the toxic substance that soil and plants absorb. It must be considered that the toxic substances being absorbed by the plants which we eat are hazardous to health of humans and other animals. In short, we are also eating the toxic elements that are derived from the plants being transmitted to them from the soil. The compost is the best organic plant food for soil and plants alike. As this is part of the ecological system, humans must take care of the environment especially the food source, which are the plants, for living creatures with mouths or beaks.

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