Student Who Grew Her Own Canoe Out of Mushroom

Student Who Grew Her Own Canoe Out of Mushroom Thinks Fungus is Our Best Ally in Climate Change

An enterprising young Nebraska woman who recently ‘grew’ her own canoe out of mushroom has proven that the fungus is much more than just a dinner ingredient.

While this may seem like the start of a fantasy, it’s in reality just Katy Ayers’ one of a kind method of illuminating people in general about the utility of fungui and mycelium. She utilized this intriguing life form—which is neither plant nor microbes nor creature—to make a solidified, water-tight vessel which she has affectionately named her “Myconoe”.

“Mushrooms are here to help us—they’re a gift,” Ayers told NBC. “There’s so much we can do with them beyond just food; it’s so limitless. They’re our biggest ally for helping the environment.”

The canoe is made of mycelium—the dense, fibrous, underground material that links together the various fruiting parts (the toadstools we see on the ground or our dinner plates).

Since mycelium can bind and form around a given skeleton, Ayers managed to grow the canoe simply by letting the mycelium sculpt itself around the wire frame of a canoe.

Sitting in a unique room with temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit and 100% moistness, it took just 90 days for the mushrooms to cover the whole skeleton of the kayak. The Myconoe presently weighs only 100 pounds after it was dried in the sweltering Nebraska summer sun. It likewise still natural products after it is taken out on the water, which means it ceaselessly develops mushrooms and discharges spores.

Ayers started her project by reaching out to Nebraska Mushroom’s Ash Gordon, who offered her a summer internship after she received a small grant from her university in Columbus, Nebraska, to pursue a mushroom-oriented climate change solution.

“I always have very big ideas,” she said. “So I see something and it’s small and I just want to make it bigger and better. Since I’m from Nebraska, I love to fish. I’ve always wanted a boat. Why not just grow it?”

“It really helps bridge that gap between people who didn’t have an interest in mushrooms—maybe they don’t like to eat mushrooms and really haven’t thought about other potential uses for them,” Gordon told NBC. “The boat gave them something to look at and think about.”

The project cost $500 for bring forth, tools, and other gear, however the achievement has prodded Katy and Gordon to try different things with making other hard items like seats and scene engineering materials out of mycelium.

Already, mushrooms are being used to create compostable car parts for Ford and Ikea has committed to transition much of its plastic packaging to a mushroom-based renewable alternative.

And Katy is set to become a sweet helper for bees: inspired by research that showed how honeybees which consumed mycelium had lower levels of a harmful virus, she is beginning to work with low-income students to create bee hotels.

Credit: GoodNewsNetwork

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