The Cambodian people knew only two natural seasons: the dry and the rainy. In the dry season, farmers celebrated the harvest. At the New Year, farmers and city dwellers alike brought rice and prepared foods to the temple to celebrate. During the rainy season, farmers prepared their fields and planted new crops with hopes for a bountiful future harvest. In the cities, students studied, moviegoers flocked to the popular cinemas, and sidewalk vendors hawked all manner of plentiful food and drink.

But once the barbaric Khmer Rouge seized power in April 1975, they forcibly evacuated the cities, including the capital of Phnom Penh, and fourth-year medical student Seang Seng found himself and his family of 24 persons driven into a countryside of forced labor camps that would come to be known as the “”Killing Fields.”” There, in a once bountiful land, a man-made season would reign: the Starving Season. Four years later, Seang Seng walked out of the Killing Fields alone.’

‘Mycelium Running is a manual for the mycological rescue of the planet. That’s right: growing more mushrooms may be the best thing we can do to save the environment, and in this groundbreaking text from mushroom expert Paul Stamets, you’ll find out how.

The basic science goes like this: Microscopic cells called “mycelium”–the fruit of which are mushrooms–recycle carbon, nitrogen, and other essential elements as they break down plant and animal debris in the creation of rich new soil. What Stamets has discovered is that we can capitalize on mycelium’s digestive power and target it to decompose toxic wastes and pollutants (mycoremediation), catch and reduce silt from streambeds and pathogens from agricultural watersheds (mycofiltration), control insect populations (mycopesticides), and generally enhance the health of our forests and gardens (mycoforestry and myco-gardening).

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll find chapters detailing each of these four exciting branches of what Stamets has coined “mycorestoration,” as well as chapters on the medicinal and nutritional properties of mushrooms, inoculation methods, log and stump culture, and species selection for various environmental purposes. Heavily referenced and beautifully illustrated, this book is destined to be a classic reference for bemushroomed generations to come.’