 I love mushrooms because I find it incredible that they turn wood into food and because it's delicious. Its culture is accessible to everyone so more and more people around the world are getting into it to supplement their income. During our stopover in Mexico we met a community in Chiapas that transforms agricultural waste into oyster mushrooms. At Lotec Lab we travel the world to find the best Lotec. Inventions that are useful, sustainable and accessible to all. My name is Antonio Santos Ruiz. What is the production of mushrooms? Yes, I have found all my family. We are seven, my father, my mother, my sisters, my brother, my sister-in-law and I. And we are from here in the city of Altama, in the state of Chiapas. We saw that it is very good to work in the mushrooms. It leaves us some money as a business. And apart from that, as it is edible, we can grab it in this to eat it. There are two types of substrate that we use, corn husk and mushroom husk. We all participate in that. As I cannot walk, what I most participate in is the seed, which is in the cut already when they come out. We clean it and we measure it. That is my job too. After the harvest, we take out all the pastels that have just been produced. We take it to a little land in our land, we mount it, we let it disintegrate everything. To use it in organic food too. What motivated you to start? It is not too far to go to work. I can work just at home, just nearby. They can take me there and I can participate there too. I can tell you that I am very happy about this. Working on this, I am very happy already. I can tell you that because that is what I feel for my model and what I have. That is why I am very happy. I'll show you how to do. But first, you have to understand how mushroom grows. What is called mushroom is actually the fruit of the mycelium, which is the underground part. It is the white fluffy thing we see under the bark of dead trees or hidden in our soil. The mushroom spreads pores and creates new mycelium. This mycelium is wood or leaves to grow. Then it produces mushrooms again. We have chosen to grow oyster mushrooms because they are delicious and easy to grow. You'll need containers, straw, lime, rubbing alcohol and mycelium. You can do it by yourself but it's often done by laboratories because it requires a very sterile environment. The secret of mushroom cultivation is to avoid any contamination. Fill up with water. Add some lime. You must disinfect everything the mycelium will touch, including his food, which shows local straw. But we can make it with cardboard, coffee ground or sawdust. Sterilize the substrate. And you have to wait for 12 hours that all contaminants dies. Then drain all the water. Grille a hole in the container. Then sterilize your hands with gel and your work plant. And containers with rubbing alcohol. Put some gauze so contamination cannot get in. Sterilize your hand with gel. Your substrate has to be a bit wet, but not too much. No drops when you press it. Mix gently your mycelium in the substrate with a sterile spoon. Fill up the container and close it quickly. Put your containers into the dark at a temperature of 20 to 30 degrees. Wait for 3 to 4 weeks until the mycelium colonizes the whole container. When the substrate is fully white, fructification can start. Put it in indirect sunlight, in a ventilated and humid area. Make a cut in the gauze and keep an eye on it. It can take 2 weeks. As soon as small mushrooms appear, remove the gauze and sprinkle water 3 times a day. It takes only 3 days for the mushroom to grow. You can harvest it by turning its base. It will grow again. From a kilo of substrate, you can harvest up to 200 grams. When it doesn't grow anymore, you can compost the substrate. Or some people mold it to make an insulating material or for packaging. Or you can even make a surfboard. Thanks to mushrooms, you can recycle organic waste and turn it into food. This technique should be much more developed all around the world. The goal of the low-tech lab is to find low-tech innovation, document and promote them so that anyone can replicate them. It's open source and collaborative. So feel free to comment. And if you make it, please share it with us.