We arrived at Qyo. I was carsick and dizzy when I got off the car! Let's take a photograph first! YEAH!
2. Briefing
Wow! We were welcomed by two ladies when we arrived at Qyo! I caught a familiar scent, which turned out to be tea eggs! One of the tour guides led us to a conference room and introduced the company to us.
3.Visitor's Factory
We came to the place where they grew the mushrooms, but we must first go through various sterilization checkpoints! 1. Put on the hat and shoe coverings (to keep out the dust); 2. Sterilize our hands, and observe how Lingzhi grow. The tour guide told us not to buy Lingzhi that was turning into a brown color because it would have already hardened! It turned out that Lingzhi would have uneven surfaces during early stages of their growth. The surface would smoothen out after they mature; 3. A room with many holes in the walls allowed eight people to enter at once. Strong winds then began to blow! After sterilization, we were brought to the place where the mushrooms grew. Although the tour guide said that the temperature was kept at 14 degrees, I didn't feel cold at all, maybe because I was so excited seeing all these different kinds of mushrooms. There were pink (rosy pink mushrooms), gold (gold mushrooms) and abalone mushrooms. Back in the conference room, our tour guide said that the pink mushrooms tasted like crabs while the golden mushrooms tasted like shrimp. They were really special! There was another mushroom that was super special for me - the Nameko mushroom. The mushroom cap felt sticky and smooth. The sticky substance was called oligosaccharides. The tour guide reminded us specifically that we must not wash Nameko mushrooms bought at Qyo because they would become stickier with washing.
4.Mushroom DIY
The tour guide placed a few substrate packs on the table. Each substrate pack was shared by two students. The instructions were: 1. Take off the outer covering; 2. Peel the soil (in layers as thin as possible); 3. Put the mud into the plastic container one layer at a time, and press them tightly together. They had to be tight enough so that they would not fall apart even when placed upside down; 4. close the lid to complete the task; 5. Listen to further instructions on how to grow your own mushroom and things to look out for.
Oh my god! My hand was covered with mud! The mud particles were really rough! It was really uncomfortable so we went out to wash our hands. The mud was very sticky and stubborn. It took a great deal of effort to wash it off my hands.