The experience of failing at first was pretty sad. But I could not have let that continue. What I lost was just a battle. What I had to prepare for was the war.
It was time to gear up and start preparing for the second and a much bigger attempt. Which again started from the previous starting line – hunt for place to grow. One of the biggest reason for failure in first attempt, apart from what I listed in previous blog, was poor environmental conditions around my growing room. The room had a pile of cow dung in close vicinity ( it was beyond my control to remove that) and it was extremely difficult to maintain temperature, humidity and ventilation in that room. So, in a nutshell, that initial place of my first attempt was a key contributor for my failure. That brings me back to starting line again, which is hunt for the right place. Now that I’d seen what a poor place selection can lead to, I had to be extra cautious of what I choose.
Time to peddle the streets of Badshahpur once again. However this time, when I went to people, they somehow knew who I was and what did I want the land for. News about a short height lady, wearing half-pants and t-shirts, hunting for a place to grow mushrooms, had spread. And boy…wasn’t I pleased? Of course I was, I started getting calls myself this time.
And after one of this call, I went to visit this fine gentleman, who took me to his gated plot, with one room already constructed. First look at the place and I knew…this was it.
What’s step 2?
Now that step 1 was through, it was time for step 2. Prepare the place for growing mushrooms. The plot was big enough but there was just one concrete room. It’s difficult to keep cool temperature inside a concrete structure and for a regular supply of mushrooms, I needed 2 rooms at least – one room for spawn run and one for fruiting. With everything getting planned inside my head, I could see that there are going to many sub-steps under step 2. And since this time, I didn’t want to go wrong, I visited other farms too in Delhi NCR. One such visit was a trip to a milky mushroom farm, run by Rakesh ji, who is now a dear friend and on my speed dial, as & when I hit a roadblock.
