I can't believe how perfect this gift is for me! My boyfriend and I love to spend time outdoors and camp. My match got a lovely simple camping recipes book. My favorite is the camp eggs. It calls for a dozen eggs and a pound of bacon. How can you go wrong with that? I hope we get to use this as soon as it starts to cool down here in the desert!

I am studying microbiology and nursing and mentioned how much I love micro. So they gave me a little mycological specimen of my own! My match got me Pleurotus ostreatus that grows right out of the box! Not only are oyster mushrooms good to eat but they have many industrial uses. It's been shown to be able to break down diapers and it can also be used to collect petroleum hydrocarbons from saltwater and freshwater. One fact that that I love about P. ostreatus is that it is carnivorous! They release droplets of toxin and when nematodes touch the toxin they become paralyzed. Their hyphae then digest the nematodes to supplement low levels of nitrogen available in wood they grow on. I've also seen P. ostreatus digest colonies of bacteria in agar cultures in low nutrient conditions. Such a fascinating little fungi!

Thank you so much to my match, I will enjoy these gifts so much! I would have actually started the grown process of the oyster mushrooms but I'm going out of the country and oyster mushrooms taste best when picked young. So I will update you on how cool it is to grow them out of the box! Thanks a million times :D