BRB w/ Nathan P – Fungi-Assisted Tree Planting, Grilled Malai Mushrooms & Gathering Moss
Why we've been planting trees all wrong and how fungi can help, recreating Dishoom's grilled mushroom dish, and a read on forests' most overlooked flora (#32).
Hi all,
Welcome back to BRB w/ Nathan P, your 5-min weekly dose of climate information to inspire climate action.
We vote multiple times a day for the future we want to create – in the work we do, the food we eat, the products we buy, and the information we consume.
My mission is to make it fun, easy, and delicious to make more sustainable decisions. To guide you on this journey, each Wednesday I’ll share 💥1 Breakthrough, 🥘1 Recipe, and 📚1 Book on food & climate.
💥 Breakthrough: Fungi-Assisted Tree Planting
To restore forests and capture carbon, we need to plant trees.
But there’s a problem: a recent study shows only 56% of the trees we plant survive longer than 5 years.
It takes a lot of effort to plant the current 4.7 million hectares of trees per year – and almost half of it won’t last?
Increasing evidence suggests that fungi are the missing ingredient 🍄 We already know that 90% of plants depend on symbioses with fungi to survive – so we cannot continue to ignore them when planting trees.
Adding a special type of fungi – ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) – when we plant trees can increase tree growth and survival.
EMFs connect with tree roots in the soil, helping trees:
💧 uptake water
🌱 access nutrients
💨 store more carbon
🌳 share resources with each other
This last one is key, as EMFs allows trees to communicate and share nutrients underground. This connection between trees is what we need to foster to help more planted trees survive.
Suzanne Simard discovered that trees can actually recognize and communicate with their own seedlings, nurturing their growth. She calls them the Mother Trees.
I recommended her book Finding the Mother Tree a few months ago, you can find the previous post here.
Some more cool findings on this topic:
Austin-based start-up Funga is working on combining trees with the right biodiverse fungi to improve forestry outcomes. Their team found in a study that increasing soil microbial biodiversity with EMFs can accelerate plant growth by 64%, which could help trees store more carbon and become more resilient.
Another study by Paul Thomas earlier this year showed that planting edible EMFs alongside trees in boreal forests could sequester an additional 12.8 tons of CO2 per hectare.
The same study also showed that if we did this for the 4.7M hectares of trees planted annually, this would produce enough delicious mushrooms to feed 18.9 million people.
I still find it baffling that despite all we have learned in the past 50 years on the importance of relationships between plants and fungi, both planting trees and growing crops still ignores fungi.
Indigenous practices have long known about symbiotic relationships in nature, which is why they grew food in diverse polycultures instead of industrial monocultures. They might not have known about the exact mechanisms – but they learned to cultivate a relationship with the land that is reciprocal instead of extractive. We need more of that.
So next time someone mentions planting trees, just ask: why not also grow more mushrooms?
🥘 Recipe: Grilled Malai Mushrooms
What’s the best dish I had at one of London’s best Indian restaurants?
Mushrooms (though this may not surprise you).
If you are a foodie who loves travel like me, you might have about of Dishoom – an Indian restaurant chain in London with great food, immaculate vibes, and a long line out the door.
I went a few weeks ago and loved their grilled malai mushrooms dish, which I decided to recreate. This pile of mushrooms (which taste better than they look) were surprisingly meaty, close to the texture of tandoori chicken bites.
I am pleased with the results, though I wouldn’t have said no to some garlic naan to go with :)
Scroll down for the recipe.
If you make it, please send pictures :)
📚 Book: Gathering Moss
In a world that often glamorizes scale and grandness, Gathering Moss is an invitation to consider the small, humble, and quiet.
We often forget about mosses. They were the first plants to grow on land, yet they’re probably last in what comes to mind when we think of a forest.
Yet they are uniquely beautiful, wise, and fascinating.
Mosses both dominate and shape the microenvironment a few inches above soils called the boundary layer. Here, they don’t have to compete with trees. And they also have an abundance of CO2 from all the carbon fungi release during decomposition, reaching 10X the concentrations of the atmosphere.
They are not only crucial to carbon sequestration, but also to soil health, water retention, and ecological harmony.
After reading Braiding Sweetgrass, I was eager to read Gathering Moss. It reminded me of why I love Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writing so much.
I adore how she combines scientific exploration with indigenous perspective; how she reminds us of our deep connection to the earth; how she elevates mundane experiences to spiritual significance.
Needless to say, this book did not disappoint, and I loved every minute of reading it.
Gathering Moss urges us take more mindful walks, to notice every detail, and to appreciate all the crevices where life takes shape. It’s also a reminder that all living things are interconnected, including us.
Amidst the doom and gloom of climate news, it’s important to remind ourselves that not all of our interactions with nature are negative. They can be positive, reciprocal, and nourishing – but only if we are willing to learn environmental stewardship and live sustainable & intentional lives.
On this beautiful planet, we, like mosses, have our own role to play.
Some favorite quotes:
There is an ancient conversation going on between mosses and rocks, poetry to be sure. About light and shadow and the drift of continents. This is what has been called the “dialect of moss on stone” – an interface of immensity and minuteness, of past and present, softness and hardness, stillness and vibrancy, yin and yang.
But I think I cannot own a thing and love it at the same time. Owning diminishes the innate sovereignty of a thing, enriching the possessor and reducing the possessed.
Barbara Kingsolver writes, “It's going to take the most selfless kind of love to do right by what we cherish and give it the protection to flourish outside our possessive embrace.”The combination of circumstances which allows it to exist at all are so implausible… In return for such a gift, the only sane response is to glitter in reply.
Thank you for reading – BRB next week ✌️
🥘 Recipe: Grilled Malai Mushrooms
Ingredients:
200g king oyster mushrooms
200g cremini mushrooms
1 cup yogurt
Olive oil
6g garam massala
3g turmeric
3g smoked paprika
3g garlic powder
3g thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Rinse the mushrooms. Cut the cremini mushrooms in half, and the king oyster mushrooms in 1” segments width-wise.
Place the mushrooms in a bowl and add the yogurt, garam masala, turmeric, smoked paprika, garlic powder, and thyme. Stir well. Marinate for at least 20 minutes or overnight.
Heat a pan on medium-high heat and add some olive oil to coat the bottom. Add in the mushrooms without overcrowding the pan – you may need to cook these in two batches – and sear for a few minutes on each side until crispy.
Serve warm with your besties :)
About Me
Hi there! My name is Nathan Paumier - I’m an avid reader, food enthusiast, and climate optimist. I started this newsletter after frequent questions on food tech, reading recommendations, and my secret recipes.
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Those grilled malai mushrooms look amazing 😋