The Leather of the Future
Your next jacket might be made of mushrooms. The post The Leather of the Future appeared first on Nautilus.
The following recipe comes with a twist. Take a ½ cup of whole wheat flour and add ½ teaspoon of malt extract, ¼ teaspoon of cream of tartar, 1 tablespoon of xanthan gum and a dash of citric acid (lemon juice might do), then dissolve the mixture in 2 cups of water. Line a square baking tray with the resulting paste, sprinkle with mushroom spores (preferably reishi) and leave in the dark for 2 to 3 weeks. After that time, according to a new study by Assia Crawford and her colleagues, you may have grown enough fungal leather to fashion yourself a one-of-a-kind coin purse.
“At this point what we’re producing is not in
