Freemotion's mushroom growing experiment....success! Pics p 1 & 3 & 4

[freemotion]

Emerald, those are awesome! So I can just go buy three fresh oyster mushrooms and set them on a log? Did you do this in spring?

And, more importantly, how on earth do you keep your nails so nice????

 

[Emerald]

I did it in the spring and while I can't remember which site I read it on they seem to do better after a cold snap and before the last snows. But most sites say that if you sterilize coffee grounds and pre-sprouted and then steam sterilized wheat and then lay the caps on there it should start colonizing the coffee and wheat in a few weeks, you keep it moist but not dripping. once they get the little white hairs and stuff that show it is growing you put it in sterilized straw, in a bag and once you see the white hairs there you make little X cuts and the mushrooms grow out the.
I didn't even remember to keep the log wet/damp during the July heat wave but the boychild helps keep my planting babies watered and told me that he often spritzed the log cuz it is right there and he loves mushrooms.

The nail is a fluke this year.. I must be doing something right.. I usually keep them much shorter due to the planting and working in the kitchen.. That is the only really nice one tho.. the rest are a bit ragged.. And canning season is finally here so probably after this weekend I will be trimming it all short so that I don't cut one off while chopping veggies for the tomato sauce! Not what you want to find in your spaghetti!

OH and I read about some folks who lived near a mushroom farm and they could go on certain days and buy bags of "spent compost" from the farm and that they would buy a few for the garden and found by accident that if they took good compost and put some in shallow bins(think under the bed boxes) and then spread the fresh mushroom compost on top about 2 inches and then a light layer of compost again and kept it misted well the mushrooms would colonize the fresh compost and start making mushrooms in a month.
Come to find out the farms idea of spent was when it wasn't making huge flushes any longer, but that there was plenty of life left in the "spent compost" to get them going again. I so wanted to try that but you can't find mushroom compost around here.

 

[framing fowl]

 

[freemotion]

What I found on my logs today....this is one set of logs, you can see a second set in the background with a few mushrooms showing, and there is a third set beyond those that doesn't have any mushrooms yet:

I didn't expect them to be so much bigger today than they were yesterday when I first discovered them, so I didn't bring a container with me. I just planned on picking into my shirt. My shirt wasn't big enough, so I had Dad come over to the fence so I could fill his shirt:

DH cooked up a couple so we could try them (we'd already eaten supper) and they were SO good! I've never eaten fresh shiitakes before, only dried ones. These were very different in taste....rather nutty and unique. I loved 'em. The texture is very chewy and a bit rubbery, almost meaty. Very hearty all around.

 

[Farmfresh]

I am jealous!! They look marvelous.

 

[abifae]

that's so cool!!!!

 

[Wifezilla]

 

[JRmom]

Glad to see this thread... and your success!! I have been researching doing this. I've decided to order from fungi.com (Fungi Perfecti). We actually saw this place featured on a History channel show on fungi and mold. It says on their web site to inoculate in the spring, but since I'm in the deep south, I going to do mine this fall so I can order my logs when we order our firewood. Considering what gourmet mushrooms cost, this seems like an inexpensive way to have fresh mushrooms.

 

[Britesea]

Glad to see this thread... and your success!! I have been researching doing this. I've decided to order from fungi.com (Fungi Perfecti). We actually saw this place featured on a History channel show on fungi and mold. It says on their web site to inoculate in the spring, but since I'm in the deep south, I going to do mine this fall so I can order my logs when we order our firewood. Considering what gourmet mushrooms cost, this seems like an inexpensive way to have fresh mushrooms.

... AND a way to make a little extra cash! There was a fellow that used to frequent the farmers market in our old town, that did a land office business selling ****aki and oyster mushrooms

 

[dragonlaurel]

Sautee a couple of those in butter and some red wine ... then put them over noodles or a baked potato or whatever - yummy