Grow Your Own Mushrooms

Back in October I attended a workshop hosted at Ten Speed Greens that was conducted by Bent Tree Farm.  (Unfortunately Ten Speed Greens will be closing up shop this summer).  We learned briefly about growing your own mushrooms and then made our own shiitake mushroom logs and got to bring one home.

We recently cut down some trees on our property so I decided to make some more.  You start with logs approximately four to six inches in diameter and about 40 inches long.  Oak and sweet gum are the best to use.  I had previously used Fungi Perfect for an oyster mushroom kit but at the workshop we were told that Mushroom People is also a good source.  I ordered their Shitake Mushroom Starter kit.

Here is a portion of the kit, it included 300 plugs of mushroom spawn, paraffin wax for sealing, daubers for placing the was.  The kit also said that it was supposed to have 10 metal tags, but it did not.

 

The logs should be 4-6 inches in diameter and approximately 40 inches long.  They should be stored up off the ground to avoid contamination by "weed" species of mushroom.

Then you drill holes 1 inches deep with a 5/16 inch drill bit.  Place them approximately 6 inches apart on four "sides" of the log, placing each row of holes off center of the next.  Then place the plugs in the holes, tap them flat, and seal with the wax.  Make sure you heat the wax up in advance (I placed it in an old tin can inside a water bath in a crock pot).

 

At the workshop they told us that Florida has enough rainfall that as long as your logs are placed in the open they should be ok, but watering them is better.  Here I am soaking them for 8-12 hours (on each end) and will do this every two weeks.

 

Lets hope this works!  It may take 9 months for the logs to fruit, but then they will continue to fruit during the fruiting season for up to ten years.

Chanterelles Everywhere!

About a month ago my husband brought home a bag of chanterelles that he had won in the raffle at the North Florida Brewers League meeting.  I knew that some of the home brewers were foodies and locavores and I was really excited about this special treat (maybe even more excited than my husband was about winning all the beer that came with it).  So I set about looking up information on chanterelles and how to cook them.  We ate them with chopped onions in a creamy sauce served with orzo pasta.

About a week later I was so excited when we found these in the yard:

They looked just like the ones my husband brought home.  But I had to be sure and look them up.  There are two species that are very similar.  One is the Jack-o-lantern (Omphalotus sp.) and the other is the false chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca).  I needed to make sure that the ones I had found were true chanterelles.  This website was really helpful.  I think the fact that I am a biologist also helps me with identification.  It is definitely important to make sure you know what you are doing before collecting and eating wild mushrooms. 

Pretty soon it became apparent that chanterelles are everywhere in Tallahassee right now.  Two of my facebook friends mentioned finding them in their yards.  I started seeing them all over the neighborhood.  They were in neighbors yards though so I wasn't about to trespass and steal their gourmet mushrooms.

However, we also have lots of woodsy green space in this neighborhood.  Look what I found this morning while on a walk!

This time we ate them with chicken and rice.  I read that they should be paired with a dry red wine (such as Pinot Noir) but all we had was a semi-sweet Noble from Dakotah Winery and we liked that pairing.

Chanterelles are in season in the east from July through September.  Patches of mushrooms can be reharvested about every three weeks during this time, if you are careful not to disturb the soil too much.  I look forward to trying more chanterelle recipes.