Prachi's Paper Trail: Mushrooms

I love mushrooms! We probably go through a good pound of mushrooms a week in my house. I eat them for breakfast (with eggs), lunch, or dinner.

Anyhow it goes without saying that I have been trying to grow mushrooms for a while. While oyster mushrooms are very easy to grow I am not crazy about them. Ideally I'd love to grow shiitake mushrooms,as they can be quite expensive in the grocery store.

A year or two ago I bought the indoor shiitake kits from Gourmet Mushrooms. The kits work really well, you just have to follow the directions. The pictures above are from the first time I grew one of these kits. The problem with these kits is that they are grown on sawdust so you only get 1-2 flushes from them (flush is about a pound of mushrooms) so they are not really economical. I decided to set my sights on growing them outdoors on logs which should continually produce mushrooms for a few years.

I was watching this video by Patrick at One yard revolution and was disheartened by the fact that he found it very difficult to grow mushrooms on a log. (lets just say if Patrick couldn't do it I had doubts I could.) So in an attempt not to put to much of my time and effort into a fruitless effort (literally fruitless) I found two predrilled, pre plugged shiitake mushroom logs online. (I can't find the link right now but if I do find it I will revise this post and add it).

UPDATE: I bought them on ebay from this seller.. (At the time this was the best price).

They have been sitting outside since last fall, and earlier this week I decided to cold water shock them (by soaking them in cold water for 12-24 hours)... and look what I found this morning....

Yahoo! There are 7 mushroom currently "sprouting" on this foot long log. I know what you are saying.... all that fuss over 7 mushrooms.... well it gives me some hope that maybe I can grow more logs... bigger logs.

In order to increase the amount of mushrooms I grew this year I am going to try growing wine cap mushrooms (similar to One yard Revolution). I bought the mushroom sawdust spawn from Field and Forrest Products and will be spreading over a well shaded mushroom bed I have. So stay tuned on more posts mushrooms. :)

Here are some of my favorite mushroom recipes:

- This recipe by Emeril Lagasse is a quick one pot meal in my house, it definitely does not take me an hour and 10 min (I also don't formally make a roux... I leave out the flour).

-This is a popular side dish in my house. I saute the mushrooms and then add the vinaigrette I don't let it sit and wilt.

-This Bobby Flay side dish is not as popular in my house, but it is still good.