Mushrooms in the forest

[GrowingCoastal]

I once read that mushrooms can have some other fungus growing on it that might be toxic. Picking mushrooms is the fun part, then comes the work and time to clean them properly and check each one for anything out of order with it. At least that can be done sitting down after a long ramble through the woods.

Someone locally was selling some of the small Asian mushrooms in oil with some herbs added and maybe a touch of vinegar. Delicious that way too.
Mom always cooked them with onions, salted them and kept them in the fridge for a while. I remember the taste of them on a slice of rye bread.

[Randall]

Good stuff, bower!

Very nice, Nematode. I haven't ran across any Bi-Colors lately.

I did stumble into some Hypomyces lactifluorum on this morning's hike.

I've grown P. eryngii a few times from sawdust blocks. 90% of the mushrooms I cultivate are log grown. If Kings would fruit from logs, I'd be growing the heck out of them. I like them.

About the only mushroom I devote any time to growing on sawdust blocks anymore is Maitake. It's my very favorite of all mushrooms! I'll throw in a couple of shots of recent Maitake grows here.

H. lactifluorum and the G. frondosa I grow:

[Nematode]

Are you able to culture maitake on sawdust blocks in the open in the woods? Everything I have seen regarding maitake culture was highly technical grow room stuff.

Truly a great mushroom, I am lucky to have several enormous old oaks that produce beautiful large maitake year after year. This one had 2 more on the other side..

I don't know if you can share grow details but I would be a willing student....

[Randall]

That's a biggun!

Growing Gf on sawdust is as involved as any of the gourmet mushrooms and starts from a sterile culture in a sterile environment like laminar flow or still air environments.

Any mushroom I grow starts from a culture on slant that I transfer to agar in a petri or other sterilized container. Once the culture is grown out clean in a petri, it's transferred (in sterile conditions) to sterilized whole oats (many grains will work, though). The colonized grains are used to inoculate sterilized and supplemented sawdust (once again, in a sterile environment).

From petri to sterilized oats to sterilized, supplemented sawdust and then it colonizes for 3 months before being ready to fruit. It's a bit of a pain and requires really sterile technique throughout.

It's a process, but one I feel anyone can learn and become proficient with if dedicated enough to put in the study time and practice.

Here's few shots to give you an idea of how Gf is grown from sawdust blocks.

[bower]

Always impressed by mushroom beauty!
I would think it's a big investment to set up facilities in your home to do sterile culture also involving large volumes of sterile medium. Definitely not something to take up lightly!
OTOH I really enjoyed growing reishi from a kit someone else had prepared. It was definitely worth the $25 iirc that I paid for it.

Randall do you sell kits as part of your business, or just the mushrooms you grow?

[Randall]

In the past, I sold kits but after I started selling mushrooms to a wholesale aggregator, I stopped. It's too easy just dropping produce off and never having to think about it again. With kits, I found myself answering questions, etc. and overall, my experience with them was unless the person had the right environmental conditions, (ie. humidity, temperature, light) they might grow something but it wouldn't be very impressive.

I still make up kits for a couple of people who wait and fruit them outdoors at the right time of year under agribon. That can work really well.

[bower]

Well it's not every day I see mushrooms in the morning news here! They are taking identification to the next level with DNA analysis, and our common chanterelle is apparently different enough to be given its own name: C. enelensis.
http://vocm.com/news/mushroom-mixup-...arns-new-name/

I checked the little patch in my backyard yesterday and saw three little ones starting to come up. There's a major rain expected tomorrow, so we will be eating chanterelles soon after!

[sjamesNorway]

Here's my DW with a "catch of the day".

Steve

[NarnianGarden]

Yay, congrats! Ours are beginning to appear as well.

[GrowingCoastal]

Here too, though it is very dry and the chanterelles my daughter brought me this week were dry hard buttons, crunchy and delicious.

[bower]

Personally I like the quality better on the dry side than on the wet side! They need enough moisture in the ground to come up though!

[coronabarb]

Interesting article, bower!

[Randall]

Originally Posted by sjamesNorway

Here's my DW with a "catch of the day".

Steve

Very nice, Steve!

I ran across a few Lactarius indigo on today's outing.

[Randall]

A few of my favorite: Hen of the Woods

[bower]

Mmm, that Lactarius indigo is really beautiful. I've never seen one here.

I have a few unknowns, brazenly blooming in my garden after the crazy 8 inches or so of rain. This little guy I guess to be a Hygrophorus, very similar to the 'British Soldiers' that grow not far away in the proper bogs. This one has a black smudge and a pointy cap, I've never seen it before, and I nearly mistook it for a bit of red leaf!! as there are quite a few in the paths.