Sunday, September 2, 2012

Growing Shitake Mushrooms

Lots of people have asked me lately how our gardens grew this summer.  I can’t help but chuckle and say, “they grew some great weeds.”  This summer was very busy for us, caring for our farmer friend at the end of his life, our first year haying, and most recently my sister’s (well almost) wedding.  Basically gardens don’t survive from neglect but apparently mushrooms do!  March of 2011 I posted about planting mushrooms.  Last summer we eagerly checked on them never to find even a hint of a mushroom.  I talked to someone and they told me to give it another year.  We left them as is and glanced at them a time or two this summer.  Still no signs of growth….

…..Until a few days ago when Maine Man discovered these!

I cooked some up today with a splash of olive oil and a dash of sea salt.  They were enjoyed by all.  Tomorrow I will try and deep fry them like they serve at the Common Ground Fair.

I would love to hear from anyone that has grown or foraged mushrooms in the past about how you preserve them.  My plan is to dehydrate and/or freeze what we don’t eat fresh.

2 comments:

warren said...

Your stack looks awesome! Mine have sort of lived their lives I think...Jealous here!

katiegirl said...

I have dehydrated portabellos and they do extremely well. I jsut sliced them, dehydrated them, and stored them in the pantry. I use them in things like sauces and gravy, and they rehydrate pretty well too!