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Anyone growing gourmet mushrooms?

ive been looking to experiment with cooking this winter and wanted to try some stuff with mushrooms. some like shiitake are supposed to go good with the dark rich meats like elk and deer that i hope to have a freezer full of. well i looked at the local grocery store and they go for like $6 and up for 1/3 of a pound!!!!!!! and they aint even fresh! anyways after a bit of research today i found growing kits for most like shiitake, portobellos, wine caps and oysters. from around $25 a piece and you can get a several pounds or more from some of the kits. so does anyone have any experiance with these kits?

Rattler
 
mmmm... mushrooms....
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i dont have any experiance but i've heard that they are REALLY easy. just soak in water and wait.
 
are you talking about the fungi perfecti ones? I'd like to try them some day...
the only experience growing mushrooms I have is when I bring in a mushroom cap and lay it on top of my pots. now i get these cool mushrooms every time we water them a lot
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I have played around with them. They are fun but I think the stated yield is a bit of a hit and miss.. maybe if you have ideal conditions you can get what they say.

Not sure what you mean by the ones in the store not fresh. Do you mean dried? Mushrooms are almost all water. So by the time you get several pounds of fresh mushrooms your probably breaking even on the price of the kit plus shipping etc, if you compare to dried.

Most of those mushrooms have alot of flavor too so you don't need many to make an impact in your cooking. 3 or 4 dried poopake is enough to flavor a nice sauce so one 4oz package of dried mushrooms will go a long way.

Tony
 
The Asian markets around us sell lots of different dried mushrooms and fungi.  My wife is more into mushrooms than I am and keeps a lot of them around.  They're cheap and keep forever, so it's a great way to have something other than white button mushrooms.  Though I'd be happy with less of them.
 
fungi are cool! I like fungi...
did you know that there are fungi that glow in the dark? aldough they're poisonous :p I want some....
I've eaten wild mushrooms.... made completely sure they were safe to eat though. they were good! now I want to try puffballs... the thing is that I never find them when they're edible OR there aren't enough.
 
poopake mushrooms in asian stores are almost always found dried and salted. You soak them first. Not sure about elk and deer, but they are delicious with beef and broccoli ;)

I was looking at some kits myself. I think it would make a cool b-day gift for my dad, whose bday is in November.
 
and fungi are very important too! amazing, important, cool-looking, many are edible, what else could you want?
yes... they WOULD make a good birthday present! you could also give him some mycorhizzal fungi if he likes plants
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the only thing here is some "freash" portabella and buttons. they havent had any dried anything here for quite awhile. living in the middle of nowhere sucks some times. i swear the local grocery store is constantly cutting the variety of stuff they sell for no reason, they are the only grocery store in town and get a huge amount of buisiness. i guess ill think about it for awhile.

Rattler
 
  • #10
Mushrooms! The food of the Gods. I love mushrooms of all kinds. I think about getting the kits, but only to collect the spores. You can grow a few kinds on a well maintained compost pile, but I have not yet tried. I should. I eat lots of mushrooms and they are very expensive here (comparable to meat). Yum Yum.
 
  • #11
Word to the wise though.. Be extreamly careful with wild mushrooms or even mushrooms grown outside in a less than 100% controlled situation. Some mushrooms are highly toxic and can at times appear like edible ones. Eat the wrong one and it will kill you.

Fungi perfecta sells spores/cultures which can be used to innoculate appropriate organic matter, as well as the kits. A much better deal if your serious about mushrooms.

Rattler perhaps you can find some dried mushrooms from an online source?

Tony
 
  • #12
yes that is always an option but then i miss the fun and challenge of trying to grow some
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need something to keep me entertained through a long cold winter and my rifle projects are getting a bit expencive.

Rattler
 
  • #13
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]did you know that there are fungi that glow in the dark

Oh yah? Did you know that fungi are complex animals closest releteves... they broke off form the same common ansector as the sponges at about the same time.

Because Fungi can not photosynthisize, they must be grown in a food socrce from witch they can derive nutrients. Rotting logs, live animals, decaying organic mater, anything is fair game as long as it provides nutrients.

Theres a interesting large mushroom in our lawn [dont say anything- i have a alot of time on my hands, ok?] that iv never seen anywhere else (altough its not like i go out of my way to look for fungi)

Its been here for severel years and is interesting because of its size (half a foot in diamiter at the largest) and the fact that it grows just low enough to escape the lawn mower blades. It grown and a compacted part of the lawn and 'tills' the soil, if you will, by pushing its large mushroom heads up from the soil. It because of these mushrooms that the grass in the area thives. When pulled, the stem breaks off eisily and if you look closely, is infested by hundreds of tiny white insect larva growing and burowing inside, eating it from the inside out.

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i get really bored sometimes
 
  • #14
I`ve seen those mushrooms too finch they are indented on the top? It`s about time for them to come up here,pushing up through the pine needles. We also get giant puffballs wich I have seen at 4+in at there edible stage(Haven`t tried any though) as well as the ones that grow on logs and these red ones.
 
  • #15
you can eat puffballs? i did not know that...

my friend andy found some libery caps ......
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  • #16
I've always had great success with the Fungi Perfecti Shiitake Mushroom kits.. WAY more mushrooms than our family could eat..
 
  • #17
i love fungi perfect...

Has anyone ever poked those awesome wierd colorufl mushrooms in new england? Ive poked em with a 10 foot long pole, and this green cloud explodes out! its probably toxic though
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  • #18
I once tripped and fell on a big clump of those things. Very comic-book-like dustcloud followed, as well as coughing and cursing. The spores arent toxic, but I dont recommend them for nostral use, however.
Anyway do you know if these kits you speak of are available anywhere else? say, oh, in europe? :p
Im a huge mushroom fan, and id love to attempt to grow some shrooms instead of buying from the store at ridiculous overprices...
 
  • #19
you might do an internet search for companys selling these kits. some may ship to europe. no clue what shipping would run yah though.

Rattler
 
  • #20
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Oh yah? Did you know that fungi are complex animals closest releteves... they broke off form the same common ansector as the sponges at about the same time.
GASP GASP GASP GASP!!! I AM SHOCKED finch!!!! did you really mean that?
how can you say they're complex animals???!!!!!!!
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they're their own kingdom!
there are six kingdoms of life
fungi, plants, animals, protists, archae, eubacteria.
fungi includes mushrooms, yeasts, mold, etc.
plants includes heterotrophic plants like monotropa uniflora, CP's, and normal plants.
protists includes algae, kelps, ciliates, slime molds, etc.
archae are sort of like bacteria but they live in extreme environments like inside rocks, on salt lakes, deep sea smokers, cow's intestines (LOL)
and eubacteria include one of the most important organisms in the world, cyanobacteria which live in lakes/oceans, etc and photosynthetize, it also includes E. coli which lives in our intestines, and almost all other bacteria common people know.
 
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