Maitake trial

Unfortunately, right now, the farmer's market is only open once a month. So that means that our supply of delicious, farm fresh shitake, portabella, and oyster mushrooms runs out quickly without chance of getting more any time soon. With this in mind, we walked through the aisles of Whole Foods with our mouths watering and a hankering for some fungi. Whole Foods has the mushrooms that we are used to, those listed above, but they also had maitake and a few others. I have heard that Maitake is good eating, so Christy and I picked up a little box of them sauteed them tonight with onions. I found them delicious, although I find most things cooked with butter delicious, the texture was different than the other mushrooms we have cooked. It was a little chewier and they took a little bit longer to cook. Tomorrow we are going to try to them on a homemade pizza.

Maitake in my hand

The package

Day 6: We Have Mycelium

Its official, we have mycelium growing in our bag.  For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, mycelium is the vegetative part of the fungus.  Basically it is the beginning of the mushroom growing.  When Ben and I opened the bag last night to water we noticed lots of white fuzz growing up the sides of the dirt.  Eventually this white fuzz (mycelium) should cover about 30-40% of the surface of the soil on top.  We should get this coverage over the next few days  We are excited because this means that the growing process has begun and we should begin to see mushrooms forming here in a few weeks.

On a side note, Ben and I have eaten almost 2 pounds of mushrooms this week.  We have cooked them and fried them for both breakfast and dinner.  We are hoping that through our growing of mushroom we will be able to share the benefits of mushrooms with our friends as well.  We have realized that this delicious food still commonly frightens many of our friends.  It is the part of their dinner that they leave sitting on the side of their plate.  We would like to raise awareness of not only how great they can taste but also the nutritional benefits as well.  In a lot of ways, we've learned that mushroom can save the world.  I'll share more in the next posting but for now check out 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World.

I've included a picture of our first sightings.  There isn't too much to see right now but I was too excited to not share.  Here you go:

The white fuzz in the top corner is the mycelium

We're Growing Mushrooms

Since we moved to Chicago, Ben and I have been visiting the local farmers market each weekend.  We enjoy purchasing local products and feel healthier eating organic and sustainable food.  We have joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) program with Meadow Haven Farm from which we get all of our meat each month.  Neither Ben or I have ever tasted Chicken this good before.

Aside from the meat the farmers market offers a variety of different vegetables and fruits depending on the season.  Over this winter season we have taken a liking to one of the local mushroom farmers products.  River Valley Ranch and Kitchens supplies the farmers markets with an assortment of organic fresh mushroom as well as some of the best canned mushroom concoctions that your mouth has ever tasted.  We particularly enjoy the chili and tomato soup.

Our interest in mushrooms has started to grow.  We enjoy adding them to all of our favorite dishes and now eat them several times a week.  In fact just this morning we sauteed some oyster mushrooms and onions and ate it along with the eggs and bacon that we get as a part of our CSA.  We have done a lot of reading online about growing mushrooms and decided that it was time that we gave it a try.  Luckily enough, our favorite mushroom farmers also offers a mushroom growing kit that allows us to grow mushrooms right here in our small Chicago apartment.  The kit cost about $35 and will produce about $80 worth of mushrooms over 3 months.

On Sunday we begun our portobello mushroom kit.  We are excited to see what comes of it.  Hopefully within the next few days we should be seeing the mycelium come through the potting soil as the mushrooms begin to grow.  For now it still just looks like a bag of dirt.  We'll keep you posted.

Our Mushroom Grow Kit

The large bag in the box contains the inoculated soil with mushroom spores and the small bag is the soil that the mushroom will eventually grow in.

The white stuff is the mycelium that will grow up into the soil layer and eventually form mushrooms

The growing soil added to the layer of inoculated soil

We tied off the bag with a loose rubber band that keeps in most of the moisture but still allows the bag to breathe.