We’ve foraged a lot of wild mushrooms in our yard over the years, and we’ve also purposely grown shiitake on logs several times, but we’ve never grown mushrooms in the house before.
The mushroom is closely related to more familiar Lion’s Mane – Hericium erinaceus. It’s a beautiful fungus that looks like coral. It has a little sea-food taste and it easy to work with. The stem part is quite chewy, but if it’s chopped small, that’s not an issue.
The mushroom pictured here is Comb Tooth – Hericium americanum. We’re growing them on blocks we purchased from Field & Forest Products, friends of ours up in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, north of Green Bay, and major suppliers of mushroom spawn for both commercial and home growers.
The blocks are pre-inoculated with spawn and come ready to grow. All you have to do is add water, which is done by a daily misting with a spray bottle. The blocks are covered with a plastic bag tent, which holds in the humidity, which has to be quite high to induce and maintain fruiting. It’s quite easy, but it does require the daily misting.
Whether these blocks are cost-effective, I’m not yet sure. It depends how many flushes we get from the blocks. We started two blocks at the same time and we’ve harvested well over a pound, so far. These exotic mushrooms sell for about $20 per pound, so I’m pretty sure we’ll cover our costs. In any case, it’s been fun and the mushrooms are really beautiful.
Hi Noel, how fun to have such a cool plant & food on your table!
We are in NZ, so it’s summertime.
Anyhow, there’s a couple at our farmer’s market selling table-top blocks growing oyster mushrooms, and they say they need airflow, so to keep them near a doorway or whatever… just a thought.
~ all the best,
Ann & Geoff Ross
I was given a mushroom kit for Xmas years ago and it was really fun and delicious. Haven’t seen them for sale for home growers since then.
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