Mushroom Farming
MAITAKE MUSHROOMS
We are all big fans of mushrooms at Valentines Farm. In an effort to increase our fungi variety, we buried inoculated Maitake mushroom logs last year to help jump start the growing process. We buy our mushroom inoculums from Field & Forest Products. Depending on the type of mushroom and the growing method chosen, we inoculate the growing medium. The photo below shows sawdust spawn logs inoculated with Maitake.
Earlier this month, we harvested our new crop of maitake mushrooms (舞茸, "dancing mushroom"), more commonly known as hen of the woods. These beautiful perennial fungi are native to China, Europe, and North America and will grow in the same spot for years, once they’re established. Maitake is hard to grow on wood logs since it is a rather weak competitor. We did try it and failed once and we were ready to take the easy road the second time around. So we tried out the “ready to fruit blocks”.
The process of planting the bed is relatively easy. Once you have selected the area for your maitake bed (we selected a shady spot in the edge of the peach orchard), dig a bed 6 to 8 inches deep. Space the inoculated blocks about 18 to 24 inches apart, as shown in the photo, and completely cover them with hardwood chips making sure there are 2 inches of wood chips above the surface of the blocks. And that’s pretty much it!
We labeled the bed and walked away imagining all the mushrooms coming up the following fall. Yes, it takes a year for them to fruit, but once established, they continue to fruit for many years. Our chickens roam free, and they love to scratch on wood chips, so we learned very quickly that the bed needed some protection. We used an old raised bed wood frame and then placed cattle panel sections over it, to cover the newly planted bed. This has all worked out so far and it has been very exciting to find these peculiar looking and deliciously savory mushrooms showing up this fall.
SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS
We have been inoculating freshly felled oak logs with shiitake spawn every year since the inception of the farm. We try to have as long of a harvest window as we can. Logs last for several years, but production dwindles after repeated flushes. So we keep adding new batches of logs each year. Additionally, we soak a set amount of logs overnight and rotate them on a weekly basis to encourage fruiting conditions for a consistent harvest. After a flush of mushrooms grows from the logs, they are left to rest for a period of 8 weeks before soaking them again.
Sometimes this process works and sometimes it doesn’t – and sometimes they all come out at once! When this happens, as nature and the weather dictate, then you throw yourself a mushroom party!
Shiitakes should be harvested when the margins of the cap are still tucked in, as shown in the photo above. Once harvested, they store pretty well in the vegetable drawer of the fridge held in paper bags. Or thay can be dehydrated, pickled and preserved in oil.