How to Grow Gourmet Mushrooms

Here you will learn how to grow gourmet edible mushrooms including shiitake and oyster on your small farm or at home for profit or personal use, on logs or on blocks. I’ve been planning for some time to add a Mushroom Production Page to Beginning Farmers. Gourmet mushrooms are a high value crop which can be a great addition to a diversified farming operation, especially if they are lucky enough to be situated on land with a decent parcel of hardwood forest (for log production), or willing to invest in the equipment necessary for more intensive cultivation. Wild harvesting mushrooms can also be a lot of fun, and fairly lucrative, if you know where to go and when, and can find a buyer. Many gourmet restaurants are thrilled to get wild-harvested mushrooms, so it’s worth trying to make these connections. I have done this with both morel’s and hen of the woods (see pictures below). But make sure you know what you’re doing if you’re going to hunt (for more information see below). Also anyone interested in this topic should check out Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world. <a href=”http://ad.doubleclick.net/N6544/jump/AGBeginningFarmers.org_FP/agriculture_ros;sz=300×250;ord=[timestamp]?”></p> <p><img src=”http://ad.doubleclick.net/N6544/ad/AGBeginningFarmers.org_FP/agriculture_ros;sz=300×250;ord=[timestamp]?” width=”300″ height=”250″ /></p> <p></a></p> [...]