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All About Oyster Mushrooms

If you are looking for a nutritious and tasty way to enhance your culinary journeys in the kitchen, look no further than oyster mushrooms. These intriguing large mushrooms are the perfect addition to recipes calling for seafood due to their mild oyster flavor that can be enhanced with seafood seasonings. While it is rarely advisable to pick wild mushrooms unless you are 100 percent certain of what they are, oyster mushrooms can be easily grown on your property so that you have a readily available supply of fresh mushrooms whenever you need them.

More About The Oyster Mushroom

Oyster mushrooms are often found growing in the wild, attached to tree stumps and fallen branches; they are excellent at decomposing wood and can put that tree stump on your property to good use. They are gilled mushrooms that are found in a variety of climates around the world, but they do prefer moderate and tropical climates versus those that experience temperature extremes on either end of the spectrum.

There are dozens of varieties of the oyster mushroom, which can sometimes make wild identification something of a challenge. There are also a few problems that mushroom gatherers run into when hunting for these fragrant and tasty mushrooms in the wild:

Here are some key characteristics of true oyster mushrooms:

Again, it can’t be said enough that unless you are very familiar with the key differences between true oyster mushrooms and their look-alikes, you shouldn’t risk harvesting them from the wild. You may come across a great selection of mushrooms growing on dead wood, and they may very well be true oyster mushrooms; but the risk of falling ill or potentially breaking a tooth trying to bite into a mushroom simply isn’t worth it.

What you can do however, is grow your very own crops of oyster mushrooms. This will give you plenty of fresh mushrooms to cook with, plenty of mushrooms to dry out for later use, and also give you plenty of mushrooms to trade with neighbors and friends.

Growing Your Own Oyster Mushrooms

Where many mushrooms prefer to grow in manure or compost-rich growing materials, oyster mushrooms are happiest when they grow on fresh or decaying wood. If you have a shortage of wood stumps or logs on your property, then you can raise your oyster mushrooms by using sawdust or straw as your growing media.

Purchase spores from a reputable supplier of mushroom spores. With dozens of available varieties in oyster mushrooms, you should seek out a supplier that will help you to best understand the benefits of each variety, as well as the growing requirements of each kind. This will ensure that you are getting the best spores for your growing climate and your growing abilities.

Some growing kits will arrive with a log or plastic bag of straw that has been inoculated with the oyster mushroom spawn. The kits can make it a lot easier to grow your mushrooms and will cut down on prep time. However, growing kits can be costly and not truly worth your time if you plan on growing large numbers of mushrooms.

You can make your own growing space habitable for oyster mushrooms with just a few simple steps and things you likely already have at home right now. You will need the following:

While straw or sawdust makes for excellent choices to grow your oyster mushrooms on, a lot of mushroom enthusiasts have reported having great luck growing their mushrooms using coffee grounds. This will not impart a coffee flavor to the mushrooms, nor does it have any key advantages to helping you produce healthy crops; however, it does offer a much more economical choice over straw and sawdust.

If you do have logs or tree stumps on your property, you can utilize that space by inserting spawn plugs into the wood. You may need to lightly mist the wood for a day or two, but if the growing conditions are right you’ll soon have a great crop of oyster mushrooms right outside of your front door. Just be sure to keep an eye on them, because there are numerous insects that will enjoy eating your oyster mushrooms just as much as you do.

Dry mushrooms out by setting them out in the direct sun in a well-ventilated and dry environment. Food dehydrators can also get the job done just as well, and sometimes actually a little faster than relying on nature to get the job done.

Oyster mushrooms are among the easiest of mushrooms to cultivate on your own, which makes them an ideal choice for your first foray into the world of growing your own mushrooms. Once you’ve mastered the art of growing oyster mushrooms, consider moving on to fancier varieties like shiitake.

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