Field Trip To The Mushroom Farm

We went a little crazy buying mushrooms at the farm. From left: oyster, portabello, and shitakes.

Mushroom Adventures has been around for about 15 years. We discovered them when they appeared at the Auburn Farmers Market this year. Today we got a tour of the place and saw how each of these grow. It reminded me of field trips when I was in school.

They sell mushroom kits so you can try growing your own. Nina, our tour guide, said the shitakes are the hardest to grow. They grow from what looks like a large brick of compost that is made up of hay and chicken manure. Pretty disgusting looking bricks but from them grow these wonderful mushrooms. If you are interested, check out their web site: http://www.mushroomadventures.com They ship kits via Fed Ex. But they don't ship mushrooms.

In addition to information on the kits, the web site also has recipes. Mushrooms keep well in the refrigerator as long as they are in paper bags. No plastic for these babies. No need to worry about contamination from the manure; the compost is heated to a high enough temperature to kill off the bad things before the mushroom spores are added.

These babies are going to be part of nearly every meal between now and when we leave for Christmas with Kerry's family in Washington.