sunday before the harvest
We harvested our 1st non-misshapen shiitake mushrooms earlier this week. THEY WERE DELICIOUS. Andy noted that they seemed to have a slightly creamy quality to them. I noted that the wonderful thing about growing mushrooms at home in a box is that there’s no dirt on the gills.
Here’s a photo essay of the mushrooms we harvested on sunday and then on monday. It’s amazing how quickly the 2nd batch of mushrooms grew once the 1st set of mushrooms were out of the way!
On sunday we harvested the 2 mushrooms growing on the inside of this line of mushrooms. We chose those 2 largely because, as you can see, the 2nd mushroom is trying to take over everything. We were vaguely afraid we’d wake up monday morning to a giant mushroom trying to push its way into the bedroom. At one point the mushroom seemed to double in size over the course of one day. It was amazing. It was also delicious.
Sunday: before harvesting.
Sunday: beautiful, dirt-free gills.
Sunday: comparison shot to show how huge the mutant mushroom was.
Sunday: another comparison shot.
Monday: the remaining 2 mushrooms swelled to fill the gaps where their neighbors had been.
Monday: So big in just 24 hours!!
This is beyond awesome! Fresh shiitake is pretty much my favorite mushroom (competing with chantarelles) because it is just so juicy and delicious. I have to go back to read your mushroom endeavors to see how you grew these fellers.
A $20 kit i bought at the U-District market! Except i haven’t seen the mushroom/kit vendor since i bought ours back in december. :( And now i’m worried i messed up my kit somehow — we had that 1 really awesome harvest but nothing since. Woes!
So very cool!
You should totally doooooooo eeeeeeeet. ;)