For me mushrooms conjure up memories of mushroom hunts with my mother. My mother was quite the mushroom connoisseur… she knew how to identify all of the edible mushrooms. Growing up in a war-torn Germany, seeking out edible mushrooms was a matter survival in more sense than one.
I now wish I had paid more attention – she could identify not just your common field mushrooms, but also Slippery Jacks, Chanterelles, Portobellos and others that I cannot, for the life of me, remember the names of but all of which grew wild amongst the pine trees on the property where I spent most of my childhood years in North East Victoria. A morning forage in the mistiness of an cooling autumn would result in an enormous mixed wild mushroom bounty which she would then sautee up for breakfast and pickle the excess.
It was something I took for granted at the time, but her knowledge was incredible. However, I do remember that the really pretty red ones with the white dots (Amanita) that were prevalent throughout the area as well, were poisonous. Why is that? It is always the pretty ones!
I love mushrooms, but over the years I have had a love/hate relationship with them – I love them so much… I eat too many… or I accidentally eat a poisonous one… hence, I hate them… I then go years without eating them until I slowly grow to love them again and then the cycle begins once more…
I am currently in the middle of a total love cycle, so the caution light is on and moderation is in order. Having said that, I am much more careful after a foraging faux pas in my late teens which resulted in a mushroom and cheese jaffle gone wrong (the field mushroom was not the field mushroom I thought it was), ensuing excruciating stomach pain, a total purge and hours of hallucination resulted my longest period of abstinence yet, which took me years to mentally recover from!
These days, living on the Sunshine Coast, foraging for mushrooms is not really an option. The mushroom varieties are certainly not that of the cooler climates and the biggest bounty is more likely to come from the mushroom compost I have sprinkled on the veggie garden rather than a forage in the wild… well that was until I discovered the oyster mushroom packs from The Hub Edibles.
While the Chanterelles and Slippery Jacks have faded into the oblivion of a memorable childhood, exotic mushrooms such as oyster, shitake and enoki mushrooms have taken their place, and now feature strongly in Asian cookery. Interestingly, I read that oyster mushrooms were first cultivated in World War I in Germany, so silently wondered whether they were on my mother’s foraging list way back when – here I was thinking these bizarre little fungi were something funky and new!
And now, some enterprising individuals have gone that one step further and found a way that we can grow these complex little mushies in our own homes quite successfully.
So… that was how I came to be armed with an oyster mushroom growing kit…
Opening it up, it is quite an odd block of what appears to be a ‘fungified’ block of ‘something’ – maybe compressed straw (I know ‘fungified’ is not a real word – just not sure what it actually is). The block is impregnated with oyster mushroom spores, so leaving it in its plastic bag, into which you slash an opening, all you have to do is give it a bit of a soaking and then continually spray it with a mist of water and viola… oyster mushrooms.
It does need to have a bit of a dark spot, but it does like a bit of filtered light and dash of cool humidity, so cellars or dimly lit bathrooms or garages are perfect resting spots.
I have to admit, I am not the most diligent of oyster mushroom growers… if I don’t get results straight away I lose interested and get distracted… so the first few days I misted away, nothing happened and then I totally forgot about it. Oops.
I had given my odd little fungi block a home in the spare bathroom in a bucket in the bath and it was a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’… so nobody was more surprised than me, after a few days of forgotten neglect, when a number tiny little baby oyster mushrooms had made an appearance. Soooo cute…
Excitedly I gave it another misting, only to forget about it again…
Two days later when I wandered into the bathroom quite by accident, I was greeted with, what can be only described, as an explosive mass of oyster mushrooms… I was just a little bit excited! It had almost taken over my bathroom… ok… so, occasionally I am prone to exaggeration… it was just the bathtub, but there were A LOT of mushrooms!
Now, it is possible to have too much of a good thing… I am going through a period of mushroom love, and I especially love oyster mushrooms… sautéed with soy and a splash of sesame oil… but when you are suddenly faced with a copious harvest of oyster mushrooms, while your family is away and you are obligated to eat this bounty all by yourself, as good as the fresh little fungal morsels are, it could almost induce you into a period of… um… less love…
I diligently persevered – waste not, want not, I say – and while there was not quite enough to pickle, I spent a good week eating oyster mushrooms in every conceivable stir-fry and salad combination, and astoundingly, have managed to avert a ‘hate period’ crisis… but I think I am good for a while now.
Growing the oyster mushrooms was incredibly fun. They are quite the freak of nature and it is amazing how quickly they can go from virtually nothing, to more than you could possibly want in a short time space. I have heard that with some mushroom blocks, you will get a second round, but I only got the one. I am not sure if that is because I lost interest and as a mushroom satiated individual my block ‘died’ of neglect, or whether this was just a one round wonder but I had had my fun, so all good.
There are a few Sunshine Coast suppliers of mushroom kits – I got mine from The Hub Edibles at the Big Top Market Fresh – they stock shitake and oyster mushroom kits, and I believe they can get enoki kits as well. Ange is just lovely and is really helpful. She will give you a set of growing instructions that will ensure you won’t fail.
In the meantime, I am looking forward to renewed mushroom desire, so I can do it all again… thinking shitake mushrooms next time… I might even put the dryer to use…
For more information, or your own mushroom kit – or some of the other wonderful plants they have, visit The Hub Edibles:
http://www.thehubedibles.com.au
or visit their profile on:
http://www.sunshinecoastregionalfood.com.au/item/the-hub-edibles/
This story was written by Petra Frieser – Pebbles + Pomegranate Seeds
