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Spiced Wine Caps (and a side of Pork Chops)

by Mary Ellen Kozak

Just two of these clusters is all you need for this recipe!

Wine Cap Mushrooms are one of the milder flavored mushrooms you can grow, but the crunchy texture and adorable red button caps add to the charm and flavor-likeness of sweet peas and asparagus.

Normally, you would look for clean, simple recipes with bright flavors to bring out the culinary characteristics of this mushroom. If you are looking at this blog right now though, you may be already looking for other ways to use this mushroom because when the crop is on, the baskets fill up fast!

This recipe is unusually spiced. Where many side dish recipes for mushrooms include butter, cream, sherry, and thyme or tarragon, this recipe opens the spice cabinet to cardamom, mint, nutmeg and anise. After cooking, freeze it in cupfuls to herald the traditional flavors of fall, but leave some out to dress up a summer cooked pork chop. The flavors deepen as it sits, so don't be in a hurry to use it the minute you make it.

This recipe is adapted from naturalist Steve Brill's website, Wildmanstevebrill.com, who had the misfortune of being arrested for eating a dandelion in Central Park back in the '80's. The publicity for the arrest did not necessarily bring us his mushroom recipes, but it's still a good story :)

Buttons are best for this recipe, but since the finished dish is dark in color, mature mushrooms work just fine.

 

Spiced Wine Caps (and Pork Chops)

4 c. sliced Wine Cap mushrooms (include the sliced tender stems, if applicable)

2 tsp. oil

1 T. chopped mint leaves

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

½ tsp. ground cardamon

½ tsp. ground anise seed

½ tsp. coarse salt (or more to taste)

1-2 T. red wine or sherry

pepper

2 pork chops

Sour cream

Method:
Mushrooms: Heat the oil in a sauté pan, add the mushrooms, salt and spices.

Cook on medium heat, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender and have released any liquid. Continue cooking until pan is nearly dry, then add the wine. You may want to add a little extra wine if the mushrooms are sticking to the pan.

Continue cooking, stirring often, until the liquid is nearly gone. Remove from heat.

Pork Chops: The pork chops can be grilled or pan fried. To pan fry, melt a combination of butter and oil and pan fry over a medium high heat, both sides, about 10-15 minutes total. Plate and serve with a topping of spiced mushrooms and a dollop of sour cream. Add a side of corn meal muffins for a German/American twist.

I'm Telling You My Dear, That It Can't Happen Here

By Joe Krawczyk

DO wear protective gear when harvesting mushroom logs!

The new planting season is always a time of reflection of the year gone by. We tend to hurry through life often forgetting how short and precious it is. I count my blessings every day for another day and another opportunity to hopefully make someone laugh and leave the world a better place.

I was a child of the 70’s. It was a turbulent time in this country with an unpopular war, riots in the streets and rampant drug use. It was also a time of personal expression. I can remember my first pair of bell bottom jeans and the grief I took from my friends for wearing them along with my stars and stripes tee shirt. Music was a big part of my life and one of the artists I followed was Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Zappa was very counterculture at the time and I really enjoyed the diversity of his music and his often outrageous lyrics. The title for this blog are lyrics from one of his earlier works and it pretty well sums up an experience I recently had.

I was tasked with the job of gathering some red maple rounds for an inoculation trial we were setting up and along with that, gathering the limbwood for a wood aging trial. I scoped out the trees I wanted to cut, sharpened the saw and put my safety gear on, which consisted of a set of chaps, a hard hat with ear protection and face screen, and sunglasses to reduce the glare.

I love woods working. I refer to it as my Woodland Workout Clinic since cutting wood uses every muscle group as well as your brain. I enjoy cutting down trees as I know the wood will be put to a good use and the trees I remove will release other trees in the vicinity, insuring the health and vigor of the forest. I particularly like removing red maple (Acer rubrum) as it is a native invasive species on our property and removing it releases the understory oaks from its smothering shade.

The maples I had chosen for removal were tall and straight. With a good back cut, I figured I could drop them where they needed to go without hanging them up in adjacent trees (yeah, right). Trees one and two fell as planned, but tree three landed a little too far to the right and the top wound up resting in the crotch of a multiple stem maple, about five feet off the ground. I figured it could have been worse, since there would be no need to get the tractor and chains to pull it free so I proceeded to process the first two trees.

There are always warning signs of an inevitable disaster, but sometimes the warning signs are very subtle and overlooked or if you're tired and neglect to take a break. That ever so slight pinch on the blade as I worked to the top of tree three should have been enough for me to step away and reassess the situation but afterall, it was only a slight pinch.

This veteran wood cutter got a lucky reality check

The next cut knocked me backwards and I recall thinking, “What the hell was that, a gunshot? As I fell over backwards the saw dropped off to my side and kept running. I recall getting up wondering “Did I just get knocked out? What the hey just happened and why was someone shooting at me?” I got up slowly and felt my nose (not broken!) and checked my teeth (all there!) and then I got that bloody taste in my mouth and felt the trickle down my face. I then knew I had an immediate issue to deal with. Of course I was working alone. I turned off the saw, walked the 100 or so feet through the brush to the truck and drove it to an area where I could turn it around and headed home. As luck would have it, Mary Ellen was in the yard as I was exiting the truck, and quickly realized all was not well. I assured her that my nose wasn’t broken and I still had all of my teeth. She checked to see if I was concussed and when she confirmed the symptoms with her M.D. sister, it was off to the emergency room where things got stranger.

We live in what is called an under-served area. No high speed internet, lack of public wifi, no Starbucks (well, until recently), and a medical corps that rotates through our local hospital emergency room on a three-month stint because of their unwillingness to settle in this "remote" location. As it turned out, the emergency room doctor was not from these parts and was unfamiliar with logging accidents. Blood was drawn, pain relievers were administered and after an hour or two of waiting he came in with this assessment: I was lying. I did not have a logging accident. I was cutting wood, but had a heart attack and hit my head on a stump. Hmmm. I guess getting smacked across the face with a four-inch red maple pole might do that, but he was not convinced, and my hospital stay was extended.

Happy for a relatively minor hospital visit

As you can imagine, this diagnosis set off a whole series of stress tests and imaging. As it turns out, I am just an average Joe with an average heart condition that’s to be expected for a guy my age, and for that I am thankful. I am also thankful, despite what to me seemed like overkill, for the work and professionalism of the medical staff that attended to me. Lastly, I am thankful I took that extra moment to put on all of my safety gear: chaps, vest and helmet. Just remember I’m telling you my dears, that it CAN happen here and when you least expect it. So step back and assess not only that last cut, but also the importance of all the experiences that life throws at you.

 

Above all, slow down and take your time and enjoy working in the woods!

Tips for Handling Mushroom Logs after Cutting

By Lindsey Bender

Growing Shiitake mushrooms on logs is a rewarding experience. Anyone harvesting their first flush of Shiitake in the spring will agree, (especially outdoors-deprived northerners after a long, cold winter 😊)  If you are planning on inoculating logs this spring, the following tips can help answer some questions you may have, plus, we share our newest research results concerning cutting and aging wood for shiitake logs. It's never too early to be thinking about mushroom wood!

• Start with the best quality logs whenever possible. Most experienced growers know that the quality of the fresh cut log is crucial to spawn run success and mushroom yield, and it starts with the log as it is cut from the tree. We all know the importance of cutting healthy, living wood. If you are cutting softer hardwoods such as Silver or Red Maple, select stems that have thicker, rougher bark.

Thicker bark (left of center) Red Maple is preferable to thin bark (right of center).

• Use best practices for storing the logs prior to inoculation. It turns out that certain wood species, due to their cell structure and bark characteristics, may prefer a longer seasoning time prior to inoculation (read next item below for more details). The longer "seasoning time" can positively influence overall mushroom yield.

• Wood should "season" at least 2 weeks before planting; longer for some wood species. Historically, the rule of the thumb has been "fresh is best," when it comes to deciding how long logs can sit after cutting before inoculation. Why? These very fresh logs are free of contamination because the living tree was warding off invasion of weed fungi. Fresh cut logs have abundant moisture, but must start to loose some of the free water before inoculation. Allowing logs too little time to season can result in a lag time in spawn run after inoculation. Spawn must wait for the log to start drying so the log can be hospitable to fungal growth. Trees have differing moisture contents by species, age and environment, but across the board it is moisture loss, the key factor in determining if wood is inoculation-ready, that suggests that the logs cure for AT LEAST 2 WEEKS prior to inoculation. This time allows for the free moisture in the log to be released but holds in the bound moisture, necessary for Shiitake growth.   

Log with sprout (center of the stack) suggests lack of cure time prior to inoculation -
notice lag in spawn run (no white mycelium on log end).

• A 2 week cure period may not be long enough for some logs – especially in Red Maple (and probably most other maples). Over the years we've followed the 2 week resting rule across the board in our harvested logs, regardless of wood type, but noticed remarkable yield difference in Red Maple logs rested for 2 weeks compared to several months of rest. We decided to take a closer look, and to see if the same trend was also true for Sugar Maple, a related species.

Cure Red Maple a few months prior to inoculation, even if the bark is thinner than you would like.

• The longest rest time in both the Sugar Maple and Red Maple in our study resulted in the highest yielding shiitake logs. In 2016/2017 we harvested Sugar Maple logs which were divided into two groups, one inoculated 1 month after cutting, and the other 6 months after cutting. Similarly, Red Maple logs were divided into two groups and were inoculated either 1 month or 5 months after cutting. All logs were incubated together under the same conditions then force fruited the following year to collect Shiitake yield information. Logs with the longest rest time prior to inoculation in both the Sugar Maple and the Red Maple proved to be the highest yielding Shiitake logs. Based on the results of this study, longer rest times for Red and Sugar Maple logs can increase spawn run success and overall Shiitake mushroom yields. Keep in mind that this study was conducted in northern Wisconsin where temperatures are cold and logs are covered in snow during seasoning. Logs cut in the south will dry faster and season quicker, so the 5 month time will likely be too long for those areas. 

• Protect your logs if you wait to inoculate. There are caveats to longer rest times. Below is a list of risks and how to manage them: 

• Losing log moisture – Store your logs properly in the shade, out of the sun and the wind to reduce this risk. Especially with thin barked trees like Red Maple, take care to minimize moisture loss over a longer storage period. Felling and leaving the tree whole and cutting it up just prior to inoculation is a good strategy for long months of curing, especially in snowy areas. Stacking logs on a buildings' north side also helps. You may dead stack them and cover them loosely with a breathable cloth to allow penetration of rain and snow. Before inoculating, check the ends of the logs for cracks. Small cracks are okay. If the cracks are wider than the width of a dime, then soak your logs in water for 12-24 hours prior to inoculation. 

Logs awaiting inoculation are dead stacked on limb wood rails to minimize soil contact.

• Contamination: If logs are cut into lengths prior to curing, store them off the ground, elevated slightly by rails or a pallet to avoid soil contact. Avoid consistently wet bark by tarping logs as they rest if you have weeks of continuous rainy weather. 

We wish you a spring season with mushroom-loaded Shiitake logs!

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Chestnut and Artichoke Galette

This rustic galette is an easy mushroom tart that shows just enough of the beautiful Chestnut mushrooms to hold intrigue and promise. Great as an hors d’ oeuvres cut into small wedges or as a main dish served with soup or salad.

Pastry dough:
2 ¾ C flour
½ lb. chilled butter
1 ½ t sugar
1 ½ t salt
1 egg
¾ C milk
1 egg beaten for egg wash on pastry
Pulse ingredients in a food processor or use pastry cutter to make a fine meal. Beat the eggs with milk and pulse or mix in to lightly moisten the flour butter mixture. Form into two disks.
Filling:
2 large onions, chopped
2 T oil
¼ t dried thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. Chestnut mushrooms
1 lb. frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and quartered 
1 C black, pitted Kalamata olives or similar
¼ C parsley
1 T lemon zest
3/4 t salt
1 C ricotta
½ C crumbled feta to sprinkle on top)

Sauté onions in oil until tender. Add mushrooms, stir and cover pan, continue stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Add garlic, thyme and artichokes, sauté together until tender for 10 minutes. Add olives, lemon, zest and parsley.

Roll out pastry dough. Brush with egg. Smooth 1 cup of the ricotta cheese over the bottom, leaving a 3 inch border. Layer the filling on the top and dot with crumbled feta. Fold up the edges and seal pleats with egg wash. Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes or until browned.

Makes 2 galettes, serving 12 as an appetizer

Roasting Chestnut Mushrooms Over the Open Fryer

by Mary Ellen Kozak

Chestnuts ready for harvest and roasting!

As a transplant from Michigan to Eastern Wisconsin, I learned quickly that the big, wet, living ditch of Lake Michigan changes more than just interstate traffic patterns. There are also dialect differences. A drinking fountain here is called a bubbler. A pop is soda,  and a grill is a fryer. A fryer is something you use all year, rain, snow or mosquitoes, and it resides just outside your back door for the easiest access.

A culinary feature of the Chestnut mushroom is that it can be grilled en-masse. The grilling of large, individual portabellas and shiitake is standard cooking procedure, but the relatively miniature Chestnut mushrooms cook in large handfuls, like enoki mushrooms or asparagus.  A preheated cast iron pan or grill pan  is a great cooking surface because the mushroom size is generally small and can cook to perfection without stewing them as will happen in a pan that is too small and too cold. Toss the mushrooms (including the long, crunchy stem) in a bit of oil or melt some butter in a pan and throw the mushrooms into the pan on the fryer. Stir. When they are crisped to your liking, sprinkle with salt and serve. 

One last comment about the Chestnut Mushroom. It is possibly the most beautiful mushroom you will ever grow indoors. Grow your own with one of our Table Top Farms.

Welcome winter with all the wonder that mushrooms bring. Happy Holidays!


         

Making Mushroom Tincture: A Joyful Process

by Laura Kahles

Watching a mushroom grow from a tiny pin into a brilliant fruiting body is a process that most people will never experience. The fungi that inhabit this world are often overlooked and taken for granted. If you are reading this you are most likely part of the small percentage of people that have watched a mushroom bloom into beauty just like me.

After harvesting, many experiences can come from a mushroom. Perhaps it is being packaged and sold wholesale, put into a till and sold directly to an eager customer, sauteed, roasted or grilled and enjoyed by you and your family, brewed into a delightful tea or even tinctured: an exciting transformation all on its own! Whatever it may be, take joy in the little things that mushrooms can offer.

Tincturing has become one of my favorite experiences with mushrooms. It is a process that requires patience, but limited skill. Tincturing is not a difficult process and the result is worth the wait. Mushrooms, when combined with alcohol, release vibrantly warm colors, each day darkening. Watching the color flow brings delight to the maker (that's me). On average the whole process takes about six weeks, even longer if you are growing your own mushrooms (which, by the way, makes the process even more satisfying).

Tincture making on a small scale is perfect for the beginner.

Why tincture? Tincturing is the best way to extract the medicinal properties that mushroom provide. Here at Field and Forest Products, we are tincturing Chaga, Reishi, and Lion's Mane as well as a blend call Fusion. Chaga is an excellent source of Antioxidants, while Reishi is know for its immune system boosting ability. Lion's Mane can increase memory function through nerve regeneration. Click here for more on Lion's Mane. Our Fusion blend contains 7 highly medicinal mushrooms including Chaga, Reishi, Lion's Mane, Maitake, Shiitake, Almond Agaricus, and Turkey Tail. The greatest part...we are now offering these tincture for sale though our website while supplies last.

Reishi Tincture from Field & Forest Products

If you are interested in learning more about making your own tincture read my blog on Reishi tincture. This same technique can be used for any mushroom. With a little patience you could be enjoying the benefits of this world's wonderful mushrooms.

Grow Shiitake, Oyster, Chestnut, Lion's Mane and Reishi Mushrooms with Ready-to-Fruit Blocks

by Lindsey Bender

Introducing large ready-to-fruit block orders to meet your needs
Starting December 3rd 2018, Field and Forest Products will officially enter the ready-to-fruit block market. 
      

Lion's Mane ready-to-fruit blocks.

Many mushroom varieties can be easily grown from sawdust-based blocks. The benefits of block growing are numerous whether it’s to extend the mushroom growing season, quickly fill in production gaps, easily diversify existing crops, regularly schedule mushroom production, or to explore a less labor intensive method to producing high quality certified organic mushrooms.  Field and Forest Products is now offering four ready-to-fruit block varieties (Shiitake, Grey Dove Oyster, Chestnut, Lion’s Mane, Reishi) in large quantity. We aim to work with each of our block customers to develop a customized plan to fulfill their specific needs. These larger quantity block orders come with an added benefit – a highly competitive pricing structure. 

Shiitake ready-to-fruit blocks.

Highlights of this new offer include:

1) Affordability – We offer quantity discounting (as low as $4.75/block) and competitive shipping rates.
2) Flexibility – You have the ability to mix and match mushroom varieties in a single order and schedule your order to ship in installments over a 12 week period if desired.
3) Reliability – We sell a high quality, rigorously tested product you can depend on.
4) Availability – We have the production capacity to support immediate shipping of most orders.*

Grey Dove Oyster ready-to-fruit blocks.

Are you interested in learning more? Start by requesting our complete Block Pamphlet. The free Block Pamphlet provides detailed information on our pricing structure, placing orders, scheduling shipments, product availability, grow space requirements, and details on each mushroom variety (average yield, number of flushes, production timing, etc). It is designed to give you the information you need to get started. Still have questions? No problem, our staff is happy to consult you!

1-800-792-6220
info@fieldforest.net

Reishi ready-to-fruit block.

Chestnut ready-to-fruit blocks.

*We do our best to provide a constant supply of fresh Ready to Fruit blocks that are immediately available for shipment. This depends on order size, seasonal demand, and variety. Freight shipments of 150 blocks require 4 week lead time from order date. Contact us to schedule your order as soon as possible so we can accommodate your demand.

Totally Shiitake Workshop: Trends and Techniques to Growing Shiitake

by Lindsey Bender

Shiitake mushrooms growing on logs.

Shiitake mushrooms are the best selling specialty mushroom in the world. They are known for their garlicky flavor, ease of growing, productivity, and reliable fruiting. For those that already grow shiitake, there are a multitude of strains and techniques to expand and improve your growing experience.  For those that are new to mushroom growing, there are many options to get started. At Field and Forest Products, we offer a wide variety of workshops annually to provide hands on instruction and training for anyone interested in growing mushrooms. On November 10th, we will be hosting an event appropriate to both aspiring and seasoned shiitake growers. This all day event will be easy going and casual, yet instructive and inspiring. Shiitake can be grown in a variety of ways depending on the interest of the grower, their needs, resources, timeline, and other variables. Stay tuned for an exclusive on the new shiitake “high-speed method”!

Specialized tools can be used to speed up the inoculation process. Pictured here are our Okuda Hand Inoculators. 

Growing shiitake on logs is the industry standard. This method provides a long term perennial option to growing high quality, delectable shiitake in a very passive way. Often times, shiitake logs can produce mushrooms for up to 8 years from a single planting! This workshop will cover everything you need to know to select quality logs to grow quality mushrooms. Participants will have the opportunity to be hands-on and use a variety of innovative tools to drill and fill their own log to take home. For the more experienced growers, this is the opportunity to try inoculation tools that will transform and simplify your inoculation process. After inoculating logs, we will tour the Field and Forest Products laying yard – a true sight to behold! Over 5,000 shiitake logs lay under the forest canopy in various stages and stacking configurations. There are a variety of options for log maintenance, management, and fruiting strategies to improve your growing and maximize log potential.   

No shiitake log grower can ignore the opportunity to fill the niche of gaps in production with shiitake sawdust blocks, so we also teach you where, when and how to use these synthetic “logs” to keep production as seamless as possible. Simply open the blocks, place them in a growing area, and be ready to harvest shiitake in 7-10 days!  We will tour the Field and Forest fruiting room that sustains our mushroom production throughout the year – but most especially during the winter months in northern Wisconsin when the shiitake logs are lying dormant outside blanketed in snow.

Shiitake ready to fruit blocks can be incorporated to provide continued production during cold months. 

Speaking of the north, the snow, and the coming winter…

Shiitake log growing can require patience.  Although it’s well worth the wait, logs often times don’t begin fruiting until the following year after planting. Northern growers in colder climes are also typically restricted to just the spring season to plant their logs. There is a solution! We are now introducing the “High Speed Method” for shiitake cultivation on logs. This method, developed by the industry leaders in Japan, allows growers to commence fruiting shiitake logs in as soon as 5 months after planting!  This new incubation technique also enables even northern growers to harvest wood in the fall and plant shiitake logs that will be ready for fruiting in the spring. The technique is simple but innovative – designed to continuously stimulate shiitake metabolism and growth within the log at the cellular level.

These logs were inoculated at an increased rate and incubated indoors, resulting in a rapid spawn run time. 

Growing shiitake can be as simple and passive or as intense as you want. Likewise, it can be a profitable opportunity.  Please join us on November 10th to learn what you need to know to become a part of the wonderful mushroom growing community. Each participant will take home a shiitake log, a ready to fruit sawdust block, as well as the knowledge needed to begin this fun, simple, and rewarding hobby. The workshop will be held from 9am-5pm at the Field and Forest Products location in Peshtigo, WI.  We will provide coffee, tea, water and bakery in the morning and a mushroom infused meal for lunch. Class limit: 25. Registration required by November 7th, no cancellation refund after November 8th, 2018. For more information or to register for this workshop, click here.

Grow Oyster Mushrooms with a TeePee Kit

by Laura Kahles

Oyster mushrooms growing from a roll of toilet paper.

The thought of growing mushrooms may seem too daunting for those just starting out. Maybe your green thumb easily withers away a few short weeks after purchasing your spring transplants. If you can’t grow plants how could you possibly keep mushrooms alive, right? Well, I’m here to tell you that mushroom growing can be easy, and more importantly ANYONE can do it. 

We have a few options for indoor grow kits, but I’m going to focus on one that allows you to do the planting yourself, our Oyster TeePee Kit. TeePee translates into TP, which stands for toilet paper. Weird…I know, but why not grow mushrooms on something that is easily accessible and a part of every home. Toilet paper, although not very rich in nutrients, can support the growth of an incredible mushroom…the oyster. This mushroom can grow on a wide variety of substrates like paper, cardboard, coffee grounds, straw, sawdust, and logs (just to name a few). It is mild in flavor and versatile to cook with. 

Rolls getting ready for inoculation. 

Kits come in a variety of size options, enough to plant 7, 15, or 21 rolls of toilet paper. And just so we are clear, these are not the toilet paper tubes alone, but rather the full roll of toilet paper. Each kit contains grain spawn (mushroom seed), filter patch bags, rubber bands, instructions and a recipe card. All you need to provide is a large pot for boiling water, tongs, and a spray bottle.

Let me explain the basics:

Toilet paper should be dipped into boiling water to hydrate.

First, heat a large pot of water to boil. Using a tongs, grip a toilet paper roll, and push it down under the hot water for about 3-5 seconds. Pull the roll out of the water and place on a clean surface to cool. Repeat with all toilet paper rolls. Once cool to the touch, place one roll in every included filter patch bag. Roll the bag down and pour the grain spawn into the center tube of the TP roll. It’s okay if some of the grain falls outside of the tube. Now, rubber band each bag closed (above the filter patch) and store in an undisturbed area between about 65-75 degrees. Closets, kitchen cabinets, or the top of the refrigerator work well for storage.   

Within 3-4 weeks you should notice that each roll is covered in a fluffy white mycelium (mycelium is like mushrooms roots), and this means it’s fully colonized and capable of producing mushrooms. The rolls should be put in the refrigerator for at least 48 hours. This will help to stimulate fruiting. If you wish to stagger the fruiting, rolls can be left in the refrigerator longer. Take the rolls out, remove the rubber bands, and pull open the bag to allow fresh air inside. Mist daily with a spray bottle and wait. Within two weeks you should be harvesting delicious mushrooms. Keep up the misting and the kit can last several months, producing mushrooms every few weeks. 

Watch our YouTube video outlining the steps above.

Toilet paper rolls are capable of producing several times if misted on a regular basis. 

This kit is interactive, and can be a fun learning experience. Often times they are used in the classroom for teaching the basics of fungi, and are periodically used for science fair projects. However, any person young or old can enjoy the wonders of this kit. If you are looking for something unusual to bring to deer camp this year, I guarantee this kit will fit the bill. They can make for interesting birthday and Christmas gifts too! Follow this link to buy one of these unique kits.

Home-Grown Hen of the Woods (aka Maitake mushroom)

by Mary Ellen Kozak

Hen of the Woods, prime for the picking.

Hen of the Woods mushrooms are members of the "superior" class of wild edible mushrooms. Crunchy even when cooked, rich in flavor, autumnal in color, they are a beloved mushroom to people who know them. Cultivated hens are referred to as "Maitake" (pronounced my-tahk-ee), but they are very tricky to grow indoors consistently. If you are lucky to find them in the wild, you will find them growing in late summer and early fall, often at the base of isolated oak stumps or growing out of radiating buried roots. You can revisit that stump, often for years, and find a hens roosting there every fall. It will likely take many acres of searching to find a hen, but when you do, it can be a prime photographic moment before harvest and hitting the pan!

Hen of the Woods really can look like a hen taking a sand bath and often blends into the landscape. No plucking is a perk!

Fortunately, if you have access to oak logs, you can grow them outdoors yourself. Inoculated logs will fruit for years every fall, but usually need 16-18 months after inoculation for fruiting to commence.

Maitake is a weak competitor. Like growing Shiitake or Oyster mushrooms on wood logs, you will inoculate the logs with spawn, but we highly recommended that you pre-treat the log first, then bury the log outdoors and let the fall weather bring on the fruiting. A prep/planting schedule looks like this:

Late fall through early spring → cut oak logs  
March through April → pre-treat logs and inoculate 
Through June → incubate logs indoors
By end of June → bury logs outdoors 
Fall, up to 18 months after burial → fruiting
Harvest a cluster every fall for approx a year per diameter inch of the log.

What is "pre-treatment"?
Wood logs come with their own protective bark sleeve which is sufficient to hold in moisture and prevent invasion of other fungi, allowing for fast colonization of whichever spawn you plant into the log. With Maitake, however, spawn run is unreliable but we can help it along by pre-treating the log in one of three ways: sterilizing it in a pressure cooker, boiling it for 1 hour or steaming it for 6 hours.

Which method is best?
Pressure cooking gives us the highest rate of colonization, but it requires a big enough cooker to hold a 2 lb. log, which we believe is the minimum size for good sized clusters and long term fruiting. Your pressure canner should be a minimum size of 12 qts, and you can process a bigger log if you have a 23 qt size canner.

This 12 qt canner comfortably fits a 2 lb. plus log.

Not comfortable with (or don't have) a pressure canner? The next best choice would be to steam or boil the log prior to inoculation. These each can result in a higher contamination rate in the finished log, but if carefully done and inoculated in a quiet, clean area of your house, can be very successful. You will need a large stock pot for either method. Boiling is a little more uncomfortable to work with, as the log must be boiled for one hour and taken out of hot water when time is up. Steaming (just as you would vegetables, rack on the bottom, a few inches of water and lid on) takes 6 hours, but the log can cool in the clean pot awaiting inoculation. We recommend using large autoclavable bags that will hold up to the heat with all three methods, but these are essential for the pressure cook method. If you have a large cooker you can pre-treat lots of logs, just like we did in the new FFP sterilizer (see below)!

Full instructions come with our Maitake spawn, or call us for a PDF of the instruction sheet.

Planting:

After a few months incubation, locate a burial spot for your log in a well drained area with partial to full shade. Dig a hole the size of the log and place the log in the hole (you can bury the log vertically or horizontally). Cover the top of the log with a dusting to 1/2 inch of soil. It's also a good idea to mulch the area with a thin layer of wood chips or straw to keep developing mushrooms free from splashing soil as they develop in the fall.

This incubated log is ready for burial!

Make sure to stake or flag where your log is buried. Ours have been lost under the hostas! 

Coexist

Try to install the logs where you have not seen a known competitor, such as Honey Mushrooms (Armillaria sp.) Because it is uncertain how much this fungus will rob nutrients from the Maitake log, it's best to try to encourage complete spawn run of the Maitake prior to planting it in soil. Maitake is definitely the better tasting mushroom!

This log was buried during the 2017 growing season and fruited September 2018. This log will continue to fruit  every fall for at least 5 more years.

If you don't have a shady spot in your yard, you can install your logs in a plastic milk crate filled with soil. Keep the crate tended through the summer by not letting it dry out. Crated logs tend to fruit a little earlier, but may have a shorter life, probably due to the tendency to keep the logs small enough to fit into a crate. 

You can bury the logs in a plastic tub filled with soil (line it with several layers of newsprint first) if you don't have a yard.

We dug this log up when it started to fruit just to look the point of attachment. Yep! looks like roosting tree poultry!

This log finally bore a tiny Maitake when inoculated with the standard totem method without any pre-treatment at all. This log is at least 8 years in the ground and is the only one of a dozen inoculated (without pre-treatment) that actually fruited. 

Growing Maitake this way may seem putzy, but it is the most sure fire and economical way to get Maitake, unless you are lucky enough to know where your wild Maitake trees/stumps are hiding. If you are "stumped" for good Maitake recipes, use them where you can showcase their crunch and distinctive flavor. Roasting on a sheet pan, they can be used in every way possible. This Roasted Potato and Maitake Salad is a recipe that makes the most of this special mushroom.

Roasted Potato and Maitake Salad

6 T olive oil
2 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes (6 medium) cut into 3/4-inch wedges
Salt and pepper
3/4 lb Maitake, rinsed and blotted dry just before using, ripped into 1/2 inch fronds
1/2 c marscapone cheese (or blend 8 oz softened cream cheese with 1/4 c heavy cream)
1/4 c orange juice
1` 1/2 tsp red wine or balsamic vinegar
1/3 c thinly sliced scallions

Preheat oven to 450° F

Coat a rimmed baking sheet with 1 T of the oil. In a large bowl, toss potatoes, 2 T of the oil, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper. Spread coated potatoes onto the baking sheet and roast about 20 minutes until just tender, flipping potatoes halfway through the cooking time.

Toss mushrooms, 1 T oil, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper in a bowl. Scatter mushrooms over top of cooked potatoes and roast 10-15 minutes longer.

Meanwhile, whisk marscapone, orange juice, vinegar, 1 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper in a bowl and drizzle in 2 T oil while whisking.

Flip the potatoes and mushrooms into a serving dish and spoon dressing over all. Toss to coat and garnish with scallions.

Serves 6-8

Recipe modified with compliments from Janice Thomas at the fabulous Savory Spoon Cooking School in Ellison Bay, WI