A Walk on the Wild Side of Mushrooms
Written by Laura

It's fall, and what better to do than to take a walk in the woods. I set out with my two daughters on a little family adventure. We live about 20 miles northwest of the FFP farm. Our primary goal was to find some edible mushrooms. I decided to search a near by woods where, earlier in the year, I had found many hedgehog mushrooms. We did find some fungi, but nothing I was willing to put on our dinner plates.

Turkey tail was our primary find, as usual. Although nonedible (its leathery texture would certainly cause a stomach ache) and nonpoisonous, this mushroom is highly medicinal. We also came across Amanita muscaria, a highly toxic, but beautiful mushroom. Puffballs (Lycoperdon pyriforme) on a log turned out to be the highlight of the day for the girls. What kid doesn't love smashing these little things? I'm not gong to lie, I even like doing it. The puffballs are edible, but not when they have turned brown and produced spores. You have to find these things when they are still pure white inside and out. The giant puffball (Calvatia gigantea) would probably be more worth your time though. Beware, never mistake a young Amanita for a puffball!

 Amanita muscaria, should never be eaten.

After taking this picture all of these puffballs were squished.

Aside from mushrooms we saw a black squirrel and a tiny orange frog. I had also kicked up several white-tail deer, but the vibrant colors of the fall leaves were by far the greatest part of my day, visually. Exhausted, the girls found a place to sit and take a break. Our walk took place during the early evening, and the sun was in just the right place for picture time.

What a great fall background!

After the walk I decided to search a little closer to home. Most of the edible mushrooms I have been finding this year are right in my back yard. Early in the summer I had found a huge patch of Chicken of  the Woods on an ash stump. I was lucky enough to get even more from that same location this fall. Morels (not in the fall), Shaggy Manes, Oysters, Reishi (used for tea), and Hericium all grow very close to my house. These are all wild varieties too. The only mushrooms I have growing at home that come from FFP spawn are Wine Caps.

This flush of Chicken of the Woods, Laetiporus sulphureus, was found in the early summer.

Hericium coralloides growing on an old maple log in the woods next to my house.

The same log, Hericium higher up from the ground was pink in color (not uncommon).

Reishi, Ganoderma tsugae, can be seen from my living room window growing on hemlock stumps and downed logs.

My girls have learned to eat mushrooms in just about anything without complaint. Our dog Charlee has even learned to love them, but she does prefer them cooked in butter, never raw. More importantly, the girls have learned a whole lot on mushroom identification. In searching for mushrooms they are learning about their surroundings and everything that nature has to offer them. Unfortunately, they have also learned to complain: that my walks are way too long and difficult. I generally follow no path making them crawl under and jump over various logs. It's good for them, and I'm sure that someday they will thank me for our walks together.

Shaggy Manes are no stranger to my yard this time of year.

A pile of maple and beech logs which were supposed to be cut for fire wood have become one of my favorite mushroom hunting grounds. Oysters primarily grow here.

Edible wild mushrooms are not uncommon at the FFP farm either. Sure, we could eat only the ones we produce here at the farm, but that takes the thrill out of hunting for them. Comparing flavors, size, textures etc... is fun for us. This time of year two favorites to find are Maitake (Grifola frondosa) and Wood Blewit (Clitocybe nuda).

Mary Ellen holding a wild Maitake.

Caution should be taken when trying to identify the Wood Blewit.

Please know that although I have learned some things about mushroom identification, I am by no means an expert. I am lucky enough to have Joe and Mary Ellen around to help me out whenever I'm in doubt. Mushrooms are fascinating, but then again so are lions. Be realistic when it comes to mushroom hunting. Stay within bounds and never cross the fence.

Maitake: Mighty Mushroom of the Fall 
Written by Rachel

Along with the change in colors and crisp, cool wind, fall in Wisconsin also brings a plethora of fresh vegetables and a new flush of wild and cultivated maitake (Hen of the Woods). This particular mushroom has a leafy, almost coral like or extraterrestrial appearance and a fresh peppery scent (no, its not straight from a Lewis Carroll tale). The outlandish appearance, however, gives no indication to this fungus’s delicious flavor. When we sell these at the farmers’ market, the reaction is always the same: “What in the world is that?” or, my personal favorite, “Can you eat it?” The maitake is not only delicious and extremely edible, it also possesses many medicinal qualities that truly make it a “super food.” In fact, its extract is said to boost immunity and slow or reverse tumor growth and aid in the control of diabetes.

Maitake growing on a sawdust block in our fruiting room.

Here at FFP, we typically grow maitake from ready-to-fruit blocks made of hardwood sawdust. Each block yields one large cluster, which weighs about a pound. This may not seem like many mushrooms, but after the cluster is removed and pulled apart, the individual “leaves” create a fulfilling bounty. Once the block is done fruiting, it can be buried in wood chips outdoors for a subsequent fruiting the following year.

Maitake growing in the wild near the farm.

Besides growing maitakes on blocks, we also fruit them outdoors in crates. This method is fairly simple, but requires a fair bit of patience compared to the ready-to-fruit block. First, a log is cut into an 8x8 inch chunk, placed in a polypropylene bag and sterilized. This unit is then inoculated with spawn and left to incubate for three months. At this point, the log is removed and buried in a newspaper-lined crate, covered with soil and topped with leaves. If the moisture level is kept at a consistent level (just moist to the touch, not sopping wet) the mushrooms should appear within 6 months to a year.

This year, our maitake production has increased exponentially because of the ideal fall growing conditions. Usually, we anxiously await perfect fruiting weather, but we’ve had a fantastic season and can finally enjoy these delicious mushrooms.

My personal favorite ways to cook maitake are to roast or sauté them. Earthy fall flavors, such as squash, peppers, cabbage and pumpkin, complement the mushroom’s wonderfully nutty taste. Mix it with wild rice, cranberries, and asparagus for a new twist on stuffed squash, or sauté it with garlic and onions to enjoy it on a light pasta dish. It also makes a tasty and healthy topping for pizza. This week, however, I went against the grain and included maitake in a spicy dish with surprisingly pleasing results. This new concoction can be found in the “recipes” section. Although extremely versatile, maitakes have a short shelf life, staying fresh in the refrigerator for only about a week, so be sure you’re ready for them when they finally appear! However, they can be sautéed and frozen in airtight bags for future use.

Roasted maitake and peppers on polenta. Yum Yum!

I hope that the autumn months bring as much enjoyment to our readers as they do to us here at FFP. After all, what could be better than sweatshirt weather, outstanding fall colors, and some homegrown ‘shrooms?

Falling for an Autumn Log Inoculation 
at Field and Forest Products
Written by Joe

A change in leaves means it's almost time for fall inoculation here at FFP.

Autumn has definitely arrived here in the Northwoods. Our first killing frost was the week of September 12th. The geese are starting their journey south, and the bracken fern on the forest floor has browned and is beginning to topple over. This all adds up to dreams of late season brook trout fishing in the morning, coupled with a ruffed grouse hunt in the afternoon, but alas reality dictates otherwise.

I guess we have no one else to blame other than ourselves for our new found log inoculation schedule. In February of 2010 Mary Ellen and I took a tour of log grown shiitake operations in Japan and noted that the large operations (100,000 plus logs) did all of their inoculations in the fall of the year, and either held the logs inside for incubation or outdoors in plastic wrapped piles. Unlike growers in our southern states who preferentially inoculate in the fall and through the winter, we tend to lay low in the late fall and toss back cheese curds to bulk up for the onslaught of winter weather. However, last November when the kids were home for Thanksgiving break they begrudgingly agreed to help with a fall inoculation trial. We had several large oaks and oak branches become available as a result of stormy weather in September, and having the firewood larder filled, we thought it would be a good test to fall inoculate this wood and incubate it inside over the winter. In one day we knocked off about 60 logs using thimble spawn. The logs were crib stacked, covered with cardboard and then sealed in black plastic. The logs were held in our fruiting room where the temperature is generally 65-68°F with a relative humidity of 90-95%. The logs were placed outside in late May when winter finally ended (or so it seemed!)

This wide range strain, WR46, was inoculated Thanksgiving 2010.

The results this past growing season were favorable. We had volunteer fruiting at seven months of age, and logs were forced fruited at nine months with good results. It dawned on us, as we were finishing our 2011 inoculation in late June(!) that due to the nature of our business, it would make much better sense to fall inoculate logs when time and staff were readily available.

This past spring we met a local landowner who is in the process of thinning a hard Maple stand and expressed an interest in selling us shiitake logs as most of the wood being cut is between 3-6 inches in diameter. After a moment’s thought, of course we said “Yes, and please cut 500 of them for us.” It dawned on us later that perhaps there isn’t enough room inside for incubating 500 logs in our limited area, but with the help of a tape measure and some assumptions on log diameters it was calculated that we have enough room for just under 1200 logs in our allotted space. We assumed approximately 18 logs per lineal foot at breast height.

The logs are being cut in the next week or two and we will start inoculating by late October. We are hoping for an extended autumn with mild temperatures and rain falling other than during work hours, as we plan to inoculate outdoors as much as possible. The bet is on, that the weather will not cooperate, and there will be a million and one other things to do. We will probably end up inoculating indoors, but that is alright too.

This Japanese grower is showing us the spawn run on the ends of his indoor incubating logs.

We will be using thimble or waxless spawn for the inoculum because if we do have to move the inoculation process inside, we will not have to deal with wax smoke filling the workspace. We also like waxless spawn for this application because other than eliminating the waxing step, spawn rebound is excellent when logs are held in a warm humid environment. Wide range strains will be used for the most part as we would like to get some production from these logs for late summer farm markets next year. We will also be using WW44, a warm weather/greenhouse strain, as it has been shown to do well in Sugar Maple.

The inoculation flow will be set up in such a way that the logs will move from the stacked piles outdoors to the inoculation bench and then into a dead pile (logs simply stacked horizontally atop one another, ends all in the same direction), all placed on top of palettes set in long rows. The exception to this is the pallets at the row's ends where the logs are stacked in a crib (log cabin style) to shore up the rows. Once all logs are inoculated the dead pile will be covered with cardboard on the top of the pile to act as a sponge to collect moisture, and then the whole shebang will be covered with black plastic. The plastic will be stapled to the palettes and then the waiting begins. We did not water the logs last year during incubation and probably will not do so this year.

It is always hard to ignore logs in piles, particularly when they are in your way. So from time to time we will take a peek inside the plastic to see what’s happening. Visible spawn run on the ends of the logs is always a good indication that things are progressing.

For growers in the upper Midwest and northeastern U.S., fall inoculations are less encouraged because the window of time (cutting at first blush of leaf color and achieving inoculation at least 3 weeks prior to daytime highs settling into the low 40’s) is almost impossible to achieve. However, a variation on this fall inoculation theme could help make a fall inoculation with OUTDOOR incubation more feasible. Once the logs are inoculated, they are dead piled and covered as above, but outside where they will receive daytime solar heating. This will provide some additional growing time for the spawn to get established in the log. The plastic/cardboard will have to be removed and the piles broken apart and placed in their permanent outdoor yard in the spring of the year when daytime temperatures start to reach the 70°F mark.

These logs are incubating through the year with a winter inoculation in Japan. Notice the crib stacked logs on the end to stabilize the piles and the covering of cardboard, then plastic, then rice mats to provide shade during the summer months. Take note that the temperatures in Japan's main shiitake growing region rarely get above 80°F and cloud cover is generally the norm.

Meanwhile, maybe mushroom growing Packer fans can rest easy and don their cheese hats come January, knowing that most of the work is done for spring. Me, maybe I’ll get out opening day of trout season for the first time in a decade (or more) instead of schlepping in logs!

Sawdust to 'Shrooms
Written by Jasen

Shiitake block production starts with the hauling of about 800 lb. of slightly aged (about 6 months) oak sawdust into our building from large covered piles outside. The sawdust is then hand shoveled onto a shaker table to sift out all foreign objects and large pieces of wood. I can honestly say I have lifted, by shovel, 50 tons of sawdust a year for 6 years and counting.

Our state-of-the-art shaker table.

These pieces of wood have been removed from the sawdust. They will later be used as mulch in the garden as a base for Wine Cap Stropharia and in various other places around the farm.

Once the substrate is sifted to the desired size it is loaded into garbage barrels and weighed to 300 lb., which is a full blender load. It is then lifted into a blending paddle autoclave to rehydrate and sterilize the sawdust. After one hour of cooking the sawdust is ready to be cooled, inoculated and bagged into 5 lb. blocks. Each blender load produces around 60 blocks. At two loads a day, that's about 31,000 blocks a year...all by hand. 

Once the blocks are inoculated, weighed and sealed they are rolled, on carts, into the incubating room where they will age for about four months. During the incubation period, the blocks go through a decomposition process. They go from brown sawdust to white as the  mycelium takes over, breaking down the wood. The mycelium ages and the blocks return to a dark brown color. At this stage any fluctuation in their environment stimulates them to fruit. Either a large temperature change or physical movement brings on this force, so climate control is very important.

Pictured here are the stages of sawdust into a fruiting block. Clockwise: starting with the loose sawdust, a one day old block in bag, one week old, 2 months old, 4 months old, and finally a fruiting block.

The blocks are then removed from their bags and placed on racks in the fruiting room, where the temperature is slightly cooler and the humidity is around 90%. In one week's time, the blocks form pins, and within 10 days the crop is usually picked. Once the blocks cease to fruit they go into large compost piles to break down further and, eventually, are reused in the garden.

These Shiitakes have waited over four months to grace us with their presence. They stand proud in front of the sawdust pile where it all began.

A Lesson on Wine Cap Mushrooms
Brought to you by Team FFP


This is the time of year for wine cap (Stropharia rugosa-annulata) mushrooms to start popping out. Well suited for outdoor cultivation, these burgundy capped wonders grow on both hardwood substrates (chips or dust) and/or straw. They grow particularly well when grown between corn or asparagus rows, or even among shaded landscape plantings. Planting can be done this fall or early spring for a late summer fruiting. Interested? Check out wine cap on our website. Also, watch our video on wine cap identification below.

In the Market for Mushrooms

Written by Phoebe

For most people my age, Saturday means a blissful morning of sweet sleeping in. For me, however, it means the farmers' market. Preparing for, and participating in the Green Bay Farmers' Market is quite the process, and if you’re interested, you can read all about it in the next few paragraphs!

This is the basic look of our set up at the farmers' market in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The market is not just a Saturday morning event. In fact, the market more or less starts with the harvesting of the mushrooms up to a week before. To keep the mushrooms fresh, we pick them, place them in large plastic storage tubs, filling them only half full. We then immediately put them into a walk-in cooler until they are completely chilled, and then put the tub lid on until they are ready to be sold. This allows quick cooling and less condensation on the tub lid, keeping the mushrooms dry and fresh. The night before the market, we go through the process of grading mushrooms, separating out damaged, stained or wet mushrooms for our own use, then load the truck with the displays. We used to avoid selling the small “baby” shiitake (something all too common in the hot summer for log grown shiitake), but have found that many people prefer the smaller ones. A box of babies looks like A LOT of mushrooms, plus people like the “chef ready” benefit because if the baby mushrooms are tender enough, you can eat them stem and all; no chopping required!

The next morning the alarm will go off at 5:00 am, at the very latest (5:15 if you happen to be an older brother down for the weekend to help out). First on the agenda is, of course, starting the coffee maker. We then trudge out to the cooler to finish loading the truck up with the chilled mushrooms. A half an hour after I wake up, with coffee in hand, we set out to Green Bay. The market starts at seven, but we have to leave with enough time to get to the market and set up our booth, which usually takes 30-45 minutes.

This lively chap, Nik (son of Joe and Mary Ellen), is enjoying a lovely morning at the market.

After struggling to set up our slightly dilapidated tent that offers shade for both the mushrooms and ourselves, we set up our folding banquet table, table cloth and wooden display rack which my dad built to put all the mushrooms closer to eye level. Our “city certified” scale and orange crate holds the bags and cash box. Finally, we get around to weighing out the mushrooms. I enjoy simplicity in prices, so to make early morning life easier, we weigh out all of the tills to a quarter pound. We weigh them into plastic mushroom tills for display that can be emptied into brown paper sacks that have detailed mushroom handling and recipes printed on the outside (Field and Forest Products sells these great market bags). We sell the shiitake and oysters for three dollars a box, and the wild mushrooms, maitake, and lion’s mane for four dollars a box. I often try to bring out my creative side when placing mushrooms in the tills by putting three different colored oysters in one box. It makes the display very pleasing to the eye. We also sell a mixed “sampler” till that has a few of each kind of mushroom that we have available that day, so people can try new varieties.

Pictured here are three color variants of our oyster mushrooms: Grey Dove, Pink and Golden.

If the forecast is calling for fiendishly hot weather, we freeze ice cube sheets several days earlier. We constructed a box-shaped sleeve out of Cool Shield insulated bubble wrap, which can cover 4 tubs, and by layering the ice cube sheets between tubs and covering the whole works with Cool Shield, the mushrooms stay chilled for the whole morning.

As much as we are tempted to bring our other garden produce to the market, we stick to mushrooms. We try to bring as much of a variety of mushrooms that we can. Sometimes this is limited to only shiitake and oyster mushrooms. If the weather cooperates, we bring lion’s mane, maitake and king oyster, and if we get lucky while mushroom hunting, we will bring morels, chicken of the woods, or chanterelles.

We also try to have a few fun displays to make the market educational and bring in kids. The “Mushroom of the Week” display, especially during the wild mushrooming times of later summer and early fall, always brings people into the booth and we get to hear lots of mushroom stories. We also sell our ready-to-fruit shiitake mushroom kits; people like these because they are discounted and they don’t have to pay for shipping. We display a fruiting kit to attract attention; people just have fun looking at it whether they buy one or not! We’ve also noticed that a lot of Field and Forest Products’ spawn customers sell ready-to-fruit shiitake logs at their markets; they almost do better in total selling with those than the mushrooms themselves.

With the bizarre varieties of oyster mushrooms, ranging from gray to pink, we often draw eyes, and get the question, “Are these real?” or “Are these poisonous?” Well, yes to the first question, and definitely a no to the second. As my dad always says, “We like repeat business!”

Intrusion of the Fowlest Kind

Written by Laura

Last week tragedy struck the FFP farm. With Joe, Mary Ellen, and the kids gone out West, the homestead was more quiet than usual. During the late hours of Sunday night and into Monday morning, five of our ducks and four chickens were killed. Natalie and I had arrived at the farm earlier than usual so that we could leave for the DGA Conference in Chicago. Little did we know that just across the yard our fine feathered friends had been laid to rest. It was Rachel who made the horrifying discovery. This is her account:

"Upon arriving on the farm Monday morning, I intended to feed the fowl as I usually do when the Krawczyk's are away. However, when I approached their enclosure, I was met with an eerie silence. Rarely are the chickens and ducks quiet, especially in the morning when they want their breakfast. I was surprised to find a huge pile of sand and a large hole at the base of the fence. Then came the real surprise! All of the birds were gone except for three carcasses left buried inside the pen. Dirt began to fly from the hole under the fence, so I peered into it and found myself looking eye to eye with a badger. Needless to say, I made myself scarce and went back to the main building."

The two females in the lead and the male in the back were three of the victims. The others were no longer residents of the farm during the attack.

Peach and Ruth, two chickens that were lost.

Aside from Rachel's first hand sighting of the badger, they were also caught on the deer camera, which Jasen had put out Monday night. He anticipated a return since some of the kill had been left behind. Tuesday morning, when going to gather the camera, Jasen made visual contact. There was not one, but two badgers! One was much larger than the other, and they were coming out of the weeds near the bird enclosure. Jasen startled them and they fled back to where they had come. 


Had these badgers not been seen by Rachel, Jasen, or the camera, how would we have known we were dealing with badgers? Unlike fox and raccoon attacks, which the farm has dealt with before, this attack was clean. There was no blood and very few feathers strewn about the pen. The birds appeared to have no physical damage to their bodies whatsoever, not even broken necks. What we still don't know is if the birds were killed before being buried, or if they were buried alive. Perhaps the badger's strength alone was enough to smoother them during the attack. The birds were packed tightly in holes head first with only their legs and feet sticking out. This may seem strange and bizarre, but it is truly a learning lesson about an animal that most of us know little or nothing about.

The smaller badger, right above a hole along the fence, at night.

This big badger is no doubt looking for the food it stored the night before.

The destruction was devastating to all of us, but one female duck and one hen were lucky enough to escape. This leaves us with hope. We broke the news to Joe and Mary Ellen the day before they arrived home from vacation. They asked if I could take the duck home with me so that she could be with her own kind and recuperate from the ordeal (earlier this year I had taken two of the farm's male ducks). My general love for animals and my fear for the duck's safety made this a no brainer decision for me. She fit right in with my clan, and immediately began telling her story to the other ducks. The "chit-chat" she displayed to them brought a smile to my face. Who really knows what she was telling them, but it was obvious she was happy. The surviving hen went to Rachel's house to live with her own kind too. She was accepted with no incidents, and is equally content with her new life.  

Our sole surviving red hen.

The surviving female duck (furthest to the left) stands with her new friends.

With all of this said and done we are left to think about what happens next. As with anyone who has lost poultry to wild animals we have decisions to make. Do we get more birds? If so, how do we prevent this from happening again? An invasion from badgers was completely unexpected and unheard of by any of us. Although the fence here was fox proof, it certainly was not badger proof. 

Two layers of fence buried a few inches underground and out nearly a foot was not enough to stop the badgers from digging this hole. What is not visible in the photos we took are the amount of holes that were dug. There were not only holes all around the pen, but also holes inside the pen.

By doing a small amount of research, and from some personal experience, I have compiled a list of precautions to take when securing small animals, more specifically poultry, outside.  

• Be aware of the surroundings. In the weeks prior to our catastrophe, Joe had noticed large holes scattered around the property: clear evidence of new wildlife in the area.

• Roosts for chickens should be up high. Be sure the chickens have to flap their wings to get up to them. Predators will have a difficult time getting up this high.

• Put a chicken wire top on any pens to keep skyward predators and climbing varmints from getting into the enclosure.

• At night, put animals into some type of secure coop or structure with a floor.

• Pick eggs daily. Leaving eggs in the coop will encourage critters to get inside.

• Don't skimp when buying fencing. Badgers are incredibly powerful animals, and can get through most fences with no problem. Bury heavy duty fencing at least one foot below the ground, and out another foot at a 90 degree angle, creating an "L" shape.

• Install an electric fence or net. For larger predators, like badgers, this may be the only option. Be sure the fence is suitable for the animals living within. Talk to someone at your local hardware store or feed mill about which fence is right for you and your animals.

• My personal suggestion... have a family dog. Its barking and mere presence may just be enough to deter other animals from lurking around. Since getting my dog over a year ago, raccoon traffic in my yard has been greatly minimized. Please be aware that dogs, just like chickens and other livestock, come with a whole separate set of responsibilities.

I hope this information is helpful, and I wish everyone with outside animals luck in all of your efforts. When so much time and love goes into raising and caring for our animal friends, losing them can be hard. Feel free to share your personal stories and/or offer any additional advice on pen construction.

Please, keep in mind that the badger is a protected animal. If you have a persistent problem with a badger or any other animal, even after all precautions have been taken, contact your local DNR to discuss your options. 

For more information on badgers visit 

http://ontariobadgers.com/index.html or http://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/2010/10/badger.htm. The American Badger belongs to one of three sub-families of badgers, the other two being the Eurasian Badger and the Honey Badger. For a great blog that follows the Eurasian Badger visit http://badgerwatcher.com/ . I found this site informational and helpful.

"Thanks for this day, for all the birds safe in their nests, for whatever this is, for life."

- Barbara Kingsolver

Growing Excitement

This week Natalie and I attended the DGA (Direct Gardening Association) summer conference in Chicago. Arriving at our hotel was nothing short of amusing, especially to the locals. Not only did we try to go through the revolving doors in the wrong direction, but we also managed to become briefly stuck in the elevator (having to use the room key card to get the elevator to go up was new to both of us). Although slightly out of our element, we definitely had a great experience (and more than a few laughs). The objective of the conference was to give business owners (and their employees in some cases, like ours) new ideas and information to enable them to manage smarter while also learning ways to engage new customers. It was also a great opportunity to network with other businesses. We will be sharing what we learned with Joe and Mary Ellen when they return, and hopefully begin putting a few of those great ideas to work for FFP soon! 

Even in Chicago they tell you to GO to Peshtigo.

Managing a business and having to make decisions while the bosses are away is a huge responsibility, just ask Natalie! She has been managing the office for the past two weeks... that adds up to a lot of phone calls, a lot of order processing, a lot of work, period! For me, and no doubt the rest of us here at FFP, there is a sense of admiration. Admiration for Joe and Mary Ellen, who have kept this business going strong for 28 years. It's not always easy, but it is definitely rewarding. Especially on a day like today. A customer called with absolutely wonderful things to say about our mushroom spawn. He was sincerely impressed with the amount of oyster mushrooms that are currently fruiting at his home in Minnesota. As a first time grower of oysters, there was real excitement in his voice. Yes, mushrooms can be exciting! As with flowers, vegetable gardens, Chia Pets, and even businesses... watching something grow bigger and stronger and knowing you had at least a small part in it brings about a rewarding sense of accomplishment.

-Laura

These Almond Agaricus mushrooms, Agaricus subrufescens, just popped up
under one of the farm's pepper plants. Talk about excitment...I had never seen one before!