Hello!

[CLSranch]

Beware: if you expect mushrooms to establish in your garden.... you'll have to keep the chickens/ducks away from your shroom sites!!!

Is it that they will eat them before they can get going or they put to much nitrogen in the soil. I'm guessing the 1st.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Yeah, the chickens scratch up the microcelium so they prevent the bed from forming. Ducks will snarfle the mushrooms up, and chickens will eat them also.

 

[Alaskan]

Yeah, the chickens scratch up the microcelium so they prevent the bed from forming

X2. . That would be the big thing.

Those little super tiny mushroom "roots" are so fine and delicate... when wild harvesting you have to be very careful, cut with a sharp knife right at or above ground.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

What kind of mushrooms do you harvest? I'd LOVE to have a mushroom mentor!

 

[Alaskan]

The family likes puffballs best, and there is a relative of them that grows in the woods that we also like, they are prolific.

Also morels are around here.

I need to get my book, and look up the actual names...

The kids and I, when they were little... would go harvest, and research all of the mushrooms...

But then we learned which ones we liked to eat .... and over the years I can no longer remember their true names.... the great thing about mushrooms is that they grow in the same spots... the mother plant is simply invisible ... but it is there.

Then you just remember when to visit or start checking each patch... and a wealth of goodies are laid out before you.

I trained the kids from the start to be SUPER careful with harvest, never pull or twist the mushroom up, always slice off the base at or above the ground...

So the patches have grown over the years.

 

[Alaskan]

Oh... when I first started, with the kids... we had a small local mushroom book, as well as one of those in depth mushroom guides, like the Peterson one that has everything.

And ALL mushrooms were put on white and black paper for spore prints.

When you start... you need to be meticulous and go slow.

The gilled mushrooms can be harder to identify correctly all of the way down to the individual.

Also... the really tasty gilled ones tend to get filled with maggots fast... have to harvest those very soon after they pop up...

But again, if the first year you learn where they are growing... even if they are maggot filled and you don't want to eat them... mark down WHERE you found them... and maybe you can get a nice fresh one at the next crop.

 

[CLSranch]

Any other suggestions for good eating mushrooms. I looked up fungi.com. Some of those they sell a a specific salt for are around here and I never thought about eating.
I did not find the wine cap there. I'm also not sure about what to order. They have a guide on what is good for your area and when but, I don't know which on that list is good to eat.
Any other gardening I can get a quicker grasp on. Makes me feel dump.

 

[Alaskan]

Any other suggestions for good eating mushrooms. I looked up fungi.com. Some of those they sell a a specific salt for are around here and I never thought about eating.
I did not find the wine cap there. I'm also not sure about what to order. They have a guide on what is good for your area and when but, I don't know which on that list is good to eat.
Any other gardening I can get a quicker grasp on. Makes me feel dump.

From what I understand....seeding an area with spores takes a LONG time to harvest.

If you want a quick return, you have to buy the plugs, or mushroom grow boxes or bags.

I haven't done any of the above... just wild harvest.

When I was a kid my mom did the mushroom box kits.

 

[Hinotori]

I've only collected wild mushroom. Morels you have to be careful with as there are a lot of poisonous look-alikes. They are my favorite though. Shaggy mane and inky cap were also common were I picked by one of the rivers.

 

[CLSranch]

I have ate Morels from up north. They are not common here. While looking at that web page I noticed several others that are familiar to the ones here. They didn't say what is edible or I don't know why they they sell the others other than plant production.
Also I do NOT know what I hit to make the print larger.