Oyster Mushrooms

Photo by Ruby Jung. All rights reserved.

Oyster Mushrooms begin to make their appearance in the Fall and fruit all winter.

Photo by Ruby Jung. All rights reserved.

While I generally find late fall and winter a depressing time there are those who find it exhilarating. And one of these groups are the Oyster Mushroom hunters since early December is the peak fruiting time for this species.

Large, tasty and easily recognized these are popular mushrooms to hunt. These light gray fungi are nearly always found in clusters on relatively large logs looking like a colony of oysters marooned at high tide (they don't taste like oysters). They are also found on dead or dying trees growing out of their sides. They're especially abundant on logs and trees in low wet areas along creeks and rivers. But they can also be found in stacks of firewood, old sawdust piles and windrows of scrub timber in recently cleared fields. Should you want to try your hand at mushroom cultivation then this is the species for you since it's one of the easiest species to grow. And if you should find a log with a plentiful flush of newly risen Oysters on it take it home and wait. Most logs produce two or three flushes before they quit producing. Happy hunting!

They're also one of the easiest mushroom species to cultivate since they'll grow on anything containing cellulose. Plastic bags of inoculated sawdust are available commercially for the home grower and usually produce several pounds of these delicious fungi over the course of several weeks. Do-it-yourselfers can imitate the commercial method by dropping well-washed pieces of mushroom into plastic bags of fresh, clean, moist sawdust. Once the mycelium begins to grow - ie when the sawdust appears covered with what looks like white mold - punch several holes in the bags and refrigerate for a month or so. Once removed from the refrigerator and hung up in a warm place the mushrooms will appear shortly thereafter.

An edible mushroom for every month of the year was featured in The 2003 Waterman & Hill-Traveller's Companion. Get your copy today! You can use Paypal or your own checkbook.

For more detailed information on home cultivation of fungi refer the 2003 WHTC and to Growing Morels in our Feature Archive.

Also in our Feature Archive:

• Ruby's Hot and Sour Oyster Mushrooom Soup

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