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MUSHROOMING INTEREST

Rejoice, you friends of fungi! These days, an increasing number of mushroom-growing kits are becoming available . . . and in the not-too-distant future, you should be able to cultivate some of the more exotic (and flavorful) fungi.

You're probably already familiar with the kits for growing Agaricus bisporus, the common button mushroom . . . they're shown in many seed catalogs. Now, several of those mail order firms also offer setups that allow you to sample the pleasures of growing the oriental Shiitake mushroom, Lentinus edodes. Most of these kits will produce about a pound or two of the delectable fungi, but if you've developed a fondness for Shiitake, you'll want to move up to growing larger quantities. Enter firms

such as Bob Harris's and Jennifer Snyder's Mushroom people (Dept.TMEN, P.O. Box 158, Inverness, California 94937). These folks offer a bag of Shiitake mushroom spawn plugs enough to inoculate 20 to 50 logs that are one to three feet long-for $15, postpaid. (Discount prices are available with larger orders.) You can figure on harvesting between 1-112 and 3 pounds of tasty fungi per log . . . which (at the wholesale price of $3.OC per pound) means you'll have at least $90 worth of mushrooms! Bob has also developed a method that shortens the growing period from two years to as short a time as four months. You can find out about that process in his nicely illustrated pamphlet called "S hiitake Gardening" ($3.00, postpaid).
Meanwhile, in Texas a

transplanted Frenchman is starting up the American truffle industry. Yes, the "black diamonds" (so prized by gourmets that the fungi sell for as much as $500 a pound!) have finally been cultivated . . . although the seven-year crop has so far fruited only in France. Frangois Picart, formerly a snail grower, has established Agri-Truffle . . . a company devoted to marketing oak and filbert seedlings whose roots have been mycorrhized by the spore of Tuber melanosporum, the black truffle. In order to thrive, the delicious fungi require a well-drained, calcareous soil with a pH above 7.2. Organic matter should be low between 2% and 8%-and the climate mild, With the soil freezing no deeper than three inches. Currently, inoculated seedlings (in minimum lots of ten) cost about $14 each from AgriTruffle (Dept. TMEN, Star Route 1A, Box 45A, Dripping Springs, Texas 78620) or $12 apiece

from Mushroom people. Since no truffles have fruited in this country yet, though, it might not be a bad idea to send for an introductory packet ($2.00 postpaid from Agri-Truffle) before you order any "trees". This informative kit even tells how to train pigs (or-less colorfully dogs) to sniff out the earthy gems!
Also tantalizingly just over the horizon is the prospect of cultivated morels, to my way of thinking among the most delicious mushrooms. (If I sound a bit smug, I am: The fungi grow by serendipity under my apple trees,) In 1981, Ronald Power reported success in cultivating morels . . . and his claim has been validated by a team of mycologists at Michigan State University. Commercial spore production is a few years away, but the possibility alone should be enough to make true morel-lovers smack their lips in anticipation.

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