A Fungus Fit For a King

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Woodpile crops can be harvested in both spring and fall, and—if the logs are kept cool and moist—you can sometimes get a good crop through the summer, too. Your oak stack will continue to produce for four to five years, yielding a total of about 1,000 pounds of mushrooms. (You needn't worry about the effects of exposure to light, ventilation, or cold winter weather, either . . . because the shiitake is pretty hardy.)

SPAWN YOUR SPAWN

To save money, you can grow your own spawn, for future use, from the seed you buy. Just mix oak chips with water, and process them in a pressure cooker at 15 pounds for 25 minutes. Allow the cooker to cool . . . open it . . . drain off the excess water . . . and pour the chips into a new, clean plastic bag. Add a bit of spawn (or a few spawned wood chips) and seal up the sack. After a couple of months, the chips will be covered with seed and ready to use. (Always remember to reserve a couple of chips from each batch to produce more.)

You'll find these mushrooms a delight to eat, since—besides seasoning the dish in which they're used—they retain their own unique taste. (Include them sparingly at first, because the shiitake's flavor is much stronger than that of its supermarket counterpart.)

"Mushrooms are the fastest-growing agribusiness in this country," says fungus expert Gary Leatham, "but—as people find out how good such exotics as shiitake are—many shoppers will give up the white button mushroom. When that happens, the small-scale farmer will reap the benefits."

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