Books, Montana Mushrooms News

Book Review

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“All That the Rain Promises and More…” by David Arora, is a great book for learning the identification of mushrooms.

All That the Rain Promises and More If I could only buy one book to learn the world of  mushrooms, this would be it. This book is a companion to the  book ” Mushrooms Demystified”, which is known as the bible of mushroom guides, and is also written by David Arora. Since it is pocket size, it easy to carry, and the cast of mushrooms has been narrowed to a manageable size. Mushroom books can be overwhelming, especially for beginners. David has included a well rounded, common grouping here to learn.

The book has a “quick key” on the inside covers front and back, and is an efficient way to get in the right family. It then starts out with instructions on how to use the book. A general but thorough discussion on types of mushrooms, and the when and where of finding them is included.

The book is divided into general types and families. The descriptions of  each individual mushroom is complete and easy to read. Color pictures are included with each description,  and are of high quality. Almost all of the pictures are from the field, giving a good idea of what they look like in nature.

The book also includes stories about different people, and their most memorable mushrooms hunts. There is also a few mushroom type stories and anecdotes. They lighten the book up and give it a very personal touch and feel. David also lets us know again, that mushrooms are not dangerous and should be taught to children, and loved ones.

Where there is not room to cover a mushroom or one of it’s relatives, The book notes a page in “Mushrooms Demystified” for further investigation.  “All That the Rain Promises and More” was one of my first mushroom identification books, and it didn’t take me long to buy “Mushrooms Demystified”(we will cover it on another day). The two work well together for identification in the field and then further investigation at home or camp.

You can find this book at your local book store, as well as on-line. Vargo’s, here in Bozeman, carries a good selection of mushroom books, and I check on it regularly!

Cultivation, Montana Mushrooms News, Wild Foraging

Conifer Coral

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The Conifer Coral, Hercium abeitis,  grows on pines and would be a good candidate for inoculating pine stumps.

Conifer Coral

I have seen this mushroom growing from partially submerged logs. The fact that it enjoys this habitiat leads me to believe it would be happy growing from stumps. Literature from places that sell plug spawn for this mushroom (Fungi Perfecti) support the theory.

The Conifer Coral is from the Hericium family and is related to the Lions Mane which is a beatutiful mushroom also. They are both choice edibles and are easy to prepare.

I am going to spread this mushroom around to some pine stumps this year. There are plenty to inoculate with the pine beetle kill. I encourage you to do the same.

Cultivation, Montana Mushrooms News

Mushroom Cultivation Workshops

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Mushroom Cultivation workshops are a great way to learn mushroom growing and meet other mycophiles.

The second mushroom growing workshop I attended was this last October at the Bioneers conference. This was given by Glenn Babcock of Garden City Fungi in Missoula, MT, gardencityfungi.com. The idea with this workshop was to use a Master spawn to inoculate spawn bags for the participates to take home and establish an outdoor mushroom bed.

The workshop started with an interesting history on Shiitake mushroom cultivation. Then there was a presentation on general mushroom cultivation and life cycle. There was a question and answer session and then we got into the spawn creation.

The master spawn was from Garden City Fungi’s production Oyster spawn. It was in a space bag with a filter to allow gas out and to keep contaminates from getting in. The space bag is essentially a plastic bag with a filter and it is partially filled with sawdust fortified with oats. The bag is then sealed and sterilized. After cooling, the bag is then cut open and inoculated with Oyster spawn by pouring some spawn from the master bag into the space bag and the bag is then resealed. These master spawn bags can be expanded from 1 to 10.

The bags were then taken home by participates to start an outside mushroom bed. The bag was allowed to rest until the mycelium spawn consumed the substrate turning the mixture from brown to white. We were then instructed to remove vegetation from a small area and fill the space with hardwood chips. The space bag was cut open and spread on the wood chips and covered with leaves. The bed is to rest through the winter and flush next spring or fall.

I received a partial bag of master spawn left over from the workshop. I was cleaning up our garden at the time so decided to try and get the spawn to grow on corn stalks. The corn stalks were harvested and thrown in a plastic tub. The stalks were showing signs of mold so I was not sure it would work. The stalks were broken up just enough to fit in the tub and the tub was filled with water. After soaking over night the tub was drained and the spawn was mixed into the wet cornstalks. The tub was covered loosely and left outside since the temperatures at that time, November 1, were between 40 and 60. Acceptable spawning weather for oyster mycelium, but not warm enough for mold. The tub was left outside until the temperature started dropping to freezing at night. I am happy to report at that time the spawn had spread very well for coarse material and the project was brought into my garage. When the weather gets warmer this spring the tub will be put outside and with some luck mushrooms should flush. Checking on it this week the mycelium has spread throughout the substrate and is busy consuming the stalks.

I will report on the status of both the outdoor bed and tub experiments as they progress on this site. With a little luck and planning I should have lots of oyster mushrooms to eat this spring and fall!