We stopped by the local mushroom growing plant and picked up four pounds of fresh Osyter  Mushrooms.  They were picked fresh while we waited behind the red line.. stunning mushrooms. While some will be eaten fresh cooked, most of them are being sliced and dried for future use.

“Oyster mushrooms contain ergothioneine, a unique antioxidant exclusively produced by fungi, according to a 2010 study led by Penn State food scientist Joy Dubost. The study found that oyster mushrooms have significant antioxidant properties that protect cells in the body. A 3 oz. serving of oyster mushrooms contains 13 milligrams of ergothioneine, and cooking the mushrooms does not reduce this level.

According to a study published in “Food Chemistry,” oyster mushrooms contain significant levels of zinc, iron, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, vitamin C, folic acid, niacin, and vitamins B-1 and B-2. The study concluded that consuming oyster mushrooms as part of a healthy diet contributes to recommended nutritional requirements.” Qouted from Living Strong 

These ones are being sliced lengthwise as much as possible, they will be dried out and then used in a few ways.

• One or two of the dried long pieces will be added to each pint jar of soups to add natural mushroom flavour to it as it cooks.
• A few of them together will be steeped into a tea that will be drank as a mushroom tea just for their health issues.  We have always eaten a lot of mushrooms in our diet but the cost of them fresh in the regular store has gotten higher and higher and with the droughts we are in, my local mushroom hunting for the kinds that we eat, the pickings are slim this year.
• This type can be soaked and used as firmer texture in soups, stews or mushroom fried rice style dishes.

Do you grow your own mushroom logs? Do you wild forage for mushrooms on your farm or local woods? Are you finding weather currently having a impact on your finds? Are you changing or modifying things in your meal planning based on the rising costs in the stores or in regards to what the extreme weather patterns have done to your “normal” growing season?

While there is still time to a point that some of my fall mushrooms might fill the larder with dried kinds of winter, I think its much more likely that I will need to use the local mushroom farm to make it happen.