Mysterious Mycelium or Ordinary Mushroom?

Perhaps you have never considered the origin of every ones favorite fungus. Delicious stroganoffs, robust Italian red sauces brimming with caramelized mycelium and spicy schezwan dishes loaded with our versatile little friends. No matter what your taste in food, I have yet to meet anyone who was not some kind of a fan of the earthy mushroom. But had you really considered their genesis? After much debate and serious soul searching we as a family decided to attempt to grow our own Shitake mushrooms. Having had no professional training in the growth of fungus, outside the shower and the plentiful and varied crop of poisonous 'shrooms I excel at growing everywhere I don't want to, this was a slightly intimidating project. After all, what if a stray spore from a rogue poison mushroom were to somehow elbow its way into my house and set up residence among the innocent shitake crop. After ascertaining that the probability of such an occurrence happening was nil, we set about buying and setting up our Shitake Block. These inoculated sawdust blocks came from a company called Mississippi Natural Products ( Who, conveniently, happened to be selling them at my farmers market) after refrigerating them for a few days we sprayed the block down with water covered it with an included humidity bag and left it to its mysterious Myceliumn self ,on our kitchen counter top. Within days bulges appeared, and shortly there after ,whole recognisable mushrooms took form. This was better than any magic, add water and it grows, toy we ever got as kids. It is a wonder this block grew at all with the amount of watching it got. The good news is Mushrooms are not adversely affected by to much attention. When the exciting day came to harvest, everyone had a hand it. I would say there must have been at least two pounds of mushrooms on this block. Very little cleanup needed to be done before caramelizing these beauties in some coconut oil, worchestshire, garlic and white wine. A spattering of gray salt was added and every mushroom consumed with in minutes of serving. Since then, I have used them in hot and sour soup and spaghetti as well. Everyone is enchanted by the process of culinary mushroom growing and we are now considering broadening our horizons and cultivating button and portabello varieties as well. You have to appreciate a crop of anything that can be grown in a compact space on your counter and provide such entertainment for the whole family to boot. Particularly, when the item in question, merely sits in one spot like a lump on a log.