Fungus foray

I woke up this morning feeling 'fungussy', I think its a combination of all this wet humid weather and Liam giving me some old oak boards that I thought I would try and spawn with some tasty 'shrooms.
I've already got an oak log in the back from when I helped cut down a dead tree for a colleague a few years back, its now sprouting with a wonderful display of 'cloud ear' mushrooms , normally retailing in china town for £1.50 a pack. They make great texture to 'shroomy' meals and fresh like mine are comparable to more expensive oyster mushrooms. Anyway I decided to plan a foray for some other edibles to accompany these for a tasty Sunday brunch.

I am aware that when it comes to fungi people get a bit jumpy unless they are in nicely neated cellophaned punnets. Too right, Vitaly, my ukrainian friend had told me tales of family members, experienced in fungi hunting falling ill from a foul forage. I hope this hasn't put you off, if you wish to go no further thats ok , but you can still have a go at cultivating your own with a little help from nature and not much room.
Get yourself some clean ,untreated,broadleaf boards of wood. Whilst shitakes appear to prefer pine, more native species of fungi like oak, birch and elm. Soak your boards in water for a good few days then find a suitable area of ground, in partial shade, and lay the boards on top. If you have spawn, which isn't too costly these days, you should sprinkle it between the boards. If you dont have spawn, and you fancy fungi lottery, theres plenty of it around in nature and all it takes is a few handfuls of litter from your local forest floor to innoculate your wood.
The key thing to cultivating your own fungi is to promote the decay of the wood, that involves keeping it damp and relatively warm. Ive experimented with putting cardboard or plastic over the wood with and frequently removing this cover during warm weather.
If you are doing this in an urban setting then logs might prove better. The picture of the Inky Caps was taken just yesterday on an edge of a construction site in the centre of town! Again soak logs for a few days, a bucket will do for this. Find yourself a sheltered spot to pile logs in, but firstly lay down a sheet of plastic, and then a layer of brown cardboard with your logs on top.
The good thing about having a go at encouraging fungi to grow is that you can always find some ideal wood in skips or acquire some by word of mouth. Once you've got your wood and have a spot for it you can let nature do its own thing and see what happens.

More updates on foraging for mushrooms to come...

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