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Another thing to add to my ever increasing list of things I plan on growing... Mushrooms (hopefully of the edible kind!) - button, oyster and shitake.

Where can I get them from? (I've only seen button kits in my local garden centre)

Are they easy to grow?

When should I start growing them?

I'm planning to grow mushies this year too... I love 'em!!

have a look here:

http://www.mycologue.co.uk/

That`s quite a site, `commom` mushroom spawn is available from some suppliers (I think Dobies used to do it).

To do it as much more than a fun thing you will need space in a dark place and ideally well rotted straw based stable manure. The spawn in pushed into this and when you see the `run`-a creeping white growth,you `case` it with sterile soil( mole hills are handy).

I have to admit for not trying this for many a year now,and my success was pretty limited-I tried it in the old coal cellar two houses back and got some growth but mostly a swarm of little black flies. :-[

However I did manage to get hold of some spent but unsteralised mushroom compost a year or so back and got a super crop.

Stephan.

There was a thread about this not long since .Try the search facility.

I'm trying mushies at the moment - all I have is 2 boxes of mouldy soil at the moment though :-(

I cannot recommend highly enough, going on an adult education course in identifying edible mushrooms.

I have picked my own oyster mushrooms growing on a random log in the woods, and also picked more unusual things like saffron milkcaps and wood blewits.

Next year will see me out with my collecting basket as often as possible!!!

Ten x

You really should be very careful what you pick from the wild, some poisonous varieties can look exactly like the edible ones and can grow in the same vacinity. I would suggest that you go along with someone who has been trained or studying fungi for years, or at least let them have a look at what you have picked - before you start eating them! Most Forest Enterprises organise fungi forays for people to go on, these are always fun and you know that you can safely eat what you have picked. I've been on several of these and picked what I thought were safe, only to have them disposed of by the expert because they were poisonous.

Ten - I really wanted to go on one of them, but missed the local ones last autumn. Shall have to look out for it again this year.

I have identified quite a few in a book, but wouldn't dare pick any, just in case!

Funny thing about m'rooms - can't resist - pristine white balls (the ordinary ones) - in the fridge - a week or so later - 'oh!, we'd better eat these things'. Now blackish-brown. So - we'd better braise them in butter with lots of garlic.

How much nicer to have them sliced fresh and raw in a salad - or with prawns, ginger and soured cream etc? = Tim

Funny that, had some for lunch today.were beginning to look a little tired! Sauteed with onion and garlic, dash of white wine, a dollop of creme fraiche, on a bit of toast.was LOVELY!

Gosh.....Doris!...what a yummy treat for lunch !! Beats an ungarnished ryvita!!  ::)  ;D

I love ' Puff Balls ' !!  ;)  Find HUGE ones locally!!  ;D  Also very pretty but poisonous Fly Agarics and various Inkcaps....wonderful shapes!!  ;D

Yes, wild mushrooms are fascinating, I couldn't agree more with GrannySmith's comment. I would never have felt confident about picking anything even if I thought I recognised it from a book, but now that I have done my course I know which ones to avoid, there are a few species e.g. fairy ring mushrooms that can be confused very easily with poisonous ones, so I avoid those as well and only pick what I know, have seen, have taken spore prints of and know what they look like under a microscope!!

Now if only somebody could tell me where around South Yorkshire is a location with light soil on a calciferous base... so that I could go looking for Morels....

Ten x