More than you wanted to know about mushrooms

[Guest guest]

well, i cant speak for every single mushroom farm and I have no clue

about wild cultivated mushrooms. I'm not sure about specialty

mushrooms either, though I imagine this farm grew theirs in the same

general manner. So, keep in mind that what I am about to describe is

only for one commerical mushroom farm and only pertains to white and

portabella mushrooms (though portabellas have different names based on

their growth).

 

It all starts with hay, chicken poop, horse pee and water. Yup, you

read that right.

 

The mushroom farm has a partner farm that supplies them with the

chicken poop and horse pee.

 

The hay, urine and feces are mixed together a la compost heap

(STINKY!!!!) and watered down. The piles are huge and sit on outside

flats and allowed to cook in the sun year-round (even when it's

snowing!) When the core of the heap reaches 180 degrees the pile is

turned and the compost is put through a chipper and goes to the next

phase.

 

I cannot tell you in words how much that stinks. My husband didn't

work in the actual farm, he worked in the building next door, had his

own little office and everything. Aside from the few instances when

he had to shadow the actual farm workers he rarely left the office

building due to govt health standards. He stunk so horribly after

work that I refused to ride in his car and I seriously made him take

off all of his clothes in the garage and come inside and take a shower

first thing. I wouldn't even bring his clothes in through the house

to wash them, they went in through the utility door which lead right

to the washing machine. I'd have the washing machine empty every

night so we could wash his stuff right away.

 

Back to the mushrooms...

 

Inside the growing building there were palates approximately 11 feet

long and 6 feet wide, stacked like shipping crates almost with about

12 " between them. They were stacked 3 or 4 high, sometimes as many as

6 high.

 

The compost mulch is spread out in these palates. The palates are

rotated so the oldest shrooms are always on the bottom of the pile.

 

The mushroom spores are spread by hand into the new mulch and allowed

to sit for I think it was 12 or 24 hours,maybe 36, I know it wasn't a

long period of time. After that time the baby mushrooms start to come

up and the crop is thinned so there is 1 shroom growing per inch of

palate.

 

Another day or two and the mushrooms that aren't growing well are thinned.

 

Another day or two later the mushrooms are ready to be cultivated

UNLESS they are giant portabellas or whitecaps for grilling, etc.

 

The mushrooms are then seperated into grades. There is stuffing grade

(big enough to stuff but not to grill for a sandwich), there is ready

to eat grade (what you buy in the produce section) and there is soup

grade. An experienced shroom picker can accurately pick, size,

seperate and fill 3 bushel barrels in about 20 minutes of picking.

Pickers have a little ruler on them that they can use to judge the

mushroom but after a few months they don't need to use it often.

 

The soup grade mushrooms are the shrooms too small to go with the

ready-to-eat shrooms, have a bit of scale (which I will explain

later), are a bit off in color or have some other minor blemish. The

really ugly ones are made into soup (imagine that). The not so nice

looking ones but not too terrible either are usually sent to be

processed into cans. The nicer looking ones that are just too small

are sent for processing in glass gars.

 

Things you don't want to see in a mushroom when you buy it...

 

air spots - This is not really a bad thing and it alone shouldn't stop

you from buying a mushroom, it just means the shrooms aren't as fresh

as they could be. An air spot occurs when the mushroom browns at the

exact spot where the air hole in the plastic wrap meets the mushroom.

Air spots develop quicker when they aren't kept cool enough. In a cool

environment air spots will develop about 3 days after they hit the

shelf (which can be a week after they were picked).

 

scale - scale is when the mushroom looks, well, scaly! It doesnt

necessarily mean the shroom is bad, just that it is getting not so

fresh. A little bit of scale isn't usually an issue and won't affect

taste, but you want to avoid it if you can, especially if you need the

cooked mushrooms to look pretty. Scaled mushrooms tend to peel when

washed and cooked. A lot of scale means put the package back and get

another pack. Scale combined with air spots = old mushrooms!

 

Slime - obviously if your shroom is slimy it's way past it's prime, put it back.

 

unusual smell - mushrooms smell funky and that's fine, but the more

mushroomy it smells the older it is.

 

firmness - poke the mushroom gently through the plastic wrap, it

should have some give and not instantly bruise.

 

and finally, ALWAYS look at the mushrooms under the top layer.

Sometimes the top layer will have air spots or scale but the ones

underneath it are fine...or the ones underneath could be worse.

 

Oh, and you are supposed to wash your mushrooms under running water,

brushing dirt off with your fingers. Don't use a mushroom brush. If

you wash them, dry gently and seal in a sealed bag they will store in

the fridge for a week or so. Air and moisture are the enemies of a

good tasting mushroom. You don't want to freeze mushrooms as they get

chewy.

 

There you have it

 

Meg