Foraging for Mushrooms on the Web

by Susan Hutton

hen I lived in a small town a few years ago, I craved mushrooms. Some people there dreamt of sheep, but my slumbers were filled with bouquets of balsamic-soaked shiitakes, pan-fried along side raw oysters. But there was not a 'room to be had in the whole county (or so it seemed), so I began to forage for them on the Web.

By mushrooms, I mean the fungi we eat for their flavor, and not the magical mouthfuls that send you casting about after white rabbits down some mysterious hole. It's an important distinction, and one that's not always clear from the returned descriptions you get after searching on the Web. To prevent you from taking a bad trip, I've selected these choice morsels from the sites I recently combed through on my quest.

Masquerading as Meat
To clarify: by mushrooms, I don't mean the pale, umbrella-shaped caps that are strangled by cellophane in the produce aisle. I'm looking for the big, thick kind that can masquerade as meat, the kind you'll find at Gourmet Mushroom Products Web site. As their name suggests, you'll find mushrooms ranging from familiar citizens like shiitakes and chanterelles to varieties like Pom Pom Blancs, Hedgehogs, and Cinnamon caps, and a tasty--though slightly hidden--description of these various mushrooms' flavors and characteristics.

The site itself, however, won't knock your socks off. The navigation is confusing; however, if you're willing to ramble around for a while the site compensates for its shortcomings with odd and interesting information, and by the panoply of mushroom paraphernalia it sells:  mushroom books, mushroom motif arts and crafts, infused oils and kits with which you can grow gourmet mushrooms at home in a pot or in your back yard (for more about growing your own, see below).  And you can order products from their secure site, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Our rating: 

Shiitake Shakedown
Whether you're a confirmed gourmand or someone who's simply dabbled enough to know that you like shiitake mushrooms an awful lot, you'll be bowled over by the Kasagui Shiitake Mushroom page . It's a friendly site that has a kind of homemade-Halloween-costume feel to it: the seams are a little crooked in places, but it's got the right spirit.

Here, too, you'll find mushrooms you can buy on their secured server, and you'll also find everything you ever wanted to know about shiitakes: a slew of recipes for tasty, innovative ways to prepare them; a cache of educational and nutritional information; and lots of lore about Shiitake mushrooms' role in early Asian civilizations. Added bonuses: you can get a free sample package of their shiitake mushrooms, or, if you agree to pay the $2 shipping, a free retail package.

Our rating: 

Growing Your Own
The best bet for aspiring mycologists are sites that teach you how to grow your own, or that sell you kits and small, pre-treated logs with which you can do so. Think that growing oyster mushrooms in coffee grounds or spawning shiitakes from a treated log sounds appealing? There are oodles of sites that will vie for your attention. Be warned, however, that as a hobby it ranks up there with microbrewed beer, gourmet coffee, and stinky cheese.  Despite your time and toil you probably won't save money by growing your own mushrooms rather than buying them. 

That said, one of the sites I liked was the Lost Creek Mushroom Farm, which was the only site I discovered that had found a way to deliver three- and four-foot mushroom logs to you--a much touted but typically cost-prohibitive method.  The ability to mail mushroom logs is the site's best and only asset, however, and since they don't have a secure server even that is somewhat limited.  The site is all about business:  you can read a blurb about shiitake logs and you can order them, but you can't do a heck of a lot else. 

Our rating: 

If you're looking to grow mushrooms without investing a lot of capital, you might be interested in a mushroom kit instead.  With them, you can grow mushrooms in a pot or off a sawdust block in the same way you'd grow a house plant. One of the best places to find kits is the Fun Guy Farm.  They don't say why they call themselves that, but they do offer four kinds of mushroom kits and lots of other resources regarding mushroom cultivation, including an instructional video for folks who have graduated to commercial spawning.  They drop the ball on ordering as well, however; they don't have a secured server.

Our rating:

The other source I liked is back on the Gourmet Mushroom Homepage, which offers five different mushroom kits, and appealing photos of each.

Our mushroom-growing rating:  

Don't give up the hunt
If the sites described here don't satisfy your appetite, go out and forage on your own.  There's a good crop of sites this year.

Susan Hutton is heading home to saute some chanterelles.