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Friday Favorites: Fabulous Fungi

November 19th, 2010

I couldn’t do Friday Favorites for very long without talking about mushrooms. I’m a huge fan of mushrooms, one of my favorite ways to eat them is simply sauteed in butter, I could eat them every day, and do several times a week.

I love mushrooms of all shapes and sizes from the regular old white button mushrooms to the lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms that I buy at my local farmer’s market. I think my favorite of all are crimini, or baby bella mushrooms. There’s just something about these little beauties. Recently I just discovered hen of the woods mushrooms and I’ve been enjoying them in some mushroom lasagna.

In the spring we hunt for morels, but not for any other varieties. This winter I want to spend some time reading about growing my own mushrooms and hopefully in the spring I’ll inoculate some logs and give it a go. I’m hoping to go visit our local mushroom grower to get some tips and maybe I’ll be able to buy spawn plugs from them.

One of the best parts about loving mushrooms so much is that they’re super good for you. Eating mushrooms regularly can help you fight off the cold and flu and help you fight all sorts of things like cancer, obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. Here’s an interesting article about mushrooms and immunity.

So what about you, are you a mushroom lover or a hater?

19 Comments to “Friday Favorites: Fabulous Fungi”
  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mark mile, Susy Morris. Susy Morris said: Friday Favorites: Fabulous Fungi http://goo.gl/fb/G9HLB #aboutme #fridayfavorites #mushrooms […]

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  2. kristin @ going country on November 19, 2010 at 9:01 am

    LOVE. One of the (many) things I meant to do this year and never got around to was inoculating a spruce stump near the house with hen of the woods. Maybe next year . . .

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  3. tj on November 19, 2010 at 9:56 am

    …Oh love! I love ’em like you said, simply sauteed in butter or even sliced raw and on a salad – yum!

    …Is it true that the only way to preserve mushrooms is by dehydrating? Just wondering.

    …Do you have your Mushroom Lasagna recipe posted here?

    …Blessings… :o)

    Reply to tj's comment

    • Susy on November 19, 2010 at 7:44 pm

      I’ll be posting the recipe soon.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  4. LB on November 19, 2010 at 10:13 am

    I love mushrooms!! I finally learned not to put too many in a pan when I saute them- if they’re touching each other they don’t cook as well. I wish my local farmers market had that kind of selection– those look delicious.

    Reply to LB's comment

  5. Terry on November 19, 2010 at 10:54 am

    My Dad grew some shitaki mushrooms when I was growing up. It was very easy, you should defiantly try it if you love mushrooms! I don’t like to eat them but growing them was a lot of fun!

    Reply to Terry's comment

  6. Michelle on November 19, 2010 at 11:05 am

    LOVE mushrooms…and I didn’t even know it until I was an adult because my mom hated them and never made them! I’ve been doing some research on growing my own mushrooms, as well…I recently received a catalog that I’ve been mulling over. I think this may be a spring time project for me as well…this winter I’ve made goals to learn to bake bread and sew a patchwork quilt!

    Reply to Michelle's comment

  7. Jennifer Fisk on November 19, 2010 at 11:35 am

    The only mushroom I feel confident in picking is the Meadow mushroom. Growing up, we collected them by the shopping bag full and had sauteed wild mushrooms for a meal. They have so much more flavor than the buttons you get in the grocery.
    I would love to know more wild ones and to be able to grow some of the ones you’ve pictured.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  8. amy on November 19, 2010 at 1:50 pm

    Love……Oftentimes they will have them on sale at the grocery and then I can buy them in bulk and dehydrate them…..

    Reply to amy's comment

  9. amy on November 19, 2010 at 1:50 pm

    Love……Oftentimes they will have them on sale at the grocery and then I can buy them in bulk and dehydrate them…..I like to saute them in wine and butter with a little garlic….

    Reply to amy's comment

  10. Helen on November 19, 2010 at 2:45 pm

    You really are a mushroom addict. Here in the UK you can buy mushroom growing kits. Either you get a log that is impregnated or you get a box of imprenated compost. I wonder if there is something similar in the US

    Reply to Helen's comment

    • kristin @ going country on November 19, 2010 at 3:12 pm

      Yup. I used one of the boxes last year. Fun, but kind of pricey for the number of mushrooms you get.

      Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  11. deedee on November 19, 2010 at 3:16 pm

    definitely a lover!

    Reply to deedee's comment

  12. Renee on November 19, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    I can eat cooked mushrooms if I have to, but I’m just not a huge fan of the cooked-mushroom texture. However, I really like raw mushrooms on salads.

    What is a good ‘beginner’ atypical mushroom you would recommend that’s good raw?

    Reply to Renee's comment

    • Susy on November 19, 2010 at 7:46 pm

      I’d start with oyster mushrooms first.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  13. misti on November 19, 2010 at 9:36 pm

    We harvested some fresh morels on our hike, but I think some didn’t get cooked well enough because we got a little sick!

    Reply to misti's comment

    • Susy on November 19, 2010 at 10:15 pm

      Oh No, I usually cook ours for quite a while, usually with a venison roast so they’re in the oven for 2-3 hours.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  14. Vegetable Garden Cook on November 20, 2010 at 12:11 am

    I love mushrooms! I wish that I could afford to eat them everyday. Last year I really wanted to grow my own mushrooms and bought several of the kits. Evidently I didn’t do any of them right, as I only got one to produce one fruit. I got mad and threw them all into the compost, which I haven’t turned yet.

    I’ve got my ap ready to go for the local mycological society. There’s chanterelles and tons of other mushrooms in the Northwest. I want to know all about them. I want to identify the million different mushrooms on my property. I’ll be writing about what I learn on my blog, too!

    Reply to Vegetable Garden Cook's comment

  15. louisa @ TheReallyGoodLife on November 26, 2010 at 11:35 am

    I’m firmly in the love camp too.

    This year I’ve been focusing on learning how to identify wild ones – which has been very interesting but is going to be slow going! I’d strongly recommend going on organised identification walks or events – even if you don’t think you’ll ever be confident enough to pick your own, they’re fascinating.

    Next year, we’ll be growing our own oysters from spore plugs. We’re going to put those logs in different spots around our garden to see where they grow best – and hopefully, in time, spread their spores around too.

    Favourite recipe: lightly sauteed in butter and a little garlic so they drip with juices when you cut into them, mmm.

    Reply to louisa @ TheReallyGoodLife's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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