Posts Tagged ‘mushrooms’
Morel Mushrooms
July 8th, 2010 | 
Author: Mushroom spawn is simply some kind of food which has mycelium growing through it. To make your own spawn you firstly need your own mushroom spores. Next you will need to get a large jar and fill it up with the chosen grain (such as Rye grain). Usually one syringe can innoculate around 5 jars. One jar can turn into 10 if done properly!
Morels, like all fungi and mushrooms, have an extremely short shelf life once picked. However, there are a variety of ways to store morels for future use.
Once picked, morels should be washed, cleaned and refrigerated quickly if they are to be eaten or frozen for storage. Morels, like many wild fungi and mushrooms, go soggy very quickly if not properly handled or stored, due to the spore content within them. Do not pack them too tightly when picking or storing, as morels compact easily.
If you prefer a more thorough wash, either slit the morels in half lengthways before immersing, or puncture the narrow end to allow easier drainage after washing in the salty solution. This root-like mass, and the valleys of the morel honeycomb, tend to pick up small particles of dirt, sand and humus, contributing to a gritty, unpleasant texture with poorly cleaned morels. Read the rest of this entry »
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Little Known Ways to Avoid Poisonous Mushrooms
Mushroom poisoning refers to the ingestion of toxic substances present in mushrooms. Mushroom can be poisonous due to the composition of their geographical location. Mycetism or mushroom poisoning refers to the toxic effects from eating mushrooms with bacteria or fungi. Even edible mushrooms can cause illnesses.
There are three categories of poisonous mushrooms. Mushrooms grow in different habitats. Observe your surroundings for unwanted mushrooms. Most mushroom related poisoning are with small children eating mushrooms found in the neighborhood. Some are allergic even to the safest mushroom. Eat only fresh mushrooms. Rotting mushrooms is harmful. Do not eat raw mushrooms and on large quantities. Most wild mushrooms are difficult to digest when eaten raw.
Avoid other mushrooms which look like amanita and false morels. Amanita has bright colored caps ornamented with scales. Toxic chemical monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) is present in false morels. It can cause vomiting, diarrhea, headaches. Try to find out signs on animals that have eaten mushrooms you are identifying. Identify names of poisonous mushrooms. The little brown mushrooms are small to medium sized brownish mushroom with spores of different colors. Lastly, be aware of the mushrooms toxins involved like Alpha-amanitin, Phallotoxin, Orellanine, Muscarine, Coprine, Arabitol, Ergotamine, etc.
Symptoms of the poisonous mushroom usually pass in 24 hours with no effects. Majority of the cases are due to mistaken identity of the many types of mushrooms.
How to Prepare Manure For Your Mushrooms
When preparing your mushroom beds, get the best quality of fresh horse manure you can, and sufficient quantity for the amount of beds you wish to make. Next get it into suitable conditions for making up the beds. This can be done out of doors or under cover of a shed. Out of doors the manure is under the drying influence of sun and wind, and it is also liable to become over-wetted by rain, but under cover we have full control of its condition. All the manure for beds between July and the end of October is prepared out of doors on a dry piece of ground, but what is used after the first of November, all through the winter, is handled in a shed open to the south.
When enough manure has accumulated for a bed, prepare it in the following way: Turn it over, shaking it up loosely and mixing it all well together. Throw aside the dry, strawy part, also any white “burnt” manure that may be in it, and all extraneous matter. Do not throw out any of the wet straw. We should aim to retain all the straw that has been well wetted in the stable. If the manure is too dry do not hesitate to sprinkle it freely with water. Then throw it into a compact oblong pile about three or four feet high, and tread it down a little. Leave it undisturbed until fermentation has started briskly, which in early fall may be in two or three days, or in winter in six to ten days, then turn it over again, shaking it up thoroughly and loosely and keeping what was outside before inside now, and what was inside before toward the outside now; if there are any dry parts moisten them as you go. Trim up the heap into the same shape as you had before, and again tread it down firmly. This compacting of the pile at every turning reduces the number of required turnings. We should endeavor to get along with as few turnings as possible, so as not to waste ammonia. At the same time, never allow any part of the manure to burn, even if we have to turn the heap every day. Read the rest of this entry »