i just got my first wine cap haul as well this past fall. I sliced and dehydrated in a dehydrator and that works great but slow. The other way i did was slicing , sautéing and freezing.
Brilliant! Awesome to hear, thanks so much! That's cool that you have experience with a food dehydrator. I know wine caps have a very high water content, and the chitin can be relatively tough, somewhat complicating the drying process. I will definitely continue to experiment with drying them. Sauteing them before freezing is pretty interesting, I will have to try that. I'd figure it'd probably be a great addition to hummus, soups, stir fries etc. Thanks again!
Grab a NESCO dehydrator and slice them thin and load it up on 95 degrees let them dry overnight and store in glass jars with dry-n-dry desiccant packets. In a gallon jar you can fit probably 5 lbs or more of mushrooms. That whole patch would only be like 3 or four big jars of dry mushrooms. I could eat all that in less than a year just making spaghetti.
You can try making mushrooms ketchup out of them. The byproduct can also be used as seasoning. The channel Townsend made a video about this interesting sauce.
Wow! That's crazy awesome! I will absolutely have to try that. I was familiar with their channel, but not that particular video, many thanks for the recommendation. It's also cool that nothing goes to waste, one can make both the mushroom ketchup and the mushroom powder. Thanks again!
Dehydrators are cheap. They last forever....only way to dry mushrooms, at least until you can afford $3000 harvest right freeze dryer. Store the dried mushrooms in a sealed container with a silica pack or two. Otherwise they can get leathery
Hello, when I first spread and covered the wine cap grain spawn in the early Spring, I just made sure there was plenty of mulch ( I think I had 4-5 inches, with a layer of cardboard at the bottom. That Spring I got a pretty minimal harvest. The mycelium continued to grow throughout the Summer under the wood chips. In the Fall, when temperatures began to cool somewhat and moisture was adequate (i.e., after a good rain) there were 2 huge flushes of wine caps. The soil and all the decomposed organic matter they left behind was pretty amazing, at least by standards. I used some of that residual soil as a potting mix for my plant starts the next year. The results were impressive.
Zone 6b-7. They can definitely be grown further North. Probably South too but I don't know for sure. When temps go above 70F wine caps will go dormant until temps decrease again. Probably the further South one goes, the wine caps would 'fruit' closer to Winter time.
Give it a go! Seriously, Wine Cap are so prolific that you'll probably have success just about anywhere. If where you live gets extremely cold / snows, you could experiment with a small patch first and build a mini greenhouse / cold frame to keep them in, or even find a space in the house or garage really. Just make sure not to use any treated material for your substrate (I used dyed wood chips the first time... they grew no problem but I realised they'd potentially be toxic and had to start all over again). A combination of straw (sugar cane mulch is great) and any untreated woodchips is ideal. The mycelium can breakdown the straw rather quickly to build itself up before eating the wood chips, kind of like a combination of kindling and logs for a fire.
One of these days I`m gonna try to make a mushroom patch. I`ve only seen a few here that I didn`t recognize except one classic "illegal" Muscaria under a pine I accidentally kicked while mowing. Luckily no DEA helicopters landed.
i just got my first wine cap haul as well this past fall. I sliced and dehydrated in a dehydrator and that works great but slow. The other way i did was slicing , sautéing and freezing.
Brilliant! Awesome to hear, thanks so much! That's cool that you have experience with a food dehydrator. I know wine caps have a very high water content, and the chitin can be relatively tough, somewhat complicating the drying process. I will definitely continue to experiment with drying them. Sauteing them before freezing is pretty interesting, I will have to try that. I'd figure it'd probably be a great addition to hummus, soups, stir fries etc. Thanks again!
Grab a NESCO dehydrator and slice them thin and load it up on 95 degrees let them dry overnight and store in glass jars with dry-n-dry desiccant packets. In a gallon jar you can fit probably 5 lbs or more of mushrooms. That whole patch would only be like 3 or four big jars of dry mushrooms. I could eat all that in less than a year just making spaghetti.
Very good information, thank you! That is something I will definitely have to look into and give it a shot.
I'm sure you've changed your routine, but Id suggest to get a dehydator. I've freeze dried and dehydrated and had fantastic results with both!
Thank you for the recommendation!
Excalibur dehydrator 10 trays 110f-115f approx
Nice!!
People used to dry things high over a fire.
nice, I will have to try that. It might also add some interesting tones to the flavor! Thanks!
You can try making mushrooms ketchup out of them. The byproduct can also be used as seasoning. The channel Townsend made a video about this interesting sauce.
Wow! That's crazy awesome! I will absolutely have to try that. I was familiar with their channel, but not that particular video, many thanks for the recommendation. It's also cool that nothing goes to waste, one can make both the mushroom ketchup and the mushroom powder. Thanks again!
What about a regular dehydrator?
If you have one, then that is probably one of the best options! I do not lol...but probably should.
Dehydrators are cheap. They last forever....only way to dry mushrooms, at least until you can afford $3000 harvest right freeze dryer. Store the dried mushrooms in a sealed container with a silica pack or two. Otherwise they can get leathery
Very good information! Thank you!
1:42 Hello, how did you do so much, what soil do you have and what type of mulch did you use?
Hello, when I first spread and covered the wine cap grain spawn in the early Spring, I just made sure there was plenty of mulch ( I think I had 4-5 inches, with a layer of cardboard at the bottom. That Spring I got a pretty minimal harvest. The mycelium continued to grow throughout the Summer under the wood chips. In the Fall, when temperatures began to cool somewhat and moisture was adequate (i.e., after a good rain) there were 2 huge flushes of wine caps. The soil and all the decomposed organic matter they left behind was pretty amazing, at least by standards. I used some of that residual soil as a potting mix for my plant starts the next year. The results were impressive.
What zone are you in? I'm really tempted to buy some wine cap spores but I'm worried they won't take.
Zone 6b-7. They can definitely be grown further North. Probably South too but I don't know for sure. When temps go above 70F wine caps will go dormant until temps decrease again. Probably the further South one goes, the wine caps would 'fruit' closer to Winter time.
Give it a go! Seriously, Wine Cap are so prolific that you'll probably have success just about anywhere. If where you live gets extremely cold / snows, you could experiment with a small patch first and build a mini greenhouse / cold frame to keep them in, or even find a space in the house or garage really. Just make sure not to use any treated material for your substrate (I used dyed wood chips the first time... they grew no problem but I realised they'd potentially be toxic and had to start all over again). A combination of straw (sugar cane mulch is great) and any untreated woodchips is ideal. The mycelium can breakdown the straw rather quickly to build itself up before eating the wood chips, kind of like a combination of kindling and logs for a fire.
One of these days I`m gonna try to make a mushroom patch. I`ve only seen a few here that I didn`t recognize except one classic "illegal" Muscaria under a pine I accidentally kicked while mowing. Luckily no DEA helicopters landed.
Nice lol, btw I am trying my hand at growing chestnuts this year too, another outdoor edible mushroom.