Once the mushrooms are ready for harvest‚ all you need to do is put on your gloves and mask as usual‚ mist the air with peroxide and cut the mushrooms off of the cakes with a clean exacto knife (that has been first dipped in peroxide).

The reason you don’t want to risk contaminating the cakes at this point is because you will have specimens growing at various stages of maturity and you certainly don’t want to ruin any future flushes. The cakes will usually have around three good flushes each. They will most likely be spread apart by a week or two in accordance with the mushrooms normal life cycle. However, each consecutive flush will produce fewer and fewer specimens.

Once these tasty little culinary delights are harvested you can either consume them fresh or cooked or preserve them for later by dehydrating them in such a way as to maintain the vitamin and mineral content as well as their high levels of healthy protein.

Keep in mind that fresh mushrooms will be approximately 90% water by weight. They can be preserved through the canning process or preserved in glass jars if one would like. Another optional method of preservation would be to dehydrate them. However‚ a word of caution in that regard - The mushrooms shouldn’t be dried with any source of heat as this would cause a significant amount of nutritional loss.

The most effective way to properly dehydrate them is with the use of a desiccant such as “calcium chlorohydrate”. This can be obtained from your local hardware store. It can be found in the painters isle marketed under the name of “Damp-Rid”. It is commonly used for the drying out of musty closets etc. prior to painting. It’s basically likened to a powerful reusable water magnet.

All you have to do is place a generous amount in the bottom of a large Tupperware container. Bend another terrarium style wire mesh platform to fit inside the container. This will safely prevent the desiccant and mushrooms from touching. Place the mushrooms on top of the platform, and seal it with the lid. That’s it! They should be adequately dry in no longer than three days. They could then be added to soups and salads etc. as one would normally desire.

Well‚ there you go‚ a guaranteed method to cultivate your very own healthy‚ non animal sources of protein! that we all know as mushrooms‚ in the comfort of your own home!

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