Q: I want to grow edible mushrooms but I don’t know where to buy the logs and supplies. Can you help?

A: Mushrooms seem more mysterious than most garden plants but, in fact, raising them is not very hard. Different mushrooms grow on different materials, such as hardwood chips, wheat straw or oak logs. The first step is to inoculate the material with mushroom spawn. The material is kept in a plastic bag until it is full of fungal mycelia (roots). When the mycelia are mature, and the temperature and humidity are right, they produce mushrooms. Fungi Perfecti sells easy-to-use mushroom kits. The University of California has a good factsheet called Edible Mushroom Cultivation.

Also see:

Mushroom Mountain

Shitake Mushroom Cultivation

Georgia Mushroom Feasibility Study (2002)