Willow Mountain Mushrooms ~ The Shroom Shack

Nestled in the Ozark Mountains of Southern Missouri, Willow Mountain Mushrooms has been providing gourmet quality mushrooms since 2004.

Using only Natural means to grow our mushrooms we maintain a high quality mushroom FULL of natural flavor not chemicals.

While other producers concentrate on a long shelf life by using chemicals ~

Willow Mountain Mushrooms specializes in delivering fresh picked mushrooms directly to you thereby avoiding the distribution system and the time it sits on your local stores shelf.

In doing this we maintain the mushrooms wonderful natural flavor that many people have told us they have never tasted before in store bought mushrooms.

Organic Produce Co-op

Organic Produce boxes delivered to your home, work, co-op meeting place or pick up point.

We offer a wide variety of boxes starting at the $20 level ~ Basic mixed boxes, veggie only, fruit only, snack/raw eating, juicing, Dried nut and fruit and add on's are available each week.

Each Wednesday we send an email letting you know what to expect in the following weeks box.

Standing orders are highly suggested, but not required. You can customize your standing order each week... or just 'know' that it will be there on your delivery day.

Being centrally located ... we deliver to Mountain Home, Gainesville and Theodosia on Wednesdays and to West Plains and Willow Springs on Thursdays.

Our supplier is unique in its approach to acquiring produce for the Co-op. The founders are farmers that got together in 2005 to create a co-op to help distribute their products. So, what they do is get products from smaller family farms first, many of which have CSA's, and then fill in the blanks with larger organic farms. Our goal is to do the same thing... utilize Ozark growers then fill in the blanks with what the supplier has to offer utilizing the smaller farms that they work with first.

To get started please fill in our contact form with the type of box you wish to order order, phone number and start up date and we will send you an email to confirm your order.

Look forward to meeting you!

Blessings,

The Semyck Family

Mushroom Kits and Instructions

Growing your own mushrooms can be fun and educational as you experience the environmental challenges that a mushroom grower contends with.  As a result of your efforts you are rewarded with the freshest (and Yummiest!) mushrooms you have ever eaten!

We offer our Oyster and Shiitake 'Logs' as well as White Button and Portabella Box kits.

Oyster and Shiitake like wood or wood like base.  While White Button and Portabella like to live on a compost base.

Our Shiitake logs are made using a variety of ingredients with the main ingredient being oak sawdust.  Our Oyster are grown on a log whose main ingredient is cotton seed hulls.  At our farm the Shiitake and Oyster are kept in the same growing room - in the same environment.

The Oyster and Shiitake are kept in an environment with about 90% humidity, that has good indirect airflow to encourage evaporation and a temperature of between 62-68 deg F. 
For you to achieve this with your home log you should build a humidity tent.  You can do this in a couple of ways. 
One is to have a wood frame that you cover with a garbage bag or clear sheet plastic such as painters plastic.  The other is to take a box and line it with painters plastic.  As in the photos below. 
Light ~ Cutting windows on each side so you can watch the mushrooms grow is a good idea.  It also gives the mushroom a little indirect sunlight which the oyster mushroom, in particular, needs.  We leave a light on in our growing room to imitate this.  If there is no light the Oyster tend to get "leggy".  We suggest at least 12 hours of light a day.  Either natural sunlight or a lamp.  We left our kit in the house out of direct sunlight.
Airflow ~ To obtain the proper amount of air circulation you can cut small holes in your plastic or leave a  couple of corners open to allow for airflow.  We suggest to have the air holes toward the top of your tent and toward the base.  (d)We used the flap from our box as a vent control.  We would open it wider and close it up as needed.
Too much airflow will stunt or even kill your mushrooms and they will be hard and somewhat dehydrated in appearance and texture.  Too little airflow and the mushrooms will be soggy/spongy, may grow a bacteria that will appear on it as spots, or even be slimy.  You don't want to eat a slimy mushroom.
Humidity ~ To control humidity you will want to have a spritz bottle and spray the inside of your humidity tent with the bottle whenever you see that it is dry or evaporating quickly.  If there is a little moisture on the sides of the tent you are good.  If it is dry then you need to spray it more.  How fast evaporation occurs depends upon the outside environment as much as it does on airflow.  So, how many times you have to spray may change from one day to the next.   (e) If you happen to have an air pump from an aquarium you can set that up with an air hose having an air stone on the end sitting in a jar of warm water.  This will help keep the environment warm and humid.  You can also set up a baking pan with water in it, place a block of wood in the center and the log on top of that making sure that the log is not sitting in the water.  With the Shiitake you should spray the log directly morning and night as to prevent it from drying out.
As you can see the Oyster and Shiitake really like an environment that resembles a Spring day.
Below are photographs of an Oyster log kit and a humidity tent that we made using a cardboard box, packing tape, and painters plastic.

a)b)
c)d)
e)

Our demonstration uses an Oyster Log.  However, the same design can be utilized with a Shiitake. 


You will begin to notice pins forming in clusters around the log.

As they form you may notice that some seem to be 'trapped' under the layer of plastic that forms the log.  You can 'release' them by cutting a small hole with your scissors.
It is very interesting watching the pins emerge and grow. Your mushrooms are ready to be picked!
To pick an Oyster hold the 'flower' or cluster at the base and twist off the log. 
This is what we got in the first picking of our demonstration log: 
Now, to cook your bountiful harvest....  First you should cut the 'petals' from the stems.
Then, rinse them quickly under the tap if you would like.  Don't drown them by dunking... just rinse them off.  In that way they won't have a chance to sop up a lot of water. 
Put your pan on high heat and melt butter in it.  Once melted drop in your mushrooms.

Cook them on high heat until they are golden brown. 
Then serve them to your favorite connoisseur.
And watch as they disappear and you don't get to have a bite!  She was 5 here... 9 now.  She still does it to me today!  Can't turn my back on the stove!  : )

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