Monday, March 23, 2009

Blue Oyster Cult

Shiitake Happens has it's first trial run of Blue Oyster Mushrooms, also called hiratake or shimeji. It 's a small satiny, silvery blue-capped mushroom with a white stem. It is a solid flavourful oyster strain, that generally tastes sweetly shrimp-like. They hold their shape and springiness when briefly cooked. They will be available in the next few weeks.

"More cowbell!"

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

When Fungus Ruled the World

My friend sent me this article from Wired magazine, it's about 20 foot fungus called Prototaxites that once upon a time ruled Earth. Crazy!

Thanks Felony Ron for the link.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

The Med


I dropped off some freshly picked white oyster mushrooms to Mediterraneo on Wednesday and before I could get out the door John sent a few plates of food my way. The three dishes he knocked out blew my socks off, boy oh boy can that kid cook. Amber and Johnny handle some top notch cuisine, so swing on by ask ask about their mushroom specials.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Righthand Man


Shiitake Happens has our first employee, Joe. With Joe around production at the farm has doubled, I'm up on all theories about 2012, and without him Shiitake Happens would be lost. Joe, the next Tecate is on me.

Mushrooms and Skateboarding?




Shiitke Happens good friend Chris Hook was skating his backyard halfpipe, when he looked underneath it and found this monster fungus, which we believe is the King Stropharia. Chris's find confirms my fear that anybody can do this job.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Accident-Prone

I am currently recovering from another trip to the ER, with seven stitches in my thigh. For those of you who are keeping track at home that is 3 trips to the hospital in less than one year. Not a personal record for me, but above my average none the less.

So I looked up accident-prone in the Thesaurus and I came across this:

accident-prone
adjective
the machine shop is no place for accident-prone employees clumsy, bumbling, butterfingered, like a bull in a china shop, all thumbs, pulled a Parker.

Monday, January 26, 2009

FaceBook

Shiitake Happens has a Face Book account. Please stop by and pay us a visit.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home

Friday, January 9, 2009

6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World

This is a video of Paul Stamets from TED.com. Stamets is the foremost mycologist of our time, and he has literally written the book on mushroom cultivation. Paul has made me believe magical things can come from mushrooms.

The first eight minutes are a bit of science background into mushrooms, but around the 8:00 mark he gets to the good stuff.


Saturday, December 13, 2008

Locavore

This definition of "Localvore" is copied straight from Wikipedia. But being a locavore is dogma that we at Shiitake Happens strive to live by, from where we acquire our substrates to where we sell our mushrooms. Grow local, buy local.

Locavore

A locavore is someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles. The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to produce their own food, with the argument that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locally grown food is an environmentally friendly means of obtaining food, since supermarkets that import their food use more fossil fuels and non-renewable resources.

"Locavore" was coined by Jessica Prentice from the San Francisco Bay Area on the occasion of World Environment Day 2005 to describe and promote the practice of eating a diet consisting of food harvested from within an area most commonly bound by a 100 mile radius. "Localvore" is sometimes also used.

The New Oxford American Dictionary chose locavore, a person who seeks out locally produced food, as its word of the year 2007.[6] The local foods movement is gaining momentum as people discover that the best-tasting and most sustainable choices are foods that are fresh, seasonal, and grown close to home. Some locavores draw inspiration from the The 100-Mile Diet or from advocates of local eating like Barbara Kingsolver whose book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle chronicles her family's attempts to eat locally. Others just follow their taste buds to farmers' markets, community supported agriculture programs, and community gardens.

Shiitake Happens is Still Alive and Kicking!