On Wednesday night I was in the kitchen, washing up the last of the dishes so we could get dinner made, when Jeff hollered in the backdoor something along the lines of “Taryn, come out here!!!” then… “And bring your camera!”… and finally “And a colander!” Jeff and Bracken were crazy excited and I had no idea what they were going to show me. I’d been all over the garden, what could there be to harvest that I didn’t already know about? The anticipation was crazy. I followed them into the greenhouse where they pointed to a bale of straw with huge grins on their faces. Mushrooms!! Lots and lots of white elm mushrooms! Remember our little mushroom experiment? Well, it was a success! (Thanks to Jeff keeping it watered regularly. Thank you, honey!) Jeff pulled the plastic down from around the straw a bit more. I started taking pictures. It was so late in the day, I wasn’t sure if any would turn out. Jeff harvested some and we were all giddy about it. Harvesting mushrooms in our own backyard? A dream come true. When we came inside, Bracken and I did a happy mushroom dance in the living room.

The next morning Jeff asked me if I could bring the colander out again. There were even more mushrooms to harvest than the night before! I was amazed at how quickly they grow. After I took some more pictures and harvested a bunch, I brought them inside and rinsed them off. We enjoyed them in scrambled eggs and frittatas and they were delicious. (The timing was so perfect because Jeff had just said that the frittatas I was about to make really needed some mushrooms in them.)  This morning Jeff went out and harvested more and cooked them with our breakfast. We’re really loving this. White elm mushrooms are a new favorite.

P.S. We’ll be at the Eugene Saturday Market tomorrow. Hope to see you there!