10/15/2026
It's shiitake mushroom season 🍄🟫🍄🟫🍄🟫
Would you look at those gorgeous little white tufts decorating this shiitake cap?
These woolly patches are made of fungal tissue, giving the mushroom its beautiful, almost ornamental appearance. They are completely natural and one of the characteristics that make shiitake so recognizable.
But let's talk about something else I absolutely love about this mushroom.
Log-grown versus sawdust-grown shiitake. What's the difference?
Shiitake have been cultivated on hardwood logs for centuries. When grown this way, the mycelium slowly works its way through the wood, breaking down its complex components and using those nutrients to eventually produce mushrooms.
This process takes patience. Sometimes a year or longer before the first mushroom appears!
Sawdust cultivation speeds things up considerably, allowing growers to produce shiitake in a fraction of that time, but it is also more complicated.
But there is something special about a shiitake that has spent months developing on a natural hardwood log.
Log-grown shiitake are often prized for their dense, meaty texture, substantial caps, and rich, earthy flavor. They're a favorite of many chefs and mushroom enthusiasts, myself included!
Does this mean sawdust-grown shiitake aren't good? Absolutely not! We grow them that way too. Both methods produce wonderful mushrooms.
But there is something deeply satisfying about letting fungi do what they have evolved to do, slowly transforming hardwood into something delicious.
Wood becomes mushrooms. Mushrooms become food. And eventually, everything returns to the soil.
That's the beauty of fungi. ❤️🍄🟫
