WADESBORO — Anson Extension is hosting a home-scale shiitake mushroom workshop at the Anson Farmers Market on Saturday, March 26.
This fun workshop covers the log cultivation of shiitake mushrooms. These mushrooms are native to Japan and second in popularity only to button mushrooms. Shiitake, or “mushroom of the shii (oak tree)” in Japanese, are highly regarded for their rich, buttery, meaty, earthy flavor, and medicinal properties. Shiitake cultivation in the U.S. has grown in the past 25 years as a seasonal specialty crop, fruiting late Fall and late Winter, about 8 months after inoculation. Offer your logs the right outdoor environmental conditions and they will produce mushrooms for 4 to 5 years.
Shiitake taste wonderful sliced in a simple stir-fry with olive oil, squash, onions, brown sugar, roasted garlic and herb seasoning, and a dash of cayenne, salt or pepper. But there are a multitude of savory options to explore. Their meaty texture is even a simple meat substitute in pasta. Fresh shiitake keep well in the fridge for 2 weeks. If sauteed before freezing, they keep for up to two months.
The $20 workshop fee covers instruction and two demonstration logs participants will prep and inoculate, with tools provided on-site. The workshop will last an hour. To reserve a spot, please bring your $20 workshop fee (cash or check) payable to “Anson Extension,” to 501 McLaurin St., Wadesboro, NC 28170. To keep gatherings at a minimum, 4 mini-workshops are staggered that morning – early afternoon: 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 12 noon, or 1 p.m. Participants will register for an available spot. For questions, contact Anson Extension at 704-694-2915 or aimee_colf@ncsu.edu.