Mushrooms out of the Fridge

I finally got around to taking the mushrooms out of the fridge and submerging them in water. I had set aside some boiled water in a pitcher per instructions with a note in case J wanted to drink or dump it. The pitcher had been sitting around waiting all week for me to do something with it... and today was that day!

The strangest thing happened when I took the block out of the box. It looked like some mushrooms already starting growing while it was in the fridge. There were raised bumps with some of them brown or white (supposedly younger mushrooms). I'd like to think the condensation in the fridge gave it moisture to jumpstart the process, but maybe, it was already there to begin with. It's kind of cool and kind of curious.

Anyhow, I moved on to the next step of submerging it in water to let it soak up a bunch of moisture. I poured my pitcher of water in. I even boiled another so I'd have enough for my squirt bottle that will need to mist the block once it's ready for its next phase - drying in a humidity tent, growth and hopefully a good "flush" of 'shrooms as the instructions call it. I must say that as I revisit the submerged block of 'shrooms; they really do have a strong 'shroom scent about them. With all good hope and faith, I do believe this will be a fun three month gardening project.

I almost forgot to mention that I squeezed it and all these bubbles surfaced. It was fun, so I did it a few more times. The block is pretty soft and spongy. It could be why there's a nice 'shroom scent surfacing; I squeezed it out. Though it sort of feels like one giant mushroom with bumps. I'm eagerly anticipating when I get to take it out of the current bag and let it grow, grow, grow.

The directions/guidance book said somewhere that the first flush tends to be small Shiitake. With each flush, they continue to grow in size. The guy at the booth had said that sometimes, it'd grow just one 'shroom in the flush and that puppy would grow and grow. Can you imagine one huge Shiitake? The other thing the booth guy said is that they're good for drying in case it's too hectic to keep pace with the flushes. We'll see if we need to do that or not. I'm pretty darn excited to see what happens. This block does not look like it'll be a dud at all!