I have to admit that I've been a bit lackadaisical about managing our edible mushrooms for the last couple of years.

Converting over to rafts and totems means that we don't get mushrooms in the summer.  Our logs just bear in the spring and fall when cool, damp weather creates natural fruiting conditions for oysters and shiitakes.

I don't actually mind taking an item off our summer list, though.  We have plenty to eat during the hot months, and so much to do that soaking mushroom logs feels like a chore.

The main downside of my new methodology is that I tend to miss about half the mushrooms when they do appear.  If you soak a mushroom log, you know it's going to fruit (or not) within a week, so you can schedule the day to check back.  However, rafts and totems fruit when they feel like it, and there's really only a window of one day when the mushrooms are at their peak, so it's easy to miss.

That's how I came to overlook the first fruiting of our magnolia stump.  It's along a seldom-visited edge of our core homestead, and I didn't see the oysters until they'd shriveled up and gone by.

The mushroom totems along the driveway, though, caught my eye on Friday when they bore their second flush of fruit, and that reminded me to check the totems behind the trailer yesterday.  Quite a haul!  We stir-fried Friday's mushrooms, but I'm open to suggestions for how we'll eat up the weekend's bounty.  What are your favorite oyster mushroom recipes?