Elm Oyster mushrooms Pleurotus ostreatus are great for beginner growers. This variety produces large clusters of pearly-white mushrooms with decurrent gills. Kits may be grown indoors on your counter top, or outdoors during the spring and fall.
A humid environment is important to mushroom formation, and can be created by misting water from a spray bottle into a humidity tent.
Note: This is not Hypsizygus ulmarius, which is also referred to as “Elm Oyster”, but has a central stalk and gills that do not run down the stalk.
All natural ingredients. Your kit contains a mushroom culture grown on pure hardwood sawdust and organic Canadian wheat bran. No chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used.
Fruiting instructions can be found here.
Kit size ~2kg (4lbs+)
Visit our Learn to Grow page to learn how to expand your mushroom kit into buckets of sawdust or used to inoculate logs!
For peak viability we recommend using your mushroom products within weeks, and storing in a cool location until use. Refrigeration between 2-4C is ideal for the longest shelf-life. Even when refrigerated, the fungal mycelium continues to grow, and eventually mushrooms burst out one way or another.
After harvesting you should store the mushrooms in a paper bag. The best way to store mushrooms is in a paper bag, which allows them to breathe. Leave them in the main part of the refrigerator to get good airflow, not the produce drawer. If stored properly fresh mushrooms should last for 3 days in the refrigerator. Once cooked, Elm Oyster mushrooms will keep for 4 to 5 days in the refrigerator, or they can be frozen for up to three months. Elm Oyster mushrooms can also be dried and kept in a sealed container away from direct sunlight for extended use.
Elm oysters are firm with a delicate aroma and mild nutty flavor. When cooked, they have a meaty texture making them a good meat substitute for vegetarian or vegan recipes.
Always cook elm oyster mushrooms before eating them and as they don’t take long to cook, it’s best to add them last when preparing dishes with other ingredients.
Elm Oyster mushrooms are best suited to saute, grill, braise, roast and poach, and they’re delicious in stews, cream sauces and omelets.
Our favorite way to prepare oyster mushrooms is to saute them in butter or olive oil.
Elm Oyster mushrooms contain many essential minerals and vitamins and are an excellent source of vitamin D.
They also contain several active compounds such as phenol, alkaloids, proteins, tannins, and polysaccharides that give them medicinal properties.
Studies show that elm oyster mushrooms (Hypsizygus ulmarius) possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antitumor properties.
