Oyster Mushroom Quality 2

As I hope you guessed, they would not be my choice and from repeated observation, they do not seem to please the supermarket's customers either. That black area covers the grower's label! The yellow color is apparently Pseudomonas tolaasii, a bacterium that infects most kinds of mushrooms. It is spread by careless picking practices and by watering. The long stem showing in the lower center shows that the growing conditions are poor and that the consumer is paying for waste or at the least poor quality. If the grower maintained proper conditions in his growing rooms, there would be almost no stems. Stems are chewy or you may say tough All growers trim off the substrate on the base of the stems. Some growers who have poor growing conditions trim off the stems very close to the cap. Trimming them close is a benefit to the consumers, but it represents financial loss to the grower. The cracked or torn edges also make these mushrooms look old and poor. However, the small one in the lower right corner was a day or more too old when it was picked. Mushrooms grow fast and pickers must know how to recognize the age of the mushrooms. In the next “lesson” I will explain why knowing the age of the mushroom is more important to growers and their pickers than it is to consumers. For now, I will just say that if they are picked when they are already old, they will not last as long on the market shelf or in the consumers refrigerator.

Fortunately, some growers have learned to be more careful and present a better looking product. It has been my good fortune to consult with several such growers.

The mushrooms in the photo above are just barely past their peak, but they still look nice and will keep for a few days. The grower has reduced their problems with cracked edges by using a deep tray. Look carefully and you will see that the stems on all of these are very short. They trimmed off very little more than the substrate residue, yet I told them how to improve their growing room conditions and a few months after this picture was taken, I received an email note telling me how pleased they were that I had suggested the better conditions. They were getting more mushrooms and of better quality.