Cultivating mushrooms is a relatively new activity in the agricultural scheme of things. Before that, foraging for mushrooms tended to be the way to go. There are those who think this still today. I tend to be a bit squeamish about foraging for mushrooms, so please put them in the grocery store for me.

I have thought lately about giving mushroom farming a try. The indoor kits weren’t appealing; however, these outdoor kits could be a fun off-season use of the garden. All that said, it seems that some people claim that mushrooms take more skill to grow than orchids. I find it interesting that two things that grow wild in wet places have a hard to cultivate reputation among some and then others say the opposite.

In any case, growing your own has a pretty retro feel. Why? Because a man named WIlliam Falconer compiled a book of recommendations for mushroom farming for Americans in the late 1800s that included suggesting that housewives take up mushroom farming to earn extra cash.

And while you might think of dried mushrooms as nouveau cuisine, drying mushrooms has long been the most common way of preserving them.