Harvesting & Drying 🍄

When you start to see pins and fruits forming in your bag or tub, your final stages will be harvesting and drying your fruits. You can follow a video guide here.

Note: Image credit to PhillyGoldenTeacher

When to harvest?

Ideally, you want to harvest your fruits at their ideal ripeness so that they reach their full potential. Generally, you want to harvest right as the veil opens and begins to tear, but before spores begin to drop. If you harvest too late and spores drop, they are still safe to consume but will be darker and less visually appealing. In that case, they can be rinsed off or just dried as is. Another indicator of ripeness if the veils are not clear is the mushrooms will be soft like a marshmallow.

Harvesting methods

1. Twist & Pull: You can twist and pull off the mushroom from the substrate and it should easily come off. This is my preferred method for most varieties.
2. Cut: You can cut at the base of the mushroom where it meets the substrate for a clean cut.

How to dry

Fresh mushrooms have a very short shelf life. If you desire to keep them fresh you can store them in a PAPER bag in the refrigerator for a few days. Do NOT use a plastic bag for fresh mushrooms as they will be destroyed very quickly.

For longer storage, fresh mushrooms need to be completely dried to a cracker-like consistency. We recommend using a dehydrator for multiple hours until they reach that cracker-dry consistency. For large fruits, this can be upwards of 12 hours.

Long-term storage

Once fruits are dried entirely they should be stored in an airtight container, with silica packets in a cool dark environment. We recommend sticking them in a vacuum-sealed bag with silica packets in a closet for long-term storage. Properly stored fruits can last upwards of a year without a noticeable loss of quality.

What next?

Now that you have harvested your first flush, you can rehydrate your substrate to continue pulling multiple (3+) flushes!!