Crisp shiitake mushrooms dress up burgers, eggs

Like many of us, husband and wife Rob Miller and Melanie Jones of Trefoil Gardens in Woodstock didn’t grow up eating oyster mushrooms or shiitake mushrooms or hen of the woods. “I was not a fan of mushrooms at all,” said Jones.

Jones said all that changed in 2014 when they held a mushroom inoculation workshop. “We had friends over and we all learned how to grow mushrooms together.” They still host mushroom inoculation workshops. Check out their Facebook page for the schedule at facebook.com/trefoilgardens.

What started as just a general interest became a much bigger project for the couple. They fell in love with the flavor of the mushrooms, now preferring a mushroom dinner to a steak dinner. Really.

And they have 500 mushroom logs tucked away in shaded portions of their half-acre back yard. This is a different setup from some mushroom growers who sell commercially and at local farmers markets and grow their mushrooms indoors in a controlled environment. Those growers can produce mushrooms almost on demand.

Miller explained that Trefoil Gardens is dependent on weather conditions to determine when their mushrooms will fruit. “For shiitakes, they’re looking for tsunamilike conditions. The temperatures need to drop and it has to rain a bunch. For us, that’s really from September through about April. When we get a big rain, it will take about two weeks for the logs to start bearing fruit.”

Trefoil Gardens has started selling mushrooms at the Thursday afternoon year-round Sweet Apple Farmers Market. And they have Woodstock and Acworth drop-off points for established customers. When there’s truly an abundance, they send out an e-blast to chefs in the area who appreciate the flavor of these field grown mushrooms.

And when there are mushrooms to spare, they enjoy them at home. “This week we had them in rice bowls. If you put them in a stir fry it’s like adding steak,” said Jones.

Growing mushrooms is just one part of the work of Trefoil Gardens. The couple also grows greens and forages for wild mushrooms and other food. They operate something they call a “neighborhood co-op” as well. In exchange for growing crops in their neighbor’s yards, they deliver a bag of groceries every other week. They garden on four lots in their subdivision and have an apiary both on their own property and another about five miles away, and they’re expanding their community gardening onto other properties as well.