This week we were able to speak with experienced home-brewer and outdoorsman Tag Huff of Peculiar, Missouri about his experience with growing mushrooms.
This week we were able to speak with experienced home-brewer and outdoorsman Tag Huff of Peculiar, Missouri about his experience with growing mushrooms.
Tag Huff of Peculiar, Missouri
Tag Huff of Peculiar, Missouri
Nate: Hello! Please tell me a little about yourself and where you live.
Tag: Hi, I'm Tag Huff from Peculiar, Missouri, a small town about half an hour south of Kansas City.
Nate: So what inspired you to start working with fungi?
Tag: I was looking for a new hobby to get into after having been home-brewing for over 10 years. I was really leaning towards getting a pilot’s license but my wife vetoed that option and suggested mushrooms. One of the last brews I had done was a Scottish Ale with chocolate and mushrooms that turned out quite well and I had been getting into yeast wrangling which is sort of akin to working with mushroom mycelium.
Nate: Wow so you have a lot of niche hobbies. We'd love to hear more about your home-brews and yeast wrangling sometime. Which types of mushrooms have you found success with?
Tag: I’ve grown many varieties of oyster mushrooms as well as lions mane, chestnut, and shiitake.
Nate: Hello! Please tell me a little about yourself and where you live.
Tag: Hi, I'm Tag Huff from Peculiar, Missouri, a small town about half an hour south of Kansas City.
Nate: So what inspired you to start working with fungi?
Tag: I was looking for a new hobby to get into after having been home-brewing for over 10 years. I was really leaning towards getting a pilot’s license but my wife vetoed that option and suggested mushrooms. One of the last brews I had done was a Scottish Ale with chocolate and mushrooms that turned out quite well and I had been getting into yeast wrangling which is sort of akin to working with mushroom mycelium.
Nate: Wow so you have a lot of niche hobbies. We'd love to hear more about your home-brews and yeast wrangling in the future. Which types of mushrooms have you found success with?
Tag: I’ve grown many varieties of oyster mushrooms as well as lions mane, chestnut, and shiitake.
Blue oyster mushrooms growing from a log after rain.
Blue oyster pins.
Nate: Hello! Please tell me a little about yourself and where you live.
Tag: Hi, I'm Tag Huff from Peculiar, Missouri, a small town about half an hour south of Kansas City.
Nate: So what inspired you to start working with fungi?
Tag: I was looking for a new hobby to get into after having been home-brewing for over 10 years. I was really leaning towards getting a pilot’s license but my wife vetoed that option and suggested mushrooms. One of the last brews I had done was a Scottish Ale with chocolate and mushrooms that turned out quite well and I had been getting into yeast wrangling which is sort of akin to working with mushroom mycelium.
Nate: Wow so you have a lot of niche hobbies. We'd love to hear more about your home-brews and yeast wrangling sometime. Which types of mushrooms have you found success with?
Tag: I’ve grown many varieties of oyster mushrooms as well as lions mane, chestnut, and shiitake.
Blue oyster mushrooms growing from a log after rain.
Blue oyster pins.
Nate: That's a good variety - some classics and some less well known like lion's mane and chestnut. There are so many different ways of growing mushrooms outside. Can you share which methods you’ve tried and anything you’ve learned along the way?
Tag: Through work I had access to a lot of trees to cut into logs and inoculate. I’ve used both plug and sawdust spawn to inoculate with and both are easy and great methods. I have also done some buckets using lion's mane grain spawn and hard wood pellets with great success. Much like home-brewing, my advice is to try to work as clean as you possibly can.
Lion's Mane mushroom growing on hardwood smoker pellets in an old ale pail.
Nate: Working clean is truly great advice for growing mushrooms - even more so when growing indoors. Do you face any environmental or spatial challenges growing where you are located?
Tag: I am fortunate to live in the country on many acres of land so space and environmental conditions are not very limiting factors for my mushroom projects.
Nate: Sounds like an ideal set up! What about with shade--do you have access to natural shade, have you created shade in some way or do you grow in the sun?
Tag: I have my mushroom logs around the tree line border of my house. They get a good amount of shade from the undergrowth plants as well as the trees from above.
Lion's mane mushroom growing on hardwood smoker pellets in an old ale pail.
Nate: That's a good variety - some classics and some less well known like lion's mane and chestnut. There are so many different ways of growing mushrooms outside. Can you share which methods you’ve tried and anything you’ve learned along the way?
Tag: Through work I had access to a lot of trees to cut into logs and inoculate. I’ve used both plug and sawdust spawn to inoculate with and both are easy and great methods. I have also done some buckets using lion's mane grain spawn and hard wood pellets with great success. Much like home-brewing, my advice is to try to work as clean as you possibly can.
Nate: Working clean is truly great advice for growing mushrooms - even more so when growing indoors. Do you face any environmental or spatial challenges growing where you are located?
Tag: I am fortunate to live in the country on many acres of land so space and environmental conditions are not very limiting factors for my mushroom projects.
Nate: Sounds like an ideal set up! What about with shade--do you have access to natural shade, have you created shade in some way or do you grow in the sun?
Tag: I have my mushroom logs around the tree line border of my house. They get a good amount of shade from the undergrowth plants as well as the trees from above.
Nate: What is the climate like in Peculiar, Missouri? Is it more dry or humid?
Tag: It is Missouri, so the climate is very volatile. Within a week's time we can have snow and then an 80 degree day. I generally work on new projects in early spring. The buckets I took inside the garage for the winter and have recently returned them to the outside and just got my first lion's mane to fruit.
Nate: So how do you care for your projects during incubation?
Tag: I have a bit of a laissez faire attitude when it comes to post inoculation care for my logs. They mostly get put into shady areas and hopefully they colonize and then fruit. So far I’ve had good success.
Nate: What is the climate like in Peculiar, Missouri? Is it more dry or humid?
Tag: It is Missouri, so the climate is very volatile. Within a week's time we can have snow and then an 80 degree day. I generally work on new projects in early spring. The buckets I took inside the garage for the winter and have recently returned them to the outside and just got my first lion's mane to fruit.
Nate: So how do you care for your projects during incubation?
Tag: I have a bit of a laissez faire attitude when it comes to post inoculation care for my logs. They mostly get put into shady areas and hopefully they colonize and then fruit. So far I’ve had good success.
Nate: Most often, nature will do her thing. How long did it take for your projects to fruit?
Tag: Many of the oyster logs fruited in a couple of months, shiitake took about 7 months, still waiting on a bunch of lion's mane logs to fruit that are nearing a year, and I will be interring half a dozen chestnut logs very soon that have been colonizing for about a year.
Chestnut mushrooms growing from an inoculated maple log.
Nate: Most often, nature will do her thing. How long did it take for your projects to fruit?
Tag: Many of the oyster logs fruited in a couple of months, shiitake took about 7 months, still waiting on a bunch of lion's mane logs to fruit that are nearing a year, and I will be interring half a dozen chestnut logs very soon that have been colonizing for about a year.
Chestnut mushrooms growing from an inoculated maple log.
Nate: It sounds like things are going according to plan! You mentioned a project in the works involving growing oysters and lion's mane from repurposed whiskey barrels. What's that about?
Tag: A few years back, I procured a couple of whiskey barrels from a local distillery, Restless Spirits, and used them in some barrel aged beers and ciders. Having now sat for a couple of years collecting dust, I’ve become fascinated by the idea of trying to inoculate them with mushrooms and see if they will fruit from the barrel. Barrels tend to harbor a lot of microbes like brettanomyces and lactobacillus within their staves. How they would interact with the mushroom mycelium and its success would be an interesting project.
Nate: It sounds like things are going according to plan! You mentioned a project in the works involving growing oysters and lion's mane from repurposed whiskey barrels. What's that about?
Tag: A few years back, I procured a couple of whiskey barrels from a local distillery, Restless Spirits, and used them in some barrel aged beers and ciders. Having now sat for a couple of years collecting dust, I’ve become fascinated by the idea of trying to inoculate them with mushrooms and see if they will fruit from the barrel. Barrels tend to harbor a lot of microbes like brettanomyces and lactobacillus within their staves. How they would interact with the mushroom mycelium and its success would be an interesting project.
Nate: Very cool--you will definitely have to keep us updated on how that goes! Any other projects planned for the future or things you’d like to try?
Tag: Trying an outdoor bed would be a really fun project with something like shaggy mane.
Tag's son drilling holes in a mushroom log.
Tag's son drilling holes in a mushroom log.
Tag's son drilling holes in a mushroom log.
Logs inoculated with blue oyster, golden oyster, lion's mane, and shiitake spawn.
Nate: Shaggy mane is a very interesting one, we want to experiment growing more ourselves. Do you mostly grow on your own? Do you have any plans to expand your operation?
Tag: I currently grow solo but with help of my family. Dream wise, it would be really great to expand it into a business with my children someday, but I have no current plans.
Nate: That sounds lovely. Do you have a favorite mushroom, and why?
Tag: Lion's mane is my current favorite. It’s just such an interesting looking mushroom and the taste is truly unique.
Nate: It's clear from your social media that you love good food as well as good beer. How do you like to prepare your mushrooms?
Tag: Depends on the mushroom. Oysters and shiitakes I’ll usually crisp up and finish in a white wine cream reduction with some thyme. Lion's mane just needs a quick sauté with garlic and butter. I’ve been reading about the medicinal side of mushrooms and have been contemplating various grows of turkey tails and reishi.
Tag's son drilling holes in a mushroom log.
Tag's son drilling holes in a mushroom log.
Tag's son drilling holes in a mushroom log.
Logs inoculated with blue oyster, golden oyster, lion's mane, and shiitake spawn.
Nate: Very cool--you will definitely have to keep us updated on how that goes! Any other projects planned for the future or things you’d like to try?
Tag: Trying an outdoor bed would be a really fun project with something like shaggy mane.
Nate: Shaggy mane is a very interesting one, we want to experiment growing more ourselves. Do you mostly grow on your own? Do you have any plans to expand your operation?
Tag: I currently grow solo but with help of my family. Dream wise, it would be really great to expand it into a business with my children someday, but I have no current plans.
Nate: That sounds lovely. Do you have a favorite mushroom, and why?
Tag: Lion's mane is my current favorite. It’s just such an interesting looking mushroom and the taste is truly unique.
Oyster mushroom and brie soup with Italian sausage.
Nate: It's clear from your social media that you love good food as well as good beer. How do you like to prepare your mushrooms?
Tag: Depends on the mushroom. Oysters and shiitakes I’ll usually crisp up and finish in a white wine cream reduction with some thyme. Lions mane just needs a quick sauté with garlic and butter. I’ve been reading about the medicinal side of mushrooms and have been contemplating various grows of turkey tails and reishi.
Nate: Do you have any advice you’d like to share with folks who are curious about growing or are just getting started?
Tag: Like any hobby, it's best do a little reading and then just to jump in, and then read a lot more. A wise man once told me, "If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not learning.”
Nate: And in general we all have so much more to learn and study about growing mushrooms. You learn something new every day in this field. So, final question: symbolically speaking, which mushroom would you be and why?
Tag: As grand as it might be to be something exotic and striking like a matsutake, fly agaric or even a cordyceps, I’d say the oyster mushroom. They’re easy to grow in just about any environment and medium, don’t need a lot of care, and have a lot of variances. I’m easy to get along with, dependable, try a lot of hobbies and appreciate the many things life brings.
Nate: Sounds about right to me! You are quite the jack-of-all-trades.
Oyster mushroom and brie soup with Italian sausage.
Nate: Do you have any advice you’d like to share with folks who are curious about growing or are just getting started?
Tag: Like any hobby, it's best do a little reading and then just to jump in, and then read a lot more. A wise man once told me, “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not learning.”
Nate: And in general we all have so much more to learn and study about growing mushrooms. You learn something new every day in this field. So, final question: symbolically speaking, which mushroom would you be and why?
Tag: As grand as it might be to be something exotic and striking like a matsutake, fly agaric or even a cordyceps, I’d say the oyster mushroom. They’re easy to grow in just about any environment and medium, don’t need a lot of care, and have a lot of variances. I’m easy to get along with, dependable, try a lot of hobbies and appreciate the many things life brings.
Nate: Sounds about right to me! You are quite the jack-of-all-trades.