Today they were packing bags full and tight with the sawdust compost mixture which will feed the mushrooms. Many people come in to help when they do this. Today they packed 7,000 Bags of compost, the machine they have only packs 1500 per day and seems is the electric motor is burning hot by the end of the day. They are filling a big order, and currently cant meet the demand for orders for all their customers. During certain times of the year like the Thai Vegetarian Festival and certain holidays the demand increases.
It is nice to have so many orders you cannot fill them all. It seems the expansion of the Het Fang or Straw mushrooms is in order.
This farm started 13 years ago by planting only Straw mushrooms. They continued to slowly expand to now being a center for the area. People from as far as Soi Dow, Pong Nam Ron, Klung and even Koh Chang come to get cultures and materials needed to plant a mushroom farm and they supply local fresh markets with each the daily harvest. It can be anywhere from 30kg to over 100kg per day. Todays harvest was above 70 kg. Today I took home 1 kilogram of Het Fang or Straw Mushrooms. Tonight we split them with the neighbors. We ate tons of mushrooms tonight, they were delicious. We had the Het Bao Hu Mushrooms from yesterday. We cooked them in Pad See Ew Sauce, they were good. However I love them cooked in Nam Man Hoi sauce. "Pad" Means stir fried so you would say in Thai " Pad Nam Man Hoy". Tomorrow I am getting the Bao hu mushrooms cooked in Nam man hoy.
I saw the last picking of the fruiting body or Mushrooms after i watched them packing the bags with compost medium.
The straw mushroom or Het Fang like a hot humid dark climate. They have many rooms full of the straw mushroom and other many types of mushrooms in different climate.
Het Fang or straw mushrooms are the most plentiful mushroom on the farm. They began with straw mushrooms and they are the most productive mushroom on the farm, it is amazing. I dont yet understand the whole growing process of straw mushrooms but as it comes to me i will correct the details. I see they take the raw straw material and submerge it in water.
For days, hours or weeks i am not sure. Using the steam boiler the can kill any bacteria from the beginning. Then they put the steam into the room to clean it and make them germ free rooms. This warmth is perfect to grow mycelia, the temperature is very hot and humid. At some time they add in the mushrooms mycelia growing cultures. It takes days too complete. When the fruit or mushrooms slowly appear, you can begin your harvest. It takes about a month two 6 weeks for harvest to begin after full mycelia growth. They produce for up to 4 months as the food remains and no contaminations occur. Inside the material the mycelia are decomposing the straw sugars. As the straw clumps age they are moved so the straw mushrooms can grow on all different surfaces. The Chanthaburi Suan Het near Nueng Sung has been in the growing business of mushrooms for 13 years. They hope to be growing their our own mycelia in the PDA or agar mixtures in the next 3 months.
More to come
