We have been told that once you start producing oyster mushrooms, forget about vacations! Unlike the shiitake mushrooms that take 6-12 months before you see your first mushroom, the oyster mushrooms produce much more rapidly. Substrate preparation: We begin by steam pasteurizing chopped wheat straw and cottonseed hulls. After the straw mixture has cooled, we add rye grain oyster mushroom spawn and mix evenly throughout the straw. Next, we bag the straw in 10" diameter plastic bags and pierce holes in the bag. Then, we hang the newly packed bags in a specialized spawn room. At the first sign of pinning (the mushroom primordial), the bags are moved to a temperature/humidity controlled grow room. Once in the grow room, we will harvest clusters of oyster mushrooms in a matter of days. One bag of mushrooms will produce 3-4 flushes. Harvesting and packaging: We pick our oyster mushrooms twice daily. Our goal is to provide quality, not quantity; therefore, we do not allow them to get overly large. We carefully pack the mushrooms in smaller quantities to avoid crushing the delicate mushrooms. When you order oyster mushrooms from Sheltowee Farm, they are picked hours before your scheduled delivery.