Oyster mushroom

Pleurotus ostreatus

Pleurotaceae

The easiest gourmet mushroom — food first, with a modest immune-supporting glucan bonus.

Everyday cultivated edible.

Parts used: Fruiting body
Traditional notes: Recovery foods · Everyday protein-adjacent vegetable
Grow · USDA 6b: Temperate saprophyte A kit, or pasteurized straw with grain spawn. In work: Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec
Harvest: When caps are still slightly inrolled, before they flatten and drop spores.

A kit this week: slice, mist, wait.
Ventilate. Spore fog is the indoor grower’s headache.
Twist off whole clusters while the caps are still slightly inrolled.

Safety

Known oyster allergy Unventilated indoor fruiting if you are spore-sensitive

Lore

Pleurotus, the mushroom that eats coffee grounds and old books. It is the gateway crop for anyone with a damp closet. The shelf of caps is named for the sea, not the taste.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.