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24 North American Natural Resources: Timber and Forest Products

Edible Mushrooms Mushrooms are an important part of many recipes and foods. Most likely, the mushrooms in your local supermarket or in a salad bar were grown on a mushroom farm. However, many mushrooms are found in the forests of North America. Mushrooms can be harvested from the forest floor, or from the decaying logs found there. But they can also be cultivated as a business. In fact, it is possible not only to harvest, but also to farm, exotic mushrooms in the forest. Mushrooms such as shiitake, maitake, and oyster mushrooms can also be grown in a forest, generally by a farmer who specializes in using forest resources to grow crops. Mushrooms grow best on the logs of hardwood trees. Mushroom farmers cut down hardwood trees as part of their regular forest management. The logs are cut during the winter and early spring. Special care is taken while cutting the trees to make sure that the outer layer of bark is not damaged. A series of holes are drilled into

A pink oyster mushroom growing on an oyster farm.