The summmer of 2009 we received a Shiitake Mushroom kit from Fungi Perfecti. I set up the Shiitake mushroom kit in the corner of the kitchen and grew a few mushrooms.

Several months later I moved the Shiitake Mushroom kit to the greenhouse, setting it in a corner that was partially shaded. I refilled the saucer the kit sat in with rain water and waited to see what would happen. We noticed more Shiitake Mushrooms were beginning to form. Yesterday we removed those mushrooms noticing more were forming underneath of the ones we were removing.

Once the Shiitake Mushrooms were removed, we brought them inside and rinsed them under cold running water, then set them aside on a plate while we researched different methods of preservation such as canning, freezing and dehydrating. We decided dehydrating them would be the best choice for us.

The next step in the process involved cutting them into either 1/8 inch slices or 1/4 inch slices and removing any of the stem pieces that were tough.

My initial concern was that these slices looked pretty big and I was not sure they would dry quickly. The instructions I found on dehydrating mushrooms said they should dry within 6 to 8 hours.

Once all the Shiitake Mushrooms were sliced, it was time to put them onto the dehydrator tray. I have several dehydrators, some with fans, some without fans. I chose to use one without a fan that simply used a gentle heat only. Jerry felt this method would be the one that most resembled drying in natural sunlight.

I laid the pieces of the Shiitake Mushrooms onto the drying rack, making sure there was plenty of space around each piece so the heat could easily circulate and they would dry evenly. Every hour I would go in and turn the Shiitake Mushrooms over so the heat could heat both sides equally. Within about six hours, the mushrooms were dry.

I left them sit on the trays in the dehydrator overnight so they would cool and I could check to make sure they were done. I checked them for dryness by trying to bend one. It snapped easily, so I knew they were done.

From the dehydrator tray they went into a glass jar with a screw on plastic lid. The jar was labeled with the contents and the date, then put into a cool, dark cabinet for storage.

The Shiitake Mushrooms can now be rehydrated by soaking them in water or another liquid or simply tossed into a soup base where they will rehydrate on their own.