What to do with two kilos of harvest at once: freezing, drying, fermenting

September is the month it happens: after a wet week every log is suddenly full, the wine cap gives its biggest flush and the grow kit in the utility room joins in too. Two kilos of mushrooms in a single day is no exception then. Fresh, they last three to five days, and nobody eats that much oyster mushroom. These are the four ways to preserve a big harvest, with what works best per species.

First: sort on harvest day

Split the harvest into three piles straight away. The finest, youngest specimens are for eating fresh in the next three days. The middle tier, firm but not perfect, goes to the freezer or the jar. And the trimmings, stems, over-mature and damaged specimens go to the oven for powder or to the pan for broth. Do this on day one and you throw nothing away at the end of the week. Put it off and you lose half.

Freezing: fry first, then into the freezer

The most important rule: do not freeze mushrooms raw. Frozen raw, they thaw into a wet, limp mass because the ice crystals break the cell walls. Fry them first as in the frying piece: hot, dry, until brown and rid of their moisture. Let cool, portion into tubs or bags, and freeze. They keep for six months that way and go straight from frozen into a pan or sauce. This works for oyster, Black Pearl King, lion's mane and wine cap. For shiitake too, although drying is better there.

Drying: for shiitake, wood ear and anything you want to grind

Drying is the oldest method and for some species the best. Shiitake improves with it, wood ear dries into flakes that keep for years and are as good as new after soaking, and thin oyster caps become crisp chips for soup. Oven at 50 to 60 degrees, rack, door ajar, until everything is hard and snaps. Store in a sealed jar in a dark place. Drying suits lion's mane and wine cap less well; they turn tough and lose their character, so those belong in the freezer.

Fermenting and pickling: the jar for firm species

For anyone with a kilo of shiitake, Black Pearl King or young wine cap to spare who wants something special. Blanch the mushrooms for two minutes in salted water, drain and cool, and put them in a clean jar with a brine of thirty grams of salt per litre of water, a clove of garlic, a bay leaf and a few peppercorns. Weigh them down so everything stays under the brine, cover with a cloth and leave for a week at room temperature. Then into the fridge, where they keep for months: sour, savoury, bite still intact. It is the method from Eastern Europe and Asia we are least used to, and the one that surprises most.

Preserving in oil: only with a detour

Mushrooms in oil, as in Italy, are wonderful but need care. Raw or merely fried and sealed under oil is a botulism risk. So do it the Italian way: first blanch in water with a generous amount of vinegar (at least one part vinegar to two parts water), drain and dry well, only then cover with oil and herbs, and keep in the fridge for a few weeks at most. If that sounds like too much fuss, stick to the freezer.

The best choice per species

The harvest of a good year is bigger than the pan, and that is exactly the point. Know the four methods and you are still eating from September's logs in February. And once you have experienced that, you inoculate one log more the following year.