Father's Day Gift Shopping Time is Now:

Fathers who are gardeners, gourmets and grillers can enjoy the fun of growing and cooking the highest quality, best-tasting shiitake mushrooms – grown on hardwood logs. Healthy, fun, and easy to grow, Lost Creek Mushroom Farm log kits, priced from $18-$90 can produce a crop every two months for years.

Perkins, OK - June 10, 2015 - Father's Day gifts time is fast approaching. June 16 is the target date for timely arrival and lowest-cost shipping. Shiitake mushroom logs kits are a perfect surprise for family and friends who love to garden, cook on the grill, and eat well. "Shiitakes are fun to grow at home," according to The Mushroom Lady, Sandra Williams, owner of Lost Creek Mushroom Farm. "What better gift than healthy food and the pleasure of growing things?"

"A shiitake log is a chunk of hardwood loaded with mushroom seed material, called spawn. Soak it in ice water and in a few days, little buds or "pins" poke through the bark. Every day the mushrooms stretch and expand. In week or so, they are fully grown, beautiful, and ready to eat."

Most shiitakes found in grocery stores are grown on sterilized sawdust. The Mushroom Lady explained that "Shiitakes grown on hardwood logs are more dense, more flavorful, and contain higher levels of the nutrients that make shiitakes one of the healthiest and most popular mushrooms in the world."

The logs grow inside like plants year-round and can live outside in shade during the spring and fall. "Fruiting," or mushroom production, comes from soaking it in ice water and lowering the internal temperature of the log. After fruiting, the log "rests" for two months with regular soaking in room-temperature, non-chlorinated water. The ice-water soak is called "shocking" and triggers the fruiting. According to Williams, "Shocking imitates the 20-degree drop in temperature that comes with summer and fall rainy seasons. It tricks the logs into fruiting."

At first logs produce a few mushrooms, but as they mature they grow increasingly larger crops until the third and fourth years when the harvest tapers off. "Then the used-up log can go into the compost pile or be turned under the soil, which makes the soil disease resistant. Perfect for gardeners."

Lost Creek Mushroom Farm Kits start at $18 for a 6" 'Shroomie. The Single Log Kit with a 10" log sells for $30. The Original Tray Kit is $50, featuring a 14" log with its own tray for soaking, fruiting, and resting. All prices include shipping and handling.

Kits with two logs will provide shiitakes every month. When fruited together, they more than double the typical single-log harvest, "because of a pheromone effect," Sandra said. The Ma and Pa kit with two 10" logs sells for $50 and the Best Buy is $90 for two 14" Original Tray Kits shipped to the same address, a savings of $10 on two logs. "I like to say, give one as a gift and keep one for yourself!"

Online purchases can be made at http://shiitakemushroomlog.com. The number for phone orders and requests for free brochures is 1-800-792-0053. Lost Creek Mushroom Farm kits are available at Amazon.com at slightly higher prices.

Sandra and her husband Doug donate a portion of sales to their Mushrooms in Ghana Project and Mushrooms for Well Being Foundation, dedicated to promoting mushroom production, mushroom consumption, and the health benefits of mushrooms worldwide.