Shiitake mushrooms growing on logs

By CHRISTINE MARTINEZ/ Missourian

July 12, 2009 | 12:01 a.m. CDT

Fred Fry, owner of The Mushroom Farm outside Montgomery City, grows shiitake mushrooms on logs inside an old wine cellar. Fry drills holes into the logs to insert the fungus and waits for the mushrooms to break through. The whole process can take anywhere from 7 to 15 months, depending on a variety of factors such as temperature and humidity. "It's amazing to me how something as fragile as a mushroom can bust through the surface of a log," Fry said.