Does this look familiar to any gardeners out there?
This is Ustilago maydis, or corn smut. In Mexico it’s called “huitlacoche” and is considered a delicacy. I’ve never had it infect corn. All I get are those nasty corn borers. My brother’s eaten it with some of his Central American friends, and claims it’s quite delicious.
So I want to try it! More specifically, I want to try to intentionally cultivate it for sale to gourmet restaurants here. What I really need is mature, dry specimens that are old enough to have a significant spore load, so I can infect corn seedlings with it. Any suggestions as to where I can find some? Anyone growing corn this year want to mail me some? I can trade mushroom spawn for your or mushroom kits for the kitchen!
My companion planting experiments with elm oyster mushrooms and tomatoes haven’t yielded any mushrooms yet, but I have a tomato plant the size of a washing machine. I have to post some pictures of that soon!
