SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. – The historic November windstorm left many people with downed trees in their yard not knowing what to do with the debris. One man may have the solution.
“A few days after the windstorm ended, when there were all the trees down, I knew I could put these trees into food production,” said Josh Yake.
Yake makes a side-living foraging wild mushrooms and selling them at farmer’s markets.
“You cook them up! But honestly, the variety I’ll be looking at growing are some of the more exotic ones you would usually only find in the wild. Like chicken of the woods. And it tastes like chicken!” said Yake.
The mushrooms only grow in trees.
Yake said if you have the right kind of downed tree for mushroom farming, like Spruce, he will come to your house and take what he needs. He’ll cut up the rest with his chainsaw and leave neat piles to be removed.
“Right now is the ideal time. Now that the snow is melted,” said Yake.
If you have a tree in your yard you would like to share with Josh, you can contact him through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GourmetForagables/