I made a hugelcrater with a few trees I cut down a couple years ago. I know the typical method is a mound, but I like to try different things to see how they work out, or don't. I have had wild mushrooms coming up for a while, but was having a hard time identifying them since I am completely new to gardening, much less mushrooming. I just recently was able to find out that I have turkey tail, brick cap, and wood ear mushrooms growing out of my crater. I am going to be planting more wood in the nonhugelcrater right next to it. The brick caps and wood ears taste better than any store bought mushroom to me. Due to the competition with wild fungi, I like the approach of just burying the wood, seeing what pops up, and do the appropriate research to positively identify each and every mushroom you harvest (brick caps have a poisonous look-alike that can grow right along with it called sulfur tufts).
The thing that sparked my more aggressive pursuit to identify what was coming up was a flare up of my Crohn's disease. Some mushroom supplements got me back on my feet and back to the job. However, this stuff could easily bankrupt me. Therefore, my interest in the backyard mushrooms.
