Forbidden Fruits ND

10/05/2024

Oooooh it’s been a minute but the mushroom love hasn’t stopped!

This is your notification to get out and find what’s popping up now that it’s spring! It’s morel season right now and we were so fortunate to find a couple patches this week.

These are THE best gourmet mushroom and it’s growing all around us!

So get out there and share your findings here!

15/12/2023

B O O M!!!! We have lift off on some beautiful oyster mushrooms that we have dubbed, Dakota Heart Oyster Mushrooms!

We will post more about this funguses journey with us, but for now we have a few boxes available! @ $16/lb, these tender oyster mushrooms have a soft texture that takes in the flavors of the other foods it is cooked with.

Pick yours up today, or free delivery in the Bismarck/Mandan area!!!!

24/11/2023

In honor of I was challenged by my 6 year old to draw some turkey tail mushrooms. It was a good opportunity to try out stippling as a shading technique.

18/11/2023

I had a temperamental fruiting block of lions mane that didn’t want to quit!

After two small flushes, I figured this block just didn’t have the resources it needed to continue so I took it out of the tent after harvesting and placed it in my garage in preparation to take it and others to the compost. Two days later when I got around to disposing of it, I saw another fruiting body had started. This made me curious about its current environment, in the garage in cooler temps and less humidity than the grow tent.

I let the fruit keep going and after four days we brought it in the house before a potential freeze and this was the final result before harvest!

Through this experience, it dawned on me that this particular strain of hericium erinaceus, dubbed Lions Beard, prefers colder temps and less light - favorable conditions that this fruiting block found in the garage!

In the end this mycelium wanted to prove it had what it took to be a big beautiful fruiting body and we ended up harvesting over 1lb from this THIRD FLUSH!

Mushrooms are soooooooo awesome. Oh and it was tasty too!

22/10/2023

The last flush of Chestnut mushrooms going out tomorrow! It will probably be another couple months until we get these back in the tent.

If you’d like to be added to our list of first contacts when mushies like these are ready, just send a message and we’ll you set up!

22/10/2023

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Whoa.. 🍄

18/10/2023

After our last adventure out camping last weekend, we found this strange mushroom that resembled a bolete, but had some differing features.

After we did some digging, .leingang and I discovered that this was most likely a Leather Veiled Bolete, Paragyrodon sphaerosporus. A somewhat rare species, we learned a lot about it and it’s unconfirmed edibility over at and love how interesting they are.

It’s coolest feature is a leathery veil that sort of melts once it’s broken. The spores are yellow and it bruises brown. Found around/under oaks and growing between September/October.

17/10/2023

I’m a day late but HAPPY NATIONAL MUSHROOM DAY! So cool I found out I share a birthday with this fun(gi) day!

We spent the weekend finishing our camping season at state park and found SOOOO many mushies! Reishis, boletes, turkey tail(not pictured), and more! Happy to make some medicine with some of these foraged goodies!

06/10/2023

Brutal Twig Mushroom Cultivators has some delicious black pearl oysters fruiting and they look yummy!

28/09/2023

we’ve got a couple test flushes of Pink Oysters fruiting right now! If you’d like one of these delicious beauties let us know!!

Pink Oyster mushrooms, or Pleurotus Djamor, are a wildly tender mushroom that is great at soaking up seasoning ls and takes on flavors of things it’s cooked with. One fan favorite is to do a bacon marinade and fry them up for a pork bacon alternative!! It’s soooooo yummy!

28/09/2023

Coprinus comatus, also known as the Shaggy Mane, shaggy ink cap, and even lawyers wig mushroom. This funny looking fungi is pretty common this time of year and is famously found in lawns and parks.

This mushroom doesn’t have a long lifespan and its white cap will begin to turn pinkish and then dramatically deliquesce into a black inky substance that is actually how the mushroom sporulates or reproduces.

This last weekend we found these awesome examples at state park and couldn’t believe how big one of them were. Measuring in at 7”. Shaggy manes are a known gourmet mushroom but unless you know the area it’s growing it’s not always safe to pick any in lawns or roadsides.

We haven’t tried these yet but have heard they are very yummy. We’d love to try using some of the ink it produces for painting experimentation.

30/08/2023

C O N T A M I N A T I O N! A mushroom growers arch nemesis. So much of our process is to prevent this very thing from taking over your favorite gourmet mushrooms!

One of the steps taken in our operation is to culture each prospective gourmet species on a nutrient rich substance known as agar. Once a clean culture successfully colonizes an agar dish we have more confidence as we move on to the next step - colonizing grain to grow out the mycelium.

In this post you see a contaminated sample I took from a mushroom we found while foraging, and the other image is a clean agar culture of a new oyster mushroom we found on an elm tree in McClusky, ND and now successfully cloned.

01/08/2023

Trametes Versicolor, or more popularly known as Turkey Tail!!! This is THE premiere medicinal mushroom.

This polypore fungus has become wildly known as a major cancer fighter and immune system booster with its powerful polysaccharides - specifically its polysaccharide peptides (PSP) and polysaccharide krestin (PSK)

This is one of the longest used medicinal mushrooms and one that is actually used in western medicine during certain cancer treatments.

It’s not edible, but is easily brewed in teas or made into tinctures or dual extracted medicines!

We found this flush at our favorite state park and have been coming back to it for a couple years now!!

05/07/2023

Golden oysters have landed!!! I have a test batch of these golden beauties ready to go and up for grabs. Very limited supply so let me know if you’d like to try some!

These are top choice mushrooms that have an amazing texture and flavor that is different from blue oysters.
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25/05/2023

Blue oysters are ready! I have a couple flushes that aren’t spoken for so if you or anyone you know might be interested in trying something new, or adding a little gourmet quality food to your table, let me know!!

12/05/2023

So exciting! Check out these Bismarck Blues that Brutal Twig Mushroom Cultivators have! Get your order in!

20/04/2023

I’ve got a little over 1/2 lb of blue oysters left before another flush in two weeks. If you’d like to try something new for dinner, message me or drop a comment below!

18/04/2023

We’ve got another haul of fresh lion’s mane flushes incoming!! If you’d like to get your happy hands on some brain boosting and delicious tasting mushrooms, comment below or send me a message!

15/04/2023

Brutal Twig Mushroom Cultivators has all the goodies! Place an order or get in on their recent giveaway!!

🍄GIVEAWAY AND PRE-ORDER🍄

Give a like and a share to this post to be entered into a giveaway for a FREE CLUSTER of Blue Oysters! This is going to be a HUGE flush! Winner will be chosen at random on Sunday night! Good luck!

You can also comment or message to put in an order. FREE DELIVERY in the Bis/Man area.

Lions Mane and Bismarck Oyster are on deck, stay tuned!

02/04/2023

Before the big snow flies, stock up with these guys! They always have the best flushes!!

28/03/2023

A few days left to get in on this giveaway!

🚨 GIVEAWAY & PREORDER ALERT🚨

Blue oysters will be ready in just a few days, but before they’re all claimed, enter to win a free cluster! just give this post a like, share, and tag who you’d like to share your mushrooms with! Winner will be picked Friday, March 31st.

If you’d like to preorder any blue oysters or lion’s mane please leave a comment or send a message. All orders include free delivery in Bismarck/Mandan area!

28/03/2023

I’ve got a couple pounds of blue oysters left if anyone is interested! Feel free to ask any questions!

26/03/2023

🚨 GIVEAWAY & PREORDER ALERT🚨

Blue oysters will be ready in just a few days, but before they’re all claimed, enter to win a free cluster! just give this post a like, share, and tag who you’d like to share your mushrooms with! Winner will be picked Friday, March 31st.

If you’d like to preorder any blue oysters or lion’s mane please leave a comment or send a message. All orders include free delivery in Bismarck/Mandan area!

24/03/2023

Alicia surprised me this week with an awesome wood burning of the Forbidden Fruits logo done by, Katrina Case-Artist!!!

I can’t wait to get this thing hung up!!

22/03/2023

We have some AMAZING lions mane available! These are premium first flushes off of these blocks and ready to be cooked up tonight for dinner.

If interested, please reach out and we can deliver to your front door in the Bismarck/Lincoln/Mandan area!

21/03/2023

Lions mane inbound! Who’s ready for some of these beauties!!?

23/02/2023

ITS ALMOST TIME! Within a couple of weeks I will have some lionsmane and blue oyster mushrooms available.

If you are interested and would like to get on a list to be notified when the first flush hits, leave a comment below or message me.

23/02/2023

These lions mane clones matured a little quicker than I expected! Looks like it’s time for more grain and a lot more lions mane mushys on the way!

One of the best ways to start any grow is to stay as clean as possible and one way to do that is to start your mycelium on agar. If a clean culture grows out, free from contamination, part of it gets cloned to another dish and the rest used in the next batch of sterile grain.

09/02/2023

🥳Time to get your party hats on!
With some new liquid culture syringes in hand, I had to get another full batch of wheat grain in the pressure canner. Flushes of Lions mane and blue oysters on the way with more medicinal strains in the works!