Miserable winter isn’t over when we find fresh shiitake mushrooms popping out of our inoculated oak logs. Shiitake mushrooms are not native to North America, so the way we gather them is in markets--grown commercially--or we grow them ourselves at home on inoculated logs or other mushroom kits. Different strains of shiitake mushrooms (known as Lentinula edodes) pop out at different times of the year. If you shop around, you can find cold-tolerant strains that manage to continue growing despite sub-freezing temperatures.

For cabin fever victims, those cold-tolerant strains can produce new mushrooms long before winter ends. On a mild day in January, a button of a fresh shiitake mushroom might poke out of the damp oak bark, then freeze solid that night. Perhaps a brutal cold front will move in and the temperature will drop below zero once or twice in the next few weeks. People will notice the cold. Pipes will freeze. Then, a mild day comes along, followed by more snow, and afterward we notice that, despite real winter weather lately, our young shiitake mushrooms managed to grow large enough to pick and cook up.

They seem to defy death. It’s why their amazing tolerance of cold might be celebrated as a cryobiology success story if it weren’t for the fact, right at the end, where somebody begins heating a skillet.