Nice mushroom column. One thing to consider is the leftover “juice” after you have soaked your mushrooms. It is loaded with flavor, and you can use it to make mushroom soup (or to make rice or almost anything in which you might use water or chicken stock). Or use it to reconstitute more mushrooms, thereby concentrating the flavor in both the new ‘shrooms and the stock. Then freeze the stock for later.

Newt
PS: try adding a little wine to the water before you soak.