Fall Mushrooms!!!
This marks our second year of mushroom production. The first year, we hosted a small workshop and learned along with several friends and neighbors all about how to inoculate, store, and fruit a couple easier mushroom species.
Last year, we decided to "ramp it up" and purchased 70lb of sawdust spawn, as well as a couple packs of plugs, and inoculated hundreds of logs and totems, and a couple beds of compost and woodchips with a wide variety of culinary mushrooms. 'Till next summer, the plan is to not force any fruitings, instead relying on rain and natural temperature fluctuations to do what it will with our spawn.
Really, the only thing we are seeing a lot of fruit on right now is the wide range shiitakes.
Log grown mushrooms are meatier and more flavorful than indoor grown, and these shiitakes are no exception. Also, they are beautifully ornamented compared to typical commercially produced mushrooms. Check it out:
As temperatures get cooler, we are expecting to see light production on nameko and perhaps our first few box elder, miatake, and lion's mane, as well as sporadic massive fruitings of our old oyster logs. Last year this time we were harvesting 10+lb per week of grey oysters. We had some trouble with fungus gnats and pleasing fungus beetles, so we did not add any new autumn oysters in the spring until we can figure out a safe and reliable method to control those pests, but we are looking forward to our winter fruiting varieties: we have a blue and a white oyster, which should compliment the fruiting schedule of our winter shiitake varieties.
Our goal is to have enough varieties to maintain a steady production schedule starting next spring. In the mean time, we are enjoying the occasional windfall (rainfall?) of whatever our little fungus garden gives us. If it's just too much, we either sauté then freeze them for later or share them with friends and family.
Last year, we decided to "ramp it up" and purchased 70lb of sawdust spawn, as well as a couple packs of plugs, and inoculated hundreds of logs and totems, and a couple beds of compost and woodchips with a wide variety of culinary mushrooms. 'Till next summer, the plan is to not force any fruitings, instead relying on rain and natural temperature fluctuations to do what it will with our spawn.
Really, the only thing we are seeing a lot of fruit on right now is the wide range shiitakes.
Log grown mushrooms are meatier and more flavorful than indoor grown, and these shiitakes are no exception. Also, they are beautifully ornamented compared to typical commercially produced mushrooms. Check it out:
As temperatures get cooler, we are expecting to see light production on nameko and perhaps our first few box elder, miatake, and lion's mane, as well as sporadic massive fruitings of our old oyster logs. Last year this time we were harvesting 10+lb per week of grey oysters. We had some trouble with fungus gnats and pleasing fungus beetles, so we did not add any new autumn oysters in the spring until we can figure out a safe and reliable method to control those pests, but we are looking forward to our winter fruiting varieties: we have a blue and a white oyster, which should compliment the fruiting schedule of our winter shiitake varieties.
Our goal is to have enough varieties to maintain a steady production schedule starting next spring. In the mean time, we are enjoying the occasional windfall (rainfall?) of whatever our little fungus garden gives us. If it's just too much, we either sauté then freeze them for later or share them with friends and family.
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