By Debbie Bier
My husband, a Concord friend, and I are growing shitake mushrooms in oak logs in our yard. We've seen such interest and received so many questions about these
(including the now frequent greeting: "Hi, how are you? How are your
mushrooms?), I thought I would give an update here.
We inoculated them with the mushroom spawn late this fall and they've been living in our greenhouse ever since. This has been an utterly fascinating -- yet simple -- process; it's just amazing how the ancient industry of mushroom growing has developed methods of such intelligence and ingenuity. Depending upon the species of fungi you want, you can grow mushrooms on sawdust or straw bags, in a garden bed covered with wood chip mulch and soil, you can insert little wooden dowels colonized by spawn into logs... you can even use chainsaw oil that is pre-impregnated with mushroom spawn so you can thin your forest and inoculate while you cut! And these are just the methods available in the non-industrial setting -- mushroom culture is a big business that's been practiced for a very long time.
Why shitake? Well, I was looking for the most nutritionally dense, delicious and medicinally proven mushroom for food -- and it had to be an easy-to-grow variety. Shitake is amazingly nutritious -- do you know that it's one of the major sources of protein in the Japanese diet? And it full of untold numbers of other nourishing compounds, too. And Shitake have been prized as a choice food for thousands of years. Plus studies have show it to positively effect a dozen systems in the body. So shitake fit the bill perfectly. (I'll let you know about the easy-to-grow part later if it turns out to be so...)
We chose to use the wooden dowel method to grow shitake mushrooms. One-inch long wooden dowels -- exactly like you use for furniture building -- arrive already inoculated with the mushroom spawn. We drilled holes of EXACTLY the right diameter for the dowels, hammer them in, cover with melted cheese wax, stack them in a "rick" and then... wait. Wait for the mycelium to colonize the entire log. It's only then that it would be possible for it to fruit, which is what we call a "mushroom."
We stored the logs in the greenhouse over the winter only because we inoculated them close to and during constantly freezing weather. It's fine if they are exposed to freezing temperatures after inoculation, but not if they freeze all the time within two months of inoculation. We kept them under a cloth tarp to provide shade and airflow.
Now it's time to build a garden bed in the spot they've been occupying. Yesterday, we moved the logs out (thank you, stalwart and strong husband -- oak logs are &*#^ heavy!) and rebuilt the rick in the shade of our spruce trees. Just in time for a good soaking rain! We will again provide a cloth for again. There they will spend the rest of their lives, hopefully fruiting many times over the next several years. Stay tuned...
Photo credit: bottom right, courtesy of the author.
My husband, a Concord friend, and I are growing shitake mushrooms in oak logs in our yard. We've seen such interest and received so many questions about these
(including the now frequent greeting: "Hi, how are you? How are your
mushrooms?), I thought I would give an update here.We inoculated them with the mushroom spawn late this fall and they've been living in our greenhouse ever since. This has been an utterly fascinating -- yet simple -- process; it's just amazing how the ancient industry of mushroom growing has developed methods of such intelligence and ingenuity. Depending upon the species of fungi you want, you can grow mushrooms on sawdust or straw bags, in a garden bed covered with wood chip mulch and soil, you can insert little wooden dowels colonized by spawn into logs... you can even use chainsaw oil that is pre-impregnated with mushroom spawn so you can thin your forest and inoculate while you cut! And these are just the methods available in the non-industrial setting -- mushroom culture is a big business that's been practiced for a very long time.
Why shitake? Well, I was looking for the most nutritionally dense, delicious and medicinally proven mushroom for food -- and it had to be an easy-to-grow variety. Shitake is amazingly nutritious -- do you know that it's one of the major sources of protein in the Japanese diet? And it full of untold numbers of other nourishing compounds, too. And Shitake have been prized as a choice food for thousands of years. Plus studies have show it to positively effect a dozen systems in the body. So shitake fit the bill perfectly. (I'll let you know about the easy-to-grow part later if it turns out to be so...)
We chose to use the wooden dowel method to grow shitake mushrooms. One-inch long wooden dowels -- exactly like you use for furniture building -- arrive already inoculated with the mushroom spawn. We drilled holes of EXACTLY the right diameter for the dowels, hammer them in, cover with melted cheese wax, stack them in a "rick" and then... wait. Wait for the mycelium to colonize the entire log. It's only then that it would be possible for it to fruit, which is what we call a "mushroom." We stored the logs in the greenhouse over the winter only because we inoculated them close to and during constantly freezing weather. It's fine if they are exposed to freezing temperatures after inoculation, but not if they freeze all the time within two months of inoculation. We kept them under a cloth tarp to provide shade and airflow.
Now it's time to build a garden bed in the spot they've been occupying. Yesterday, we moved the logs out (thank you, stalwart and strong husband -- oak logs are &*#^ heavy!) and rebuilt the rick in the shade of our spruce trees. Just in time for a good soaking rain! We will again provide a cloth for again. There they will spend the rest of their lives, hopefully fruiting many times over the next several years. Stay tuned...
Photo credit: bottom right, courtesy of the author.
