Allow me to be totally un-PC when I say that we had a joyous day Sunday celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  The absolutely gorgeous weather didn't hurt either.

This great spring weather is an added bonus, giving us the opportunity to try another experiment with golden oyster mushrooms, pink and pohu oysters.  This time we are pasteurizing wheat straw then layering straw and mushroom spawn in laundry baskets.  Pasteurizing takes up a lot of time due to the small scale equipment so only a small amount of straw is pasteurized at a time.  However, today we should be ready to inoculate 1 basket.  Then two to go.

Our King oyster mushrooms are fruiting.   Can't wait to harvest.  We also had some Wine Cap mushrooms show up in our yard.  We had planted them last fall.  Our first customer came yesterday to see our operation.  She really wanted Reishi mushrooms but I haven't ordered the spawn yet.  Reishi is purely medicinal especially for cancer, helping the immune system, and for problems with the liver.  I gave her our Wine Caps because she drove 50 miles to get here.    She seemed very happy with the Wine Caps.

We have lift off.

Wow, we have mushrooms.  Gray Dove oysters to be exact.  These are the first to fruit and we are delighted.  This was an experimental exercise in different substrate taken from books and off the internet.  Our supplier, Field and Forest from Wisconsin also sends directions and are available on line for the occasional panicked question.  So here are the fruits of our labors.  Aren't they adorable?

If anyone views this who has any suggestions on growing oysters after viewing the pictures, please feel free.  We need all the help we can get. Thanks.

April 6, 2014

Well we have a new member to our family.  We weren't anticipating this new addition, but couldn't turn away from the cutest puppy ever, with the exception of Phoebe of course.  We were under the impression that she was probably around 8 weeks old but found out at the vet that she was more like 6 weeks old.  She was dumped at the trucking school where my husband teaches and came to live with us that day.  Who could turn down a face like this.

Now she is 13 weeks old.

We've been told she may be an English Mastiff. Really?

One of the largest breeds on the planet? Well we love her anyway and are preparing for what life will 

be like with a big, huge, gigantic dog.  Fencing in the property is top priority.  She's a sweetie.

Mushroom News

On the Shiitake front we began inoculating substrate consisting of sawdust, wood chips, rice bran and  calcium carbonate.  They are incubating in the grow room and almost ready for fruiting.

We mix the ingredients in bags then sterilize in the pressure cooker.  After that we place the bags and spawn in the inoculation lab box to keep from exposing the substrate and spawn to contaminates.  About 2/3 cup of spawn is used per bag. The bags are sealed then placed

in the environmentally manipulated pods until ready for fruiting.

We're also growing oyster mushrooms on straw substrate inside bags.  We have to chop the wheat straw into small pieces - we used a garbage can and weed eater.  Then we soak the straw and for added measure we pasteurized the straw in a large pot, we used our pressure cooker pot for that. We placed the straw in bags and inoculated with grain spawn.  That's me in the background soaking the straw in hot water and dish liquid.

To have a little fun, I ordered a Lions Mane mushroom block that was ready to fruit.  We put it in with the other bags and watched it grow.

When it was big enough we cut it and ate it.  Most mushrooms do well sauteed with olive oil and garlic.

It was delicious.  

Until next time, Mary and Bob, bon appetit.