HOT

It's hot and humid in Georgia, but we still managed to add to our mushroom shelves.  We are up to 65 inoculated bags of Shiitake.  They take 2 -3 months before first fruit so September should be a busy month.
 Kids had vacations recently so I have to post at least one picture of the grandkids. The grand dog is Pearl.

Fourth of July

I hope everyone had a great 4th. Perhaps had a little gratitude moment for our country and the men and women who fight for our freedom and way of life.  I'm guilty lately of complaining way too much about the insanity going on in D.C. and elsewhere around the USofA and the world.  Recently I spent time with my grandson for his 1st birthday and was able to put my fears for this country and the world aside and thank God for family and friends.  Who could possibly resist the smile and giggle of a one year old.

A little gratitude goes a long way.  

Shiitake Village update.  Many people have donated money to our Kickstarter project.  All we need is 100 more people to donate $50 each or 200 people at $25 each etc.  Seriously, this has been fun and motivating for me.  We're working hard and have 40 bags in various stages of production and  so much more to do.  

Enjoying Shiitake

We have new babies popping up all over the place and growing fast.  These are our favorite eating mushroom above all others.  We're also waiting for a shipment of grain spawn to come so we can inoculate more sawdust substrate.  Pretty soon we should have about 50 more bags incubating.

We've had a slow start on Kickstarter.com but are so grateful to the people who have shown their support for Shiitake Village.  Some have donated with personal checks so, wow, many thanks. I am humbled by your generosity.

Dinner with Shiitake:

I sautéed the shiitake in olive oil with garlic, onion and a dash of worcestershire sauce.

Shiitake pinning

Our Shiitake blocks are pinning and in the grow environment.  We have Shiitake in bags as well and hope we have more Shiitake in another 2 weeks. It is getting harder to keep three environments going in the house, so for those of you who are supporting our efforts for a grow house, Thank You.  We also  got an email today from Kickstarter hailing us as a Kickstarter Staff Pick.  Vic did a super job on the video so

Kudos go to him.

Expanding Shiitake Village

We have the market for our mushrooms, and our bedrooms just aren't big enough anymore.    I guess it's  time to think about building a green house.  We have decided to try to raise the money through Kickstarter, a site where people can present their projects and hopefully raise the money they need.  We thought it was worth a try.  Go to Kickstarter.com and browse the projects.  It's a great concept.  Our project will be launched soon, so keep an eye out for it next week.

Shiitake - new strains

We're trying a new strain of Shiitake that all the mushroom people are raving about, and seeing great results.  In a couple months we should have pounds of shiitake.  Took a look at our logs we inoculated in November and the mycelium are showing themselves.  We're hoping when the weather gets cool again this fall we will see shiitake on our logs - the Shiitake Village I envisioned.

So much has happened since last post.  Our Pink, Golden and PoHu Oyster mushrooms flushed and I sold all of them to local chefs.  We are running out of space to grow mushrooms and hope to raise money to buy a green house.  There is a hungry market here in McDonough and hopefully we can meet the needs of this small community.

We went to Ashville NC to learn more about the mushroom business and had a very productive time.

Today I'm listening to the spitting of my pressure cooker sterilizing more substrate to inoculate with a new strain for us - Shiitake 75. Here are some pics of the mushrooms we sold.