Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Shiitake Mushrooms, And More...
Regular commenter and ol' friend, skip, turned me onto via Fungi Perfecti.
I had been curious about raising my own culinary mushrooms, and perhaps inoculating my garden beds with some. So I was pleased to find a three-month "Mushroom of the Month" subscription for $70.00 at the site.
Month 1: The Shiitake Mushroom Patch™
Month 2: The Pearl Oyster Mushroom Patch™
Month 3: The Maitake Mushroom Patch™
So, I plunked down the cash, and Monday afternoon, the first cube was waiting at my door. I scooped up a five-gallon bucket full of snow, and brought it in to melt down. Yesterday, I put the cube into the water to soak for 24 hours, and now, it is on a plate with its humidity bag over it. Hopefully, in a week or two, I'll have a nice bloom of Shiitake mushrooms to harvest. The instructions say that it will bloom every two weeks or so, for sixteen weeks, and then I should bury it in the garden to inoculate the garden. It's the gift that will keep on giving... I hope!
Meanwhile, I just took a trip out to the garden beds. Even though I have a huge pine branch over one of the beds, the Spinach, Strawberries and Garlic all survived the cold. I'll be ready to put in the Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Brussels, and a few other cold crops on Saturday. I have a couple of loads of compost set for delivery to the very large Corn patch in the back meadow, which I'll have to spread around.
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Labels: Food, Grow Your Own
