Spring, 2016 – we are growing our own Shiitake mushrooms! It’ll take 6 months to a year to see if it works, so until then I’m using a picture of some turkey tail mushrooms as my feature picture – they grow rampantly in our woods but are not much for eating (they do have some great medicinal purposes though – click here!)  Our shiitake could fruit for several years if we take care of them, which just means soaking the logs in the creek during any droughts.   Below is a short video of the inoculation process – we used fresh cut oak logs that are 4 feet long and about 4-5″ in diameter.

We set the 3 logs up on the south hill of the farm where they will have shade most of the day.  The logs have about 50 mushroom spores in them and could produce their weight in shiitake mushrooms!  And, almost exactly one year later, on February 28 2017 – our first mushroom appeared!  Theoretically, the logs should “fruit” 3 times each year for several years.  Mushrooms will be available to purchase in the future -stay tuned!