On the left you have Luke Larkin and on the right you have a shiitake mushroom.
The connection between the two living creatures above may not be obvious but you
are about to be enlightened.
The shiitake mushroom has been a dietary staple in Asia since Asians were Asians.
In the last twenty years or so the US has began importing and producing the shiitake
to meet our growing demand. It is a segment of our farming industry that is actually
steadily growing and providing new opportunities. Shiitake's are valuable for both
there table fare and nutritional benefits.
One day during one of our in depth conversations on the universe I was wondering
out loud how to start a natural farming business on my woodlot. Luke is well read on
the topic of natural farming and had read an article about producing Shiitake's on a
small scale. So after that discussion I took to the Internet and educated myself on the
topic. After learning about shiitake mushrooms it seemed like a real possibility to
produce these mushrooms and maybe even make some money doing it.
Like anything the process isn't easy and will take at least a year to get any real
answers. At this point it is a process of data collection and waiting for the life cycle to
fully emerge. It's a multi-step process that starts with harvesting trees which will act as
the host for the fungi. This step begins our experiment because we are using a fairly
experimental species of tree: the red maple or soft maple. Although hardwood is
preferred we choose red maple because it is everywhere on our woodlot. It actually
needs to be thinned out for woodlot management purposes so we hope to kill two
birds with one stone. After we harvest the trees we have to inoculate them with
mushroom spawn, which is kinda like a seed is to a plant. The spawn arrives in the
form of dowel plugs which are placed in the logs. After inoculating the logs we stack
them to rest for a year and wait for mushrooms to appear. We have several variables
involved which will allow us to collect data and make an semi-educated decision on
the future potential of our project.
Today me and Luke are on our way to inoculate another batch of logs out in our
forest workshop. We drill, plug, seal, and stack our logs while we talk about our next
project......what will it be??? Stay tuned for more on South Hill Natural Farms and
Cosmic Think Tank.
The connection between the two living creatures above may not be obvious but you
are about to be enlightened.
The shiitake mushroom has been a dietary staple in Asia since Asians were Asians.
In the last twenty years or so the US has began importing and producing the shiitake
to meet our growing demand. It is a segment of our farming industry that is actually
steadily growing and providing new opportunities. Shiitake's are valuable for both
there table fare and nutritional benefits.
One day during one of our in depth conversations on the universe I was wondering
out loud how to start a natural farming business on my woodlot. Luke is well read on
the topic of natural farming and had read an article about producing Shiitake's on a
small scale. So after that discussion I took to the Internet and educated myself on the
topic. After learning about shiitake mushrooms it seemed like a real possibility to
produce these mushrooms and maybe even make some money doing it.
Like anything the process isn't easy and will take at least a year to get any real
answers. At this point it is a process of data collection and waiting for the life cycle to
fully emerge. It's a multi-step process that starts with harvesting trees which will act as
the host for the fungi. This step begins our experiment because we are using a fairly
experimental species of tree: the red maple or soft maple. Although hardwood is
preferred we choose red maple because it is everywhere on our woodlot. It actually
needs to be thinned out for woodlot management purposes so we hope to kill two
birds with one stone. After we harvest the trees we have to inoculate them with
mushroom spawn, which is kinda like a seed is to a plant. The spawn arrives in the
form of dowel plugs which are placed in the logs. After inoculating the logs we stack
them to rest for a year and wait for mushrooms to appear. We have several variables
involved which will allow us to collect data and make an semi-educated decision on
the future potential of our project.
Today me and Luke are on our way to inoculate another batch of logs out in our
forest workshop. We drill, plug, seal, and stack our logs while we talk about our next
project......what will it be??? Stay tuned for more on South Hill Natural Farms and
Cosmic Think Tank.