Time had passed it had been over a year with no development on the fungi front. Enough time passed that the sting of failure wasn't going to be an issue, sure the inoculation process was a laborious one but that was over a year ago. There were no signs of Shiitake mushrooms sprouting from my logs but I wasn't heartbroken. Not every backyard venture is going to prove fruitful.
Then one day in August I happened to wander over to the dark corner of the yard where I had my stack of oak logs setting, sure enough there was progress. It was plenty exciting to have two whole mushrooms sprouting from the one of the eleven logs I had mostly given up on. With the time, labor and money inputs, these mushrooms may have been the two most expensive ones I'd ever had a chance to eat.
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| 08/07/13 |
A month and a half later another cropping of the tasty mushroom appeared. This time 11 mushrooms, not nearly the 'I shall have more mushrooms than I'll know what to do with', that I proclaimed in my first post on mushrooms. They found their way into my my next three meals: Egg Scrabble, Homemade Pasta Sauce, and Eggs with Fried Mushrooms and Onions. Finally this may have been enough mushrooms to write home about.
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| 09/28/13 |
One last mushroom appeared two weeks ago, larger than my cereal bowl. This one ended up being a two meal-er in it's self.
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| 10/29/13 |
Since this was minimal input hobby, I half expected failure. There are additional steps that can be taken to ensure a greater crop, some people even water their logs, I stacked them and left them lay. The integrity of the logs is still intact, so it's my understanding I shall be reaping benefits of this project for years to come.
