First Mushrooms
I was walking by the mushroom totems (previously) the other day when I noticed this:
Opening the paper cover revealed more:
One of the three logs is in full flush, and the others are not far behind:
This was just a trial to see if this inoculation technique (the totem method) will work for me with one of the species of wood that I have in abundance (poplar). So far I have been very happy with the results. Compared to the plug spawn method (where hundreds of holes need to be drilled in the log and filled with mushroom spawn), the inoculation was very quick and I have not touched the logs since wrapping them in the paper bags. The best part so far has been the flavour. These mushrooms have a richer and more complex flavour than any oyster mushrooms I have had before.
If all goes well, I may be scaling up production next year. I still need to monitor the overall productivity of the logs as well as the harvest window. Since oysters fruit naturally and cannot be "forced" on a schedule, I need to see how long they can hold on the log (before getting over ripe) and how long they can be stored for. I suspect both periods may be short.