November 26, 2021
We finally put our shiitake logs to rest for the winter, restacking the piles and chasing away the leaves.
It took over a year for the oyster mushroom logs we experimented with last year to really start producing. I had given up on them and their sporadic and unpredictable ways - but I’ve grown to really love them, and as long as I have them set up correctly, they are in fact easier than the shiitakes.
Most of our shiitakes are varieties that are strong producers but require soaking in order to get them to fruit. So, each log gets placed in a tub of water and soaked for 24 hours, then lifted out and placed on a fruiting rack. After its done fruiting it gets restacked and covered in a resting pile. It’s all very systematic and predictable which, in terms of filling orders, is nice - but it requires each log be lifted 4 times every month. We have 500 shiitake logs so that’s a lot of lifting!
The oysters, on the other hand, are to a great extent left to their own devices. They are left uncovered and exposed to the elements, and fruit when the mood strikes them. That makes them less predictable, but I don’t have to lift, soak, stack, and restack them. I’m really starting to like that! So this week we are inoculating more logs and hopefully they’ll start producing next fall.
We are also trying out Lion’s Mane mushrooms this year. Lion’s Mane is a beautiful mushroom we found wild in our woods so I think it should grow easily in our mushroom yard. It takes two years from when we inoculate the logs for them to produce.
There has been some promising research using Lion’s Mane for cognitive repairs1.
I may just inoculate every tree I can find, and hopefully in two years I’ll remember where I stacked them all.
1 Lai PL, Naidu M, Sabaratnam V, Wong KH, David RP, Kuppusamy UR, Abdullah N, Malek SN. Neurotrophic properties of the Lion's mane medicinal mushroom, Hericium erinaceus (Higher Basidiomycetes) from Malaysia. Int J Med Mushrooms. 2013;15(6):539-54. doi: 10.1615/intjmedmushr.v15.i6.30. PMID: 24266378.