Missing Willow Farm

We’ve got them growing on logs.  If we were more successful at it, I’d post a tutorial but it’s surprisingly mysterious.  Here’s what I can tell you.  We bought some plug spawn in the Spring of 2009.  They look like pencil erasers and consist of mushroom spores suspended in a binder.  My husband prepared our logs by drilling holes and inserting the plug spawn.  The log selection is probably the most particular part of the process.  Certain trees work best with certain types of mushrooms.  These are shiitakes.  You then paint cheese wax over the spawn plugs and leave them in the shade for, well, forever it seems.  We had one log fruit by surprise last Fall from our first batch.  When the spores make their way through the log you can see white dots on the end of the log.  That’s our signal to soak the log in our pond over night, slam it on the ground to simulate a branch falling off a tree, and setting it in the shade to wait for mushrooms to appear.  Only it doesn’t always work.  However… we’ve had enough success not to get discouraged after 18 months and have added pearl and phoenix oyster mushroom logs to our stand.  They live in a hammock under a bradford pear tree to keep them shaded and off the ground.  Shiitake risotto… yum!