My first shiitake mushroom "flush".
It was stupidly easy, but not without ups and downs. When I first got my logs, they were longer than I expected. I tried to fit them in the bathtub for a soak, but it wasn't really a great plan. First off, they didn't quite fit. They also got my tub filled with bits of bark and other outdoorsy crap. Then there was the issue of actual bathing. So, the logs soaked for about 5 hours before I moved them outside under the sprinkler overnight. Eventually I did get a few mushrooms, maybe 6 or 7. I'm pretty sure raccoons realized that shiitakes are tasty, because they started scratching out any teeny mushroom cap that attempted to pop out. Defeated, I chalked it up in the loss column of my garden experiment. After a few weeks, I got my second wind and took the logs to my dad's place, cut them in half and gave them a less half assed soak - this time for a full 24 hours. A couple of weeks later just when I'd almost forgotten about my 'shrooms - TA DAAA!
Above is the first true harvest!
Since I use this blog to be positive, I won't get into the story where I put most of my harvest into the oven to dehydrate them - and then forgot about them. I now have a big bowl of what can only generously be called mushroom "crisps". But that does bring us to the best part of growing mushrooms, you only have to wait a few weeks for the next harvest!
