I have been reading so many agricultural/permaculture/no-till/husbandry/gardening books and articles since Matt and Jenny bought their land. So many. Some I can finish but most I don’t. I get the author has a point to “sell,” but I get it the first time. At least by the second time they promote it. So I have been known to read 75% of a book and then the final chapter. I definitely get the gist of their idea. Add in some YouTube videos and I have an idea of what we are trying to do on our little homestead there in Wilton. It mostly makes sense to me but I have to admit it feels like the physical work is really going to fall onto Matt here within a couple years. A lot of the homesteading techniques are hard work and Dave and I ain’t getting any younger or much stronger! So I try to organize things the way Matt wants them. And then the ADU goes nowhere (STILL no permit – we were told we’d move in mid March at the latest!), we aren’t living there any time soon, so plans change. One thing you do learn as a teacher is to roll with the changes. So I have digitized all the seeds we bought, organized for 6 bins to go between the houses, (by the square foot), then organized for 2 bins just off the driveway where water is accessible while we wait for the ADU, and now 3 bins, by the square foot, out on the driveway. But we have some more creative ideas to try with trellises etc out there, and we shall see what we can actually grow. Just like I don’t get my custom kitchen counter, this garden doesn’t match my vision, but it will be a wonderful experience. The more permanent “vision” garden might be there by NEXT year! And yes, now trying to grow mushrooms where I can control where they grow.
Backing up- Last September I started a vermiculture tub with 250 red wriggler worms. The idea was to have something to care for as we got ready to raise chickens for eggs, and as a general pet, of sorts, for me. It has about doubled in soil depth and there are LOTS of the wrigglers in there. Very cool. Smells like fresh dirt too and will provide us with compost tea for our Birdie Beds in the seasonal garden. It is a success and I can see going bigger with it in a couple years since it makes some wonderfully rich compost. So with all the construction chaos and changing plans going on around December, I decided I also wanted to get a mushroom grow kit and see if I could grow them.
Seemed easy enough to use the mushroom kit once Dave built me the tub with all the air holes in it. I purchased Blue Oyster Mushrooms from Cascadia Farms in Washington, and then forgot about it for 5 weeks. A shrink wrapped chunk of compressed shavings and mycelium came in the mail and got put to the side when we cleaned up from Christmas. Oops. When I remembered it (yes I am “blaming” the time with Gabe for distracting me- haha, right) I wasn’t even sure the fungus was still alive. I know fungi require oxygen, and this package was wrapped pretty tight. But Dave drilled the air holes, I sliced open the plastic, sprayed with deionized water and watched. It was soooo cool. In 4 days the mushroom stalks were pushing out of the sawdust block! I think maybe the fungus was desperate for air and thought it had to make a push for reproduction or something. At day 6 the shrooms were starting to grow on the top of the stalks. By day 8 I harvested some of the bigger ones and we ate them as fried garlic butter shrooms. They are definitely different from the brown button mushrooms we normally eat, but I really liked their delicate structure. Took 3 minutes to cook! Tasty!
I also read that you can usually get three flushes (rounds) of mushrooms from the nutrients in the compacted shavings. But the mycelium (fungus “body”) is still there after they; they just lack nutrients to grow. So I am going to make a bigger bin and add shavings and straw and see if I can keep these oyster mushrooms going even longer. We easily eat a pound of mushrooms every week so that is an intriguing idea for me.
And naturally, I bought another mushroom kit, this time from North Spore in Maine; Pink Oyster mushrooms this time. They are supposed to taste earthier and I think we will enjoy them. This is a different type of gardening or husbandry. Keeps me occupied and excited about growing things!
Update 4/2/25
I just thought I show the beginning of the Pink Oyster mushroom growth and that it looks like the colonization of the wood chips with the Blue Oyster mushrooms is working!
