how mushrooms can save the world.

Have you heard of TED yet? This is an amazingly powerful talk by Paul Stamets author of Mycelium Running about how mycelia and fungus can impact our environment.
check it out!

Big and Thick

It is hard to tell how big this is, but it is about the size of my fist and easily a 1/2 inch thick.

Dinner!

Look how big this thing is!
Straight off a log I thought was not even producing.

Proof! Well not scientific.

My wife and I were walking by this spot last week and to my surprise we found some oyster mushrooms. They are about a day past prime, but still wonderful. I want to say it has been about 2 or 2.5 years since I poured some spored oil on this stump and the trunk laying on the ground next to it about two weeks after it was cut down. The tree is still holding on to life.

Links to some cool sites

Brother Matt forwarded some links today, via CBS Sunday Morning story on mushroom foraging.

Far West Fungi -mushroom store in san francisco ferry building. Their website has some great mushroom facts, nutritional information, storage and handling info and wild mushroom calendar.

http://www.bayareamushrooms.org/index.html

Mycological Society of San Francisco

Brother Jon's backyard LBM's

These are some pics of nice looking LBM's that brother Jon found growing in his back yard. LBM's? Little Brown Mushrooms, not for eating or worrying about. Just leave them to their work.

Andra's Harvest

Look at what Andra found, while I'm living in Califoria.
She says these are the largest she's ever seen.
The other half are still on the logs.

Garden Oysters

These first two pictures are the first oysters to grow out of a log I inoculated with spored oil.
The second two are yummy oysters growing out of the stump of an Oak tree which used to grow out of my deck, but fell down 5 years ago.

David's Kombucha Recipie

(For 20 liters finished kombucha)

Materials:
6 liter glass carboy with air lock
Tube to siphon during bottling
20 liters Mineral Water
1600 g sugar
1 box celestlial seasonings "Fast Lane" or "Morning Thunder" tea
5 4l jugs or other bottles
2-4 L Kombucha Mother (see below)

Brewing:
Combine 4 L water, tea, and sugar in stock pot
bring slowly to a boil
keep at a simmer for at least 15 min to "sterilize"
let cool and add to remaining water already in carboy

once cool to the touch (many hours)
add 1/2 gal "Mother"

Bottling
Once bubbling stops and air lock slows down (<1>Kombucha Mother
This is a mini-recipe to increase the available volume of Kombucha culture
To get sufficient Kombucha starter, I purchase commercial Kombucha
This comes in 355 mL bottles
So, Make 3.5 L of tea with 100 g/L sugar,
once cool to touch, add entire bottle of commercial Kombucha (e.g. http://www.gtskombucha.com/kombucha.html)
Allow to sit until bubbling subsides
---------------------

While we're talking kombucha, these are my two favorite pre-made kombucha drinks:
http://www.gtskombucha.com/
http://www.wonderdrink.com/
aaron

more oyster pics

Kombucha

Photos of David's recent Kombucha harvest.

Backyard Mushrooms

Anyway, a little sprinkle last night and some cool 60 degree weather brought us about what looks like a 1/2 pound of Oyster mushrooms. If you look closely you'll see another one about to poke its head out of the bark.





I poured some spored oil on this stump about a year and a half ago.







These suckers are as big as the palm of my hand.

Malty Mushrooms

Great article on using brewery wastes(malt grains) for use as a substrate to grow mushrooms. submitted to me by chris32.

Green Construction with Mushrooms?

Check out this cool link to an Associated Press article on eco-friendly insulation.

Bradford Pear Stumps

David, standing by some of the bradford pear stumps we innoculated today.

We used dowels innoculated with an Oyster strain obtained from Omon at NC A&T

there is David kneeling in the background.The whiteness of the stumps is old parafin wax left over from making candles.

This is the only stump that was innoculated with a Shiitake strain as it was isolated away from the other stumps.

Original Gangsta Dave

OG David, after innoculating some logs, and covering them with sawdust.

Shiitake Harvest

Wow, so we had a lot of rain last weekend. These logs are about 2 years old, and they are starting to produce nicely. I would say I just picked about 3-4 pounds of mushrooms last night, and I have more to that were not quite ready. Just last month I harvested about 2 pounds.

Stump Innoculation

This is a stump Alex and I found, and inoculated it with Hericium abietis: The Conifer Coral Mushroom
-grows exclusively on conifers and is very similar in appearance to Hericium erinaceus. Native to western North America, the Conifer Coral Mushroom has a delicate and pleasant flavor.

Oysters in the Park

It has been way to long since my last post. These are beautiful oysters we (me and Alex) found at one of my favorite spots. It was hot and muggy day, and the mushrooms were just beginning to be devoured by some unwelcome guests.

Fairy Ring

Here is Leo in the middle of a Fairy Ring of Green Spored Parasol, or Lepiota. We spotted this on the way to a dinner party, however these are not friendly mushrooms to invite to dinner. To quote David Arora;

Fairy rings occur where there is an even distribution of nutrients in the
soil and the mushroom mycelium can spread outward in all directions, growing
larger each year and periodically producing mushrooms on its fringes.