Oh man, I've been wanting to do this for quite some time now, and I can finally say that it's happening!!!
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Growing my own mushrooms that is. As a kid and even young adult, I never even liked mushrooms. The only time I liked them was one time in college, that was a trip. But now my taste buds have matured, and I find myself putting mushrooms on almost everything.
Their earthiness, juiciness, meaty texture, and ability to soak up so many flavors has me using them whenever I can. So I finally got my White Elm Oyster mushroom spawn in the mail and I had to go get the rest of the necessities to grow them, such as hay and 5 gallon bucket with a lid.
For the hay, we decided to pack up the kids and head to Anoka-Ramsey Farm & Garden.
Not only are they f&g, they have some live animals. Baby chicks, pullets, ducks, geese, quail, and bunnies. Figured the kids would enjoy seeing the animals and especially the baby chicks...and they did.
While the wife was handling the kids, I was doing business. 1 bale of hay, a steal of a deal on a 10lb bag of bird seed, and 3 vegetable plants for a planter I needed to utilize. The veggies were half off because it's so late in the season, but they were fairly mature and I just like growing stuff :)
Once we got home, I got right to pasteurizing the hay. Basically that means putting the hay in a container with water at or above 80 C. I put the hay in the bucket and poured boiling water and hot water in until it was full.
In the mean time, I needed to prep my bucket, and that meant drilling holes in it so the mushrooms could flower out of them.
24 hours later, I was able to start the inoculating process with my mushroom spawn.
The process is a simple layer cake. Start with some hay at the bottom, then sprinkle in the spawn, and then repeat until you've reached the top.
Popped the lid on her and put the bucket in my basement where it is fairly cool and semi-humid. It'll sit there for about 2 weeks and then I'll put it outside in a shady spot to flower and grace me and my family with delicious home grown Oyster mushrooms.
This is my first time doing this, have you tried this before? Let me know if you have any advice or tips!
Thanks for reading and Hive on!