First Shiitake!

Last April III cut down a few gumball trees and we inoculated about twenty-five logs with shittake mushroom spawn.  We drilled holes, tapped in the plugs, stacked and covered the logs, watered them all summer and waited.  The instructions recommended letting them sit for 9-12 months.  It's been ten months and we have been anxious to move on to the next step and see what happens.

Last night III decided it was time to move on and went about the business of submerging the logs in the big water tank full of rainwater we've been collecting for this purpose.  The logs need to soak for 24 hours in non-chlorinated water.  This step is supposed to initiate the crop.  Now mushrooms are supposed to start to form in the next two weeks.

The surprise we had last night though was when III pulled the tarp off the logs, the first log he saw had a shiitake growing out of it.  He was so excited, he quickly cut it off with his knife.  Which is really strange.  Those that know him know he does almost nothing quickly.  I cannot believe he cut our first mushroom before the Monster and I even had a chance to get over to the pile and look at it. Before I even had a chance to take a picture of it.  Our first mushroom!  He did wait for me to eat it though.  It was excellent.

This is what it looked like in the bad light of our kitchen.

YAY!  I'm so excited about mushrooms!