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Since you're stuck at home, thinking about food, looking for projects to do with your kids, maybe consider growing your own MUSHROOMS. This is a thread about doing that.
A little background. Before you knew me, my husband Kevin and I spent a decade on DIY food. We've grown, raised, hunted, or foraged just about everything. Chickens turkeys bees ducks pigs veg fruit deer fish lobster. Hell we made our own sea salt. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/salt-of-the-sea-as-easy-as-evaporation/2013/04/08/400f610e-9018-11e2-9cfd-36d6c9b5d7ad_story.html
I am SO not an expert. But I can tell you which of those projects are EASY and FUN - and which pay off in delicious things. For years I wrote a blog called Starving off the Land. It still exists (but the pictures don't work anymore). https://starvingofftheland.com/
One of my all-time favorites was shiitake mushrooms. You need 4 things:
Oak logs
Spore-filled pellets (which you order from a supplier)
A drill
Wax
Our favorite mushroom supplier is Fungi Perfecti. You can buy shiitake spawn here. https://fungi.com/products/shiitake-plug-spawn-100-plugs
Oak logs
Spore-filled pellets (which you order from a supplier)
A drill
Wax
Our favorite mushroom supplier is Fungi Perfecti. You can buy shiitake spawn here. https://fungi.com/products/shiitake-plug-spawn-100-plugs
You drill holes in the logs, insert one plug in each hole, seal it with wax (to prevent spores from other things like mold from getting in), and then you wait.
OK, the waiting part isn't so good for kids but it's WAY worth it.
https://starvingofftheland.com/2009/02/fun-with-fungi/
OK, the waiting part isn't so good for kids but it's WAY worth it.
https://starvingofftheland.com/2009/02/fun-with-fungi/
The first mushrooms come in dribs and drabs but then, maybe next spring, you get this huge satisfying flush and you a gajillion shiitakes. I'll show you again!
You can grow other kinds of mushrooms too. You can read about that time I tried to grow oyster mushrooms in spent grain acquired from my friends at @capecodbeer. Let's just call it a learning experience. https://starvingofftheland.com/2009/12/doomed-from-the-start/
Spring is the perfect time to start your shiitakes. Quarantine is the perfect circumstance for a project that gets you outside and gives your kids experience with power tools. Oh and delivers excellent food.
If you try it please send pictures.
Stay safe and sane, my friends.
If you try it please send pictures.
Stay safe and sane, my friends.
