Last month I announced the insulation for the floor in our new building and I thought that the actual concrete would be following soon. Nope! Turns out the concrete company just had space open up in their schedule to do that work only; the concrete is still on the calendar for July! So - hurry up and wait! I guess that gives more time for the robin and barn swallows who are both now nesting in the building to raise up any young and then move out.
While we have to wait a bit longer for the concrete, we did accomplish several things in the last month - hooray! Jeremy finally called it quits on inoculations last Monday. He kept saying he had more to do and I couldn't figure out how he hadn't reached 1,000 logs yet. Well, when I counted it up he was over 1,000! I think he did around 1,075 in the end. And he really wanted to do more - but enough is enough! It's time to switch gears now.
With the help of our new outdoor production employee (hooray!) we got the rest of the shade structure up finally (hooray!) and have made great progress on getting all the newly inoculated logs out of the high tunnel (hooray!) and the incubated logs from last year moved to their permanent spots (hooray!). This has all been in the last couple weeks!
It was great to get the incubated logs from last year moved as there were lots of mushrooms growing in that area and it's hard to pick them when all the logs are lying down close together. There were plenty of golden oyster and even a sneaky pheasant back!
We've been watering a lot around here. There has hardly been any rain to speak of for the last month or two. Farmers all around are really struggling. One of our hoses sprung a leak and created a handy puddle that was quickly found and enjoyed by this turtle.
Last but not least, we've been testing a new product for the last several months. We've been talking about making some sort of seasoning with our powdered mushrooms and finally gave it a try. Introducing: Smoked Shiitake Salt!
We've tried it on and in all sorts of things. It gives a smoky, salty, umami-filled flavor that is pretty amazing. We've tried it with Macaroni & cheese, avocado, deviled eggs, soup, quiche, pork bibimbap, and baba ganoush to name a few. All recommended! You can find this now at The Wedge in Minneapolis, and Mother Earth Gardens I believe, and eventually at the Mill City Famers Market - hopefully next Saturday (someone forgot to pack it for today's market!).
We plan to start force-fruiting shiitake on Monday, so it's about to get very busy outside! What will the next month bring? Undoubtedly a LOT of mushrooms!
FARM TOUR! July 15, 2023
Mark your calendars everyone! We will be part of a local 2023 Farm Tour this coming July! The co-ops of the Twin Cities usually plan an “Eat Local Farm Tour” each year, but they decided to take this year off and not do the tour. The farms in our area decided to plan our own regional tour anyway! The tour will be on Saturday, July 15th from 10am – 4pm. Check out this site for more info, a brochure with info on the farms, and a map with links to all the farms. We hope to see you in a month!
Gus & Spore
Gus and Spore, relaxing on the porch together. The angle makes it look like Gus is bigger than Spore, but he's not - yet!
