The Spectrum Culinary Blog

It wasn't on the day I learned how to make shiitake logs, but rather a few weeks later in the lab when I realized that I had figured it out.

I had the idea of adding a 'mushroom corridor' to my house, but the vision was still vague. I just hoped to find some way to fruit a lot of pretty mushrooms for my guests to see. The more I tried things, the more I realized that my vision was fraught with complications. Many species of mushrooms fruit under incompatible weather conditions, if you can get them to fruit at all. My first round of sawdust blocks included seven different species...and two of them fruited. The oysters. Of course the oysters...

As I researched further, I began to put words together with my experiences. Certain types of mushrooms will myceliate under any conditions, but only fruit on very specific types of substrates. Not the types of substrates I put them in. C'est la vie. I have a sawdust pile to chuck old substrate in...maybe I'll get lucky.

Then I did a log inoculation workshop. It was run by some old-timers who really knew their stuff. They explained so many details in such a sensible fashion, that it began to give me a reference point for how experiences cultivators think. It also made me look back at my notes;

What do shiitakes grow on?: Sawdust and logs

What do reishis grow on?: Sawdust and logs

What does chicken of the woods grow on?: Logs...just logs

What do glow-in-the-dark mushrooms grow on?: A couple things...but mostly logs

What do oysters grow on?: Pretty much anything...including logs

What does green elfcup fungus grow on?: Umm...what's that? And why? But yeah, logs

Ok, so this solves several problems. I'll probably have to wait until next year to start...but I could do most of the tricky mushrooms that I want in logs. The bigger realization that I had in that lab was this: I could arrange them! Any way I want!!! I can make a wall of colorful mushrooms!