Five year update: 1/11/2025 !phew!
it's been a full five year flurry... but we did it!
we built our 'shroomery and populated it with five years of (@100 logs per year) producing logs: 500+ mushroom-inoculated hardwood logs, now in various states of gnarly decomposition, and across the crop, flushing consistently.
We've had all the mushrooms we've wanted for our homestead use for a few years now...and we've done "all the things" with them, including mastering their preservation for future use. THIS 5-year crop of six types of mushrooms logs ( 6+" diameter, 40"+ length)should now produce (on a bell curve) for the next 10-15 years, until the logs fall away into dirt, with peak production in about 2035. gosh. thats 10 years! we did it!
we ALSO mastered the markeplace while we were at it, including a whirlwind stint across 8 washington state farmer's markets, the most recent being the 33rd most-visited tourist attraction IN THE WORLD: Pike Place Farmer's Market, in Seattle. We learned a lot.
for Market, we developed our small size market log, using left over branches of logs too small for our operation but not good enough to use firewood heating. We used every minute of our market opportunities to bring the NEWS of how to grow mushrooms naturally, on hardwood logs to hundreds of thousands of people from all around the world, which also set us up with this online store and our new "hyper-local" focus of small logs available at eight different retail outlets along "the road to Paradise" and Mt. Rainier.
Time for a break and rethink...time for our second 5 year goal! do we repeat? build another crop that will produce for the following10-15 years? Big thinking, and no rush. Mushrooms don't rush, they don't like being rushed, and they don't perform on command, so we're taking a break and spending our 5 years worth of weekends work in our time bank. More later...
updated 3/2024
We are asked all the time, "how on EARTH did you come up with the idea of a mushroom log business?..."
My answer: "I found myself retired, living in the forest, and in need of something new and exciting to do, and my only physical asset was the beautiful 50 acre old growth forest where we've lived off-grid for the last 20 years. So I sat quietly with the forest, and focused, and i let the forest speak...."
"....Use what you HAVE to make what you LOVE and SHARE it with others...."
The Fruits of our Labor
Gotta tell you...wild mushrooms make me uncomfortable. I've always wanted to know all about wild fungi, and have gone wild-foraging for them with several skilled friends over the years, but the classification scheme for identification ALONE, was daunting, even for a librarian with a specialization in classification schemes! one missed detail and i could die! Some wild mushrooms are poisonous and there are MILLIONS of them you have to know... But, even into retirement from my 4th working career, my gut wanted regular, healthful mushrooms in our diets. That's why i decided to cultivate them.
I started googling "growing mushrooms" and quickly discovered that all the plastics and products required to grow mushrooms the modern way, in boxes with plastic bags of ground up this and that: kits....was....ah, expensive, created a lot of garbage, sucked down power like any indoor factory grow does,and required strict and artificial environmental controls, in fact near-laboratory conditions. Not a very sustainable system! and what's IN those bags anyway? I eat what my food eats! so, I looked into it, and decided I wanted my mushrooms naturally and effortlessly cultivated, and i wanted them to grow logs to provide for years, not kits, for weeks.
So, we turn our mind to the old school ways and used the power of the internet to tap into the old records from countries around the pacific rim...and we started making mushroom logs for ourselves in the most low tech/high touch ancient sort of way....on LOGS in the FOREST, where nature does most of the work.
We are forest famers first. We grow several crops, including mushrooms on logs. Our natural, wild alder and maple (hardwood) logs are carefully selected and sustainably-harvested by hand, one at a time, from our private, old growth forest on the southwest slope of Mt. Rainier, crown of the Cascade Mountain Range, in Washington State. We harvest only the trees that need to be cleared for the forest's health, and we harvest them at their peAk of health and vigor, during their dormant season when they are plump from the mountain rains, and bursting with the energy of our mineral-rich volcanic soil...always exciting!
We process and inoculate our logs with carefully-selected strains of gourmet, edible mushrooms, including Oyster, Shiitake, Chicken of the Woods, Lion's Mane, Chestnut, or Reish, and have achieved our first "five year goal" to have inoculated 1000+ logs to populated our six forest farm 'shroomery's "laying yards."
VERY exciting!
Keeping with our "trashless" no waste, slow lifestyle...soon we had to think about all the left over branches, funky cuts and odds and ends...
FUNky Cuts
THIS unique and exclusive online collection of mushroom logs are the odd sizes, the funky cuts, and "too smalls" and "too shorts" the "too gorgeously curved," the beautifully knotted, bits, etc., and are WAY too wonderful for firewood....so we rolled up our sleeves, gathered up our tools, and used up all our leftovers and made market logs, took them to the local farmer's markets...where they were an immediate success! People LOVE them! We are thrilled to help spread enthusiasm and knowledge about the ancient art of growing gourmet edible mushrooms on REAL logs....the old school way. high touch, low tech, slow food for your future.
so, now in our 5th year, we pause to celebrate all we have learned, the thousands of beautiful people we've met and talked with at markets and events, both online and in person, and grew throughthe challenges and joys we've experienced, .....and its not lost on us at all, the perfect timing, done this just as "fungi" was officially named a "unique life form" on earth, equal to, but distinct from plants or animals.
flora, fauna, fungi
"FUNky Cuts and Odds and EnDs"
We've classed these gorgeously-preparedmarket mushroom logs into four basic sizes (all sizes are approximate because each log is distinct!) ...small, medium, long, and totem,...and we try to keep a really nice, consistent selection of mushroom TYPE, too! Our logs are also priced by size, from $35, shipping included. We happily ship to anywhere in the domestic USA.
Simply choose your log size and then your mushroom type and make your purchase using our safe and secure online checkout. Your log will be shipped to you and will arrive inoculated and incubated and ready to finish colonizing in the peace and calm confidence of YOUR environment.
so, you see.....We've already done all the hard work for you, and mother nature will largely take care of the rest...all you have to do is SOAK your log overnight submerged in cold water every 30 days or so (if the weather isn't rainy), or more often if you live in a dry climate...keep it inside or outside where there is NO DIRECT SUN, and... WAIT! Your log will start flushing when the time is right for your mushroom. Each log is unique. Logs don't flush on command, even in perfect conditions. No human can tell you WHEN, how often, how much, and how long it will take.
if they do, its a guess.
To keep your log flushing once it starts, harvest your mushrooms by plucking them all off by hand, and continue soaking your log overnight submerged in cold water every 30 days or so, your mushroom will mature and get more vigorous. As from the start, we give free lifetime support, so if you have questions, just reach out. we're not going anywhere.
Get some YUMMY UMAMI into your tomorrows!...grow Mushroom Logs lovingly crafted for you by the "FUNky CuTs" crew at tahoma'shroomery!