Shiitake!

Today I went to a class on mushrooms that I had signed up for months ago.  I could not find my car keys when it was time to leave. In my search for my car keys an accident happened. I couldn't believe my bad luck but more about that tomorrow.  I pretended the accident didn't happen and headed to the Saint Paul campus of the U of M for my class. I read the email about parking on the forest service road. I didn't read the other email saying not to park on the forest service road. A car was parked at the entrance to the forest service road but I drove around it.  I wasn't supposed to park there but once I was there they told me to stay. Students from the U of M Mycological Society were there to help us as well as women from the Women's Woodland Association. We met in the garden shed right near Cleveland Avenue. Coffee, tea, and assorted treats were waiting for us. Three tents were set up. In one tent we registered and paid our fees. Rain fell during the entire three hour class. I had a good raincoat on and my hiking boots so I was okay but the hot coffee helped quite a bit. Between the tents and the road that lead to the campus buildings was a long and narrow bit of woods on a hill.  On that hill, under the canopy of trees, the students had planted a fungal garden. Inoculated logs lay propped up on other logs or pallets.  In this class we inoculated logs cut on March 10. Fresh cut logs are necessary otherwise there would be other fungus in the wood. Our ironwood logs were cut in southwestern Minnesota. Our first step was to use an angle grinder and bore holes in our log in a diamond pattern. I cut the holes in my log and that wasn't too difficult.  I guess an angle grinder has more torque than an ordinary drill.  After that we inoculated our logs. In the photo above you can see a bucket of shiitake mushroom spawn.  I chose the Bell whether variety because it is a cold weather mushroom spawn.  My other choice was a warm weather mushroom spawn which would fruit in the summer.  Mine should fruit in the spring and fall. What they did not tell us when we signed up for this class is that it will take a full year for the mushrooms to fruit. The earliest shiitake mushroom I will harvest will be in the spring of 2020! No wonder they said the hardest part is the waiting. Using that tool with the wooden handles we picked up the spawn and injected it into the log until the hole was full and the spawn was level with the bark. After that we dripped hot wax into each hole to seal it shut.  I was given a metal tag and a nail.  With the nail I scratched the species of Shiitake into the tag and nailed it into the log. When I got home I took the log out of the trunk and set it upright in a shady spot of my yard.  I hope I don't forget about it.  I also paid five dollars for a jar of oyster mushroom spawn.  Oyster mushrooms are a native species and are not nearly as fussy as shiitake mushrooms. I can deal with the oyster mushroom spawn another day. Whether or not I get any mushrooms out of this day I will come out ahead because I met a group of interesting people, learned some things, laughed and had some fun. By the time I got into my car at noon the rain had curled my hair so tight I scared myself when I looked into the rear view mirror. I was happy to get out of that forest service road without getting stuck in the mud.  Who knows?  I might join the mycologists myself someday.