A few months after Hurricane Katrina, I had the bright idea to use some of the refuse wood to grow shitake mushrooms.

I did some research and found that I had plenty of the right type (hardwood oak, sweetgum, etc.), age (recently fallen) and size wood.  All the fallen wood that I wanted to use was in a good shady growing area with a source of water nearby.

I ordered the spores or spawn from www.fungiperfecti.com and they arrived incorporated into short wooden dowels. I drilled holes in the logs and tapped the dowels into the holes with a hammer.   Then I just left the logs alone.  Over the past couple of years, whenever the weather begins to get cool and we have a little rain, I harvest a bumper crop.  I gathered my biggest crop ever last week.  It is pictured here.  If I were more efficient, I could soak logs overnight and force a “bloom” of mushrooms more often.

Meanwhile we’ve given tons of mushrooms away to our friends.  Richard has cooked many wonderful meals including a righteous mushroom gravy with mashed potatoes a couple of nights ago.