Well I saw a guy cutting down a lot of beautiful hardwoods on his property, and this sort of thing always “raises my ire” a bit when there is not a good reason for it. When I asked him why he was doing it, he said, “for firewood.” Anyhow, I just sucked it up and proceeded to ask him if I could have a few pieces, and he let me have about 10 logs that were between 2.5′ and 4′. (more…)
Here is a medicinal mushroom that I find growing abundantly in oak logs around my property, and is found thus throughout much of the US. Of course, positive identification should be made of any mushrooms for consumption (or for teas and extracts). Though not necessarily edible, most of the polyspore mushrooms are fairly safe, but I would do a positive Identification using one of the mushroom field guides available. (more…)
I figure that since I grow this in my yard and have well researched it, that I might write an article summarizing the many health benefits of this mushroom. Here is an interesting chart showing the many health benefits. As you can see, the question could be asked, “What is it not good for?” Here is a little more information: (more…)
About a year ago when I inoculated my last group of shiitake logs, I also did an experiment by inoculating a couple of logs with the elm oyster mushroom hypsizygus ulmarius. I don’t remember where I read it, but it was someone’s opinion that it had a superior taste and texture over the conventional ‘pleurotus ostreatus’ oyster mushroom. (more…)
Here are some reishi logs I inoculated in my Florida yard last year. I have had about 3 fruitings on these logs and have dried an entire bag of reishi for usage in teas. The picture on the right is of reishi that I sliced and dried. I basically purchased a 100 count bag of reishi dowel plugs from Fungi Perfecti and while I was preparing logs for shiitake inoculation, (more…)
I want to share a wonderful risotto recipe with you that we make using certain of our mushrooms (primarily the chicken of the woods but also the elm oyster). (more…)
Since I have started cultivating a few of the gourmet and medicinal mushrooms in my backyard (shiitake, oysters, reishi, etc.) I have suddenly become much more interested in all the wild mushrooms and fungus that make their appearance around my property. Of course, I realize that few of these are edible (though few may actually be poisonous). 
Well every year this beautiful orange-yellow fungus grows on the trees around here (mostly oak). This happens usually in the fall, and so this time I decided to do a little research and found that it was the fairly common Chicken of the Woods, a.k.a. Laetiporus sulphureus. (more…)
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Pictured here are some shiitake mushrooms that I grew last year in oak logs. These logs came from a water oak that was being cleared on property next to mine. Actually, I am a bit of a tree hugger and hate cutting them and therefore, I look for those that are going to be cut anyhow. Additionally, you might contact a tree surgeon or arborist for sources. Of course, if there is an area of woods that needs to be thinned out, this might be a good idea. (more…)
