Mushrooms for the Urban Home: Outdoor Inoculated Logs

I really love the idea of foraging and finding food in the wild, maybe it is my Metis roots reviving when I am out in the forest and I can smell the earth and feel the cushion of life under my step. I have been fascinated by the idea of eating mushrooms but terrified that I might be lousy at it and poisoning myself.
When I heard about inoculating logs with specific spores and knowing with certainty what you are harvesting, I was keen to give it a try.

Inoculated logs are easy to get going and take up very little space so can fit easily in an urban or suburban landscape.
Also, logs need to be located in a dark, damp area so if there is a location in your yard that won't grow grass, or already grows mushrooms, that would be a good location.
Imagine if between houses there were little patches of inoculated logs growing mushrooms.

The first step with getting the logs set up is to acquire the logs. You need fresh cut (no more than 6 months old) logs that are about 4-5 inches in diameter and about 4 feet long. If it is fresh cut then then the log likely has more moisture in it and less bugs or mushroom spores.
Hardwood is best and I imagine that it has more for the mushroom to work with. Softwood probably succumbs to rotting quicker than hardwood.
Here I used some branches from an Elm tree that was damaged due to a heavy spring snowfall. They were more than 6 months old so I am not sure if it will work.
After the logs are cut, you drill holes in the log 2 inches apart in a diamond pattern around the log. Drilling instructions with drawings and a drill bit in the right size came with my kit.

I then hammered the spore plugs into each hole so that it was deeper than the bark or at least level with it. After that, I melted some bees wax in a double boiler that I already had acquired for making candles. 

I don't know if there is any poetry about the smell of beeswax melting but it is a fragrance that deserves an epic poem or an album of songs. Ditch the fake household plug-in fragrances and melt some beeswax to make your home smell rich and fresh.

I just painted the wax over each plug with a sponge applicator. It took me a few rows before I realized that I should pain the wax down the length of the log to allow time for the wax to cool. I was going around in circles and wax dripped all over my stove. 

When I looked in my yard for an ideal location, I wanted a place that was shaded, moist and preferably already grew mushrooms. I picked just North of a big Spruce tree as that spot was out of direct sunlight almost all day. It is also not a pathway for ourselves, our dogs or our chickens. 

I placed some wood shavings on the snow bank so that the logs would be on moisture absorbing wood too. I wanted to mimic a forest floor so added some wood to the area. I didn't want to add used chicken bedding because I don't know if any pathogens would be soaked up by the mushrooms. I will need to check that out. I didn't use compost because I am not sure if my compost is perfectly weed free.

I placed one end of the logs on top of a twig so that it would get air circulation. I have no idea if that is important, I was trying to mimic fallen trees in the forest. 

When I first ordered the plugs, my plugs turned green and moldy. The fellow I ordered them from said that the bag might have been left open or it might have frozen. Oops, maybe I left the bag open a bit after I got them and before I tried to use them. I could have thrown them out but thought that I would place them in the same area to see if they would work anyway. If not, it is nice humus for the ground.

I covered the logs with more wood shavings.

Lastly, I covered it with a pile of snow.
I will keep you updated as to how it looks in the spring.

So if you can use a drill, then this is definitely something you could do in your own home.
Try to find a local supplier of mushroom log kits by doing and internet search in your town or city, then your province or state, then your country.
Once you get your logs set up, check out the medicinal uses of different mushrooms and find some nice recipes for cooking from fresh.
You can dry mushrooms and you can even preserve them in oil, vinegar or honey.

I hope I have convinced you that even if you have a black thumb (not green), or if you have no sunshine, or if you live in a balcony, or if you don't want livestock in your yard used mainly for pleasure (sitting in a deck chair), or if you don't want to pay daily attention to food production- you can still grow food by growing mushrooms.
Okay now look at my other mushroom post on how mushrooms can save the world.

Mushroom Cultivation: Heal the Planet and More Ways of Providing Food

Shiitake Mushroom Logs, Deerholme Farm, 2010

Cultivating mushrooms is a fantastic way to grow food especially if you don't have land access or sunshine. You can grow mushrooms inside or out, you can even grow mushrooms in your closet. Also, they do not need as much care as an outdoor vegetable garden.

If you would like to expand your food self-sufficiency or grow food to sell or share with others, then growing mushrooms is an excellent food cultivation method.

I didn't even know you could cultivate mushrooms until I visited my brother-in-law, Chef Bill Jones, on Vancouver Island in BC. He was giving me a tour of his Deerholme Farm, when I saw a bunch of propped up logs with spots of green painted on them. He told me they were Shiitake mushroom logs that one could insert plugs infused with mushroom spawn and grow mushrooms in the logs. I was so intrigued to find another method of home food production. What I really liked about this method is that it didn't take up much space so it would be great for an urban yard.

Bill gave me the names of a few companies in Canada that sell outdoor log inoculating kits and as I looked at their websites, I found a few that sold indoor kits as well. The indoor kits are bags of growing medium that can grow different types of mushrooms. Some varieties can grow in the dark, in a dimly lit room or in indirect sunlight. So even if you live in a tiny apartment, you could grow your own food.

I completely love it when I find a method of growing food that is suited for small scale or home use. I love it when I can find a solution to food growing even if someone says that they can't grow food because they don't have a yard, a balcony, windows, time or even aggressive and destructive cats. I am thinking more and more that there are no excuses left for not growing your own food, or at least some of it.

Another exciting thing about mushrooms is that they have a lot of preservation methods, you can dry them, pickle them, freeze them or harvest them continually. There are lots of recipes on line and good cookbooks out there. Check out this (shameless plug for Bill Jones' book) The Savoury Mushroom.

It is recommended to eat from the Food Kingdoms: Kingdom Monera (kelp), Kingdom Protista (yogurt), Kingdom Plantea (tomatoes), Kingdom Fungi (Oyster Mushrooms), Kingdom Animalia (tuna). Try to expand your food cultivation into the 5 Food Kingdoms so that you have a diverse diet.

I am just a beginner with mushrooms, but in the short time I have gotten into it, here are some resources that I have found:

www.wyliemycologicals.ca
www.themushroompatch.com
www.gourmetmushrooms.ca

You might have to buy mushroom spores from your own country as some countries do not allow spores to cross borders. Do a search for mushroom growing kits and buy local.

Check out this fellow's video and pay attention to his set up. He made a shaded area in his yard using a pergola and shade cloth. Think about how many suburban and urban spaces are in the shade and how that space is wasted but could be turned into a food production area.


When you start getting good at growing mushrooms, then learn how to save spores, just like you save seeds. Find diverse mushroom types that are suited to your area and needs. Preserve the spores.

The other idea that I find incredibly inspiring is when you find an easy method of planet remediation. Check out this fellow talking about fungi and how it turned an oil soaked mound into a vibrant source of life using just mushrooms.

What I also found interesting is when he talks about when a huge asteroid hit Earth, resulting in dark clouds blocking sunlight and massive mushroom towers grew. I instantly thought of when Mt. St. Helen's erupted in the United States in 1980 and how for a time the sky was filled with sun shielding ash. When the volcano erupted in Iceland in 2010, again ash filled the skies. In areas that are experiencing temporary darkness or even seasonal darkness such as winters in the Arctic could grow mushrooms as an emergency food source or as a seasonal business.

Reducing Garbage: Used Coffee Grinds

In nature there is no waste. 
Part of being sustainable is reducing or eliminating your garbage creation. Even when we bury organic matter in landfills, it does not reduce down to useful bio-matter, it just sits there. Organic materials need air to decompose. All organic items can be converted into useful products if you help rather than inhibit the natural processes. So don't think that by throwing those daily coffee grinds into the garbage bag, that you are saving the planet.

Coffee grounds can be added directly to your compost pile or set aside for soil amendment.


pH: Unused coffee grinds have a pH of between 3 and 5* whereas coffee grinds after brewing have a pH of about 6.9**. Most plants like a pH of about 6-7.
You could add coffee grinds to soil to amend it for acid loving plants such as blueberries, but think of the environmental impact of growing and transporting coffee. I am not sure if there is a better solution for lowering the pH of your soil, but will look into it before I plant my blueberry bushes.


Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio: of coffee grinds is 20:1* whereas ideal ratio is 30:1*** so they are very near ideal for a compost


Vermicomposting: if giving all of your pets a treat at Christmas, give your worms some coffee grinds and if you listen closely you will hear them singing carols. Feeding coffee grinds to your worms will create those beneficial worm castings which are kind of like a sourdough starter for soil. Put the worm castings in your garden or in your compost or make a castings tea to spray outdoors.


Sheet Mulching: You may be holding a belief that you are a terrible gardener and it is likely just that you are dealing with terrible soil conditions. Building soil is something that is easy to do and coffee grinds can be used for it. Using a layering system of cardboard/newspaper and organic materials such as straw, hay, leaves, shredded tree clippings, and/or coffee grounds can build a rich mulch that will have your garden growing beautifully within 1 to 3 years.

How to do it:
Anytime of year, start dumping your coffee grinds, paper filters as well as tea bags into a container. The grinds will dry out to have no odour on your counter but inside the pile may develop a fungus or mould. If you are concerned about it, wear a mask when handling.****

Until you are ready to spread your grounds, place in a container such as a food grade plastic bucket. Leaving it outside to freeze is fine.

Share: 
Even if you know you won't use coffee grinds in your yard, or maybe you don't even have a yard, set them aside anyway. Ask any of your gardening friends, check your local community garden or put an ad on your local online classifieds that you have them to give away. As a consumer, you have a responsibility to find an appropriate end use for all of your 'garbage' materials. Work towards finding a beneficial use for all of your waste. The more you avoid using a landfill, the better it is for the planet and future generations.

* http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/coffee-grounds-and-gardening.html
** http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080707171641.htm
*** http://seattletilth.org/learn/resources-1/city-chickens/compostingchickenmanure
**** http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg1022152317190.html

Land Access: Opening Up

I have a big list of projects that I have started that I haven't even written about, thinking that I would do the work in season and write about it in the winter when I had nothing to do. But to my surprise, I continue to be busy doing other projects that really are best suited to winter.
Part of what I am doing is researching projects and my list is fast growing. My difficulty is that I am really busy simply feeding the kids and doing laundry let alone get big projects going plus the kids are not at the age where they can do a lot of heavy work.
As if the universe was listening to my wishing, along came a local permaculturist who was looking for land access. He wanted to have access to land to run courses for local urbanites to learn how to convert their yard to a permaculture producing property. Since then another permaculturist has asked to run a course on our property for his courses.
They both proposed that they offer a class on our property and that we participate in the class by seeing the conclusion or even attending the lectures.
Our first phase is to have students come and look at the property to do planning. We come up with a list of what we would like built or planted and they figure out the best placement. Students are invited to share the plans with us when they are done and we attend the presentation.
I have an ever expanding list of projects but my first will focus on year-round food production, water catchment and maybe even housing. I would really like to have some WWOOFers who could live here, but in their own space. http://www.wwoof.ca/
Years ago I was researching how to build a tipi and wanted to build one for my yard. If we had some permaculturists here, I would pay for all the materials and the students would learn how to build it. I don't know any First Nations or Metis Permaculturists, so I may have to design a course myself.


So consider inviting a local permaculturist to run courses on your land to get more people learning about permaculture principles. I don't think it matters if your property is a small urban space as we will need to design for small spaces too.
http://www.bigskypermaculture.ca/
http://www.vergepermaculture.ca/
Check out these Calgary Permaculturists who are running courses. Check your community, you might have brilliant people in your neighbourhood.

Vertical Veggie Farms New Website

Dec. 17, 2010 Wax Bush Bean Flower
Seeds of Change

Vertical Veggie Farms now has a website and you can go there now.
verticalveggiefarms.com

You can find out why Vertical Veggie Farms are part of the leading edge of solutions for Urban Agriculture and find out why Vertical Gardening is gaining popularity.

It is snowing light fluffy snow today, Dec. 17, 2010, and to my delight, inside on my Vertical Veggie Farm, my bean plants started flowering. It won't be long before I have some nice bush beans to feed my family. My lettuce is growing really well and I am struggling with the urge to let the leaves grow bigger or to have some baby green salads. Maybe I will wait for Christmas dinner to serve the first salad, then have turkey sandwiches with fresh VVF lettuce.

Gifts for Winter: Frankincense and Myrrh

Today it is snowing a light dry powdery snow that skiers wish for and children love to brush their bulky knit mittens through; it is a beautiful winter wonderland outside. I am inside struggling with a chest cold an in an effort to make me feel better, I put some frankincense and myrrh in my vaporizer. The fragrance from these resins fills the air with an ancient spicy warmth.

Frankincense (left), Myrrh (right),
combined in vaporizer, just needs a bit of water;
can be reused until gone

The gum from these small trees or shrubs were widely used in Egypt, India, China, and North East Africa near the Red Sea Region and considered to be as valuable as gold. Frankincense and Myrrh is well known as two of the three gifts of the Magi, gifts from the Three Wise Men to the infant Jesus. The tree gums were made into an essential oil by mixing with oil or water. These plants from the Cradle of Civilization have come with us as treatments for ailments. I don't know if anyone knows how essential oils in aromatherapy works as a treatment but they have been used for millenniums.  

I didn't really think about possible uses of frankincense and myrrh until I started using essential oils. Myrrh has many uses as a therapeutic essential oil, commonly used for menstrual problems, haemorrhoids, as well as for amenorrhea, leucorrhea, pruritis and thrush. Frankincense is associated as a treatment for cystitis, dysmenorrhea, leucorrhea and metrorrhagia. When I first read that they were treated for women's genito-urinary systems, I thought, maybe the gifts weren't for baby Jesus but for postnatal Mary.

Of course these wonder gums have many other uses, one of my favourite is that they work on the respiratory system, helping to calm colds and the flu. Now every December, I bring out the frankincense and myrrh and put it in the vaporizer to not only ward off or to treat illness, but to also fill the air with the rich, ancient smells of the Middle East. I associate the smell with a connection to the rich history of mankind's ancient wisdom. It comforts me to have the same fragrance in the air that women like Cleopatra might have had. It quite simply makes me feel connected to women throughout history and I like that.

a clay vaporizer,
heated with a small votive candle

Well it wasn't until I started writing this out that I have such a strong link between scent and meaning, but there it is. I know a lot of women have strong pulls to scent; look in any product marketed to women and it will be heavily scented. Given that many artificial scents are not healthy and are sometimes even damaging, I hope that you might recognize your pull to scent and become a conscious and safe consumer of cosmetic and medical products.

Myrrh should not be used during pregnancy; avoid use around pregnant women. 


This information is not to be taken as medical advice; readers must take responsibility for their own healing, consulting a qualified practitioner when needing medical attention. 

Sources:
Lacroix, Nitya, The Scented Touch, Sebastian Kelly, Oxford UK, 1994.
Lawless, Julia, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils, Element Books, Inc. Rockport, MA, 1995.

Beeswax Candles

Beeswax Candles & leftover puck of wax
Wax courtesy of Jerremie Clyde
Photo Credit: Ursula de Vries

Making Beeswax candles is easy, pleasant and good for you and the planet.
Those of us who want to be more environmental can reduce electricity use by using candles. While participating in Earth Hour in March of 2010, I clumsily spilt hot paraffin wax all over my arm and realized that not only was I breathing in petroleum byproducts, but I was getting skin contact too. I decided then to get rid of all the paraffin and artificially scented candles and replace them with beeswax.
I was planning on getting bees so beeswax was a bonus yield along with nutritious honey and garden pollination. We plan on getting bees in the spring and won't get any beeswax until the following autumn, but I didn't want to wait to start using candles so ordered some moulds and wax from the BeeMaid Honey Online store. http://www.beemaidbeestore.com/

Beeswax straight from honey extracting with globs of honey on surface
Wax Courtesy of Jerremie Clyde
Photo Credit: Ursula de Vries

Melting Beeswax over water double boiler
Photo Credit: Ursula de Vries

Pouring beeswax into rubber mould
wick held in place with Prusik knot tied to stick
Photo Credit: Marilyn Way

I wanted to get some candles made prior to the Winter Solstice to have some natural light sources on the shortest day of the year. While checking out the exact date and time, I discovered that the burning of beeswax helps lift your mood by releasing negative ions into the air.

I knew that burning beeswax created a lovely light scent of honey in the air, but didn't even think about how fragrant the air would be while melting the beeswax. The entire house was perfumed with a sweet floral aroma that was comforting on a cold November afternoon.

When we started melting the raw wax from my beekeeper friend, (www.urbansunflower.ca) I was worried about bee legs and wings becoming part of the candle and smelling bad as it burned. As we melted the wax, most of the honey and bits of grass and bugs either floated or sunk to the bottom of the pot. We placed a bit of cheesecloth over the metal funnel as we poured the melted wax into the moulds.
I wanted to save the cheesecloth and show it to my kids after because there were bits of pupa, larva and bee parts but the wax clumped everything together and dried cloudy. I saved the ball of cloth, wax and bits for a fire starter. There was a little bit of wax leftover and we kept that for either next time or to use to make lip balm.

The wax in the candles shrunk as it cooled and was easy to pull from the moulds. When we took them out, the candles made from the raw, honey covered wax was just as beautiful as the candles made from the filtered store bought wax.

The process was pretty much an adult activity because of the temperature but the kids were buzzing around curious about this activity.

A friend of ours came over with a box of beeswax sheets and we made candles with the kids. We cut a piece of wick, laid it across one end of the sheet and pointed the hair dryer to soften the wax as the kids rolled up their own candles.

We could have added some essential oils or wax crayon peelings for scent and colour but decided to just do it natural the first time. I bet some frankincense and myrrh would have been lovely for use in the winter to ward off colds and the flu.

Beeswax candle making in silicone muffin mould
shown with metal funnel/cheesecloth strainer
Photo Credit: Ursula de Vries

Rolled Beeswax Candles
Courtesy Laurel Halladay
Photo Credit: Ursula de Vries

Completed Rolled Beeswax Candles
Photo Credit: Ursula de Vries

"Also, insufficient sunlight in the short winter days increases the secretion of melatonin in the body, throwing off the circadian rhythm with longer sleep. Exercise, light therapy, increased negative ion exposure (which can be attained from plants and well ventilated flames, burning wood or beeswax) can reinvigorate the body from its seasonal lull and relieve winter bluesby decreasing melatonin secretions, increasing serotonin and temporarily creating a more even sleeping pattern."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice