Shannon cleared LOADS of trash out of the wooded area I’d newly designated to be the mushroom farm. Once the grounds were trash-free, he added layers of cardboard and woodchips to surpress weeds and further define the shaded growing area among the trees.

He then went on a hunt around the farm and neighborhood for pecan and oak trees in need of pruning to source hardwood logs.

He cut the pruned branches that were 4-6 inches in diameter into sixty logs 3-4 feet in length.

A few weeks later, it was my turn to tap into the project. I started by drilling 5/16 inch diameter holes 1-1/4 inches deep into a log approximately 4 inches apart all around the log circumstance in a diamond pattern.

Next, I used a rubber mallet to set the spawn plugs into each of the holes.

I repeated the above steps until I’d set all 2,000 spawn plugs. The newly inoculated logs were then coated with pure beeswax to lock in moisture and block out contaminants.

Now…we wait for nature to do its thang.

This was one of those projects that sounded like a good idea at the time, but once I got into all the work involved, I had to continuously remind myself how grateful I’d be in the future in order to keep pushing through. When I’m eating freshly harvested shiitake mushrooms, I won’t even care that I couldn’t feel my arms😆. It’s going to be totally worth it!