Shiitake Inoculation at Handance Farm

Saturday I drove out to Handance Farm in Rockingham County for their Mushroom Inoculation and Work Day. By the time I got there, much of the work had been done. The major task at hand was to help Pat and Brian Bush inoculate freshly cut logs with shiitake mushroom spawn. The first step is to drill holes all over the log. That's Brian in the middle.



The log is passed to the next team of two, who fill specially made plungers with shiitake spawn and press the spawn into the holes.



Then the holes and all other cut surfaces are painted with cheese wax to prevent them from being contaminated with other fungi (and critters). An identifying tag is nailed to the end, and it is stacked in a pile.



Here's how they stacked last year's logs. The mushroom farm (Dark Hollow, who moved) that Sandy and I went to last year made a mushroom house out of the logs -it seemed like a perfect place for a hobbit.