Inocu-what?

A few weeks ago, my stepmom, Connie, asked me to go with her to a Mushroom inoculation class at Half Hill Farms in my hometown. She gave me a brief description of the class and I was in! (Naturally.)

With no knowledge of what we were doing, I showed up with Connie to the class as was more than pleasantly surprised. In this class, we were taught all about growing mushrooms (not the kind that makes you giggle- although that could have been fun, too). We selected a log from their stash and began the process. Inoculation, for the lack of a better term, is pretty much impregnating a log with the appropriate mushroom spores to grow mushrooms. The logs we selected will start growing Shitake mushrooms next fall and will produce around 5 pounds of Shitake mushrooms each season for about 5-7 years.

We love mushrooms in our family, so this will be a big savings and an added excitement to our dinner tables. With the rising prices of mushrooms at the grocery store, this is a huge savings. Plus, you can just walk out your back door and pick mushrooms.

The logs can be moved from place to place- in the event of a home move, which is very likely for us.
The class was in an intimate setting and was full of really great information. It costs $45, which includes your log, and lasts about two hours.

Now, the hard part... waiting until it produces. :(

You can find more information about the class and Half Hill Farm HERE. They offer other classes and lots of products. Half Hill Farm is the only certified organic farm in Cannon County.

And now for the fun part... a picture of my fancy log sitting nice and pretty in the backyard, waiting to fruit.