Naomi Slade gets logs at the ready to try her hand growing mushrooms
Logs at the ready as I’ve been inspired to try my hand with some mushrooms
Ilove growing fruit and veg and, although my plot may be pintsized, it’s still my ambition to squeeze in as many tasty, edible things as possible.
I do alright with herbs and perennial veg such as Welsh onions, Allium fistulosum, and I’ve lots of tree fruit. But the limited part of my northfacing garden that’s warm and bright is reserved for sunloving perennials, tomatoes, chillies and all the other things that sulk in the gloom.
When life gives you lemons (and a hot, sunny terrace), one should make lemonade. But if life gives you a cool, shady and slightly awkward corner, grow the sorts of things that feel at home there. In my case the things that thrive are ferns, Hydrangea petiolaris and, hopefully, mushrooms.
The inspiration for this occurred serendipitously when I came across the new book Grow Your Own Mushrooms by Folko Kullmann (www.greenbooks.co.uk) and it was soon obvious that it was the perfect solution for areas of deep shade. The book addresses all things mushroomy, including where they’ll grow and the best substrate upon which to do so. Some varieties like straw, others prefer to grow on logs, and there’s a useful list of which log species for which mushroom, too. It then gives tips for success, harvesting, preserving and troubleshooting, with profiles and interesting facts for each variety.
Thus enthused, I ordered in some shiitake mushroom plugs from Su ons (www.su ons.co.uk) and found some hazel logs to inoculate. The idea is that you drill holes into fresh logs and push in the plugs; you then wrap them in a plastic bag and park them in a dark corner; under the deck or in a shed is perfect. When covered in mycelium, you unwrap them and leave them in a cool, shady place to do their thing. And if logs or shade are hard to come by, the company also does windowsill kits.
According to the instructions, the logs should start producing mushrooms in four to 10 months and continue to crop several times a year for up to five years! On paper, at least, this is a return on space that the average tomato plant will struggle to keep up with and with a li le patience there’ll be flavoursome, high protein, nuggets of deliciousness to harvest just by the kitchen door!