December 21,2023 Inoculating poplar logs with Hericium erinaceus and a walk around SAFF

Poplar logs inoculated with Lion’s mane spores.

Neofavolus alveolaris, Hexagonal polypore, saprobic. Found near the stumpery just south of the clearing.

Tops of Neofavolus alveolaris. They were a bright orange.

Underneath the stumpery pile, an animal has dug a hole or tunnel. We found several other spots like this today. We received our new trail camera and will set it up tomorrow we hope.

We went to the farm today to inoculate more poplar logs with Lion’s mane mushroom spores. Once finished, we took a short walk around and found a few mushrooms. We found a polypore and a common Laccaria. These were new mushrooms found at SAFF.

Common Laccaria tops. One young specimen and one older.

White gills, orange concave cap,long brown stipe. Found growing out of leaf litter in mixed forest. We found a few singles of these as well as a cluster near the driveway and gate up front.

Growing Lion’s Mane Mushrooms at home and in the food forest

The very first Lion’s Mane mushroom we grew at home from a kit.

We started growing shiitake mushrooms about nine years ago after buying a couple of already inoculated logs at the farmer’s market in downtown Staunton. It was nice to have these mushrooms and it was a great first experience to grow our own at home. More recently, we became interested in growing Lion’s Mane mushrooms after reading about the health benefits and the taste. https://www.forbes.com/health/body/health-benefits-of-lions-mane/. We were so glad we did as they are delicious. The taste mimics crab, scallops or lobster. We sauté on high heat in a dry pan for 10 minutes then add olive oil salt pepper and garlic. Then we eat it on its own or with salads. We have heard they make great “crab” cakes. We will try this soon.

This Root Mushroom Farm grow kit was great. It came full of mycelium and ready to grow. We were so successful with it, we ordered plugs inoculated with Lion’s mane, Hericium erinaceous. Weeks ago, we cut down a beech tree from the farm and we aged the logs a few days. Then we drilled holes for the plugs.

The inoculated plugs and beeswax bars for growing our Lion’s mane on beech logs at home and Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm.

Drilling the holes for the plugs.

We filled the holes in with our inoculated plug and then put warm beeswax to seal it in and keep moisture. Now we wait for the mushrooms to grow!

We are going to also inoculate logs at the farm to continue to diversify the already thriving mycelium in our soil.

We are heading back out to the farm later today to inoculate some of our hardwood logs.

Lion’s mane mushroom and spinach salad with walnuts and Dijon vinaigrette

Our supplies needed to drill holes and inoculate the logs at the farm.

We built a simple stand for tulip poplar logs in the forest at the farm and are inoculating them with Lion’s mane spawn plugs. We hope to add Hericium erinacious to our home grown mushrooms. They are native to Virginia.