Edible Wood Farm Journal: 2018 (19)
Think, think, think
Monday was an office day. A day to rest the weary muscles after lifting 1.5 tons of logs in and out of the soaking basin yesterday. The last soaking. A time to think, take stock of the situation and to compare possibilities. Time for an evacuation plan. Central to the plan was to keep a maximum number of logs at the Edible Wood Farm that could benefit from the available water (about 1200 liters in the soaking basin). This water would remain in the soaking basin until the water ban was over. The remaining logs had to go elsewhere, preferably at locations where they could be cared for properly and with a constant water supply.
Colleagues
I approached a number of colleagues with water in the surrounding area with the request if they could adopt 2-4 stacks of shiitake logs for a few weeks. These colleagues were either exempt from the water ban or outside the restricted area. Most of them agreed to look after the logs especially when they realised that the logs could be stacked and not use much space. A location was selected in the shade and that was already being sprayed with water.. No extra exertion from the temporary Edible Wood keepers was necessary except for picking an odd shiitake mushroom or two or three or hundred.
Hot
The next step was to figure out how to get the logs to the designated locations. Again it was too much to do all alone especially with expected extreme hot temperatures every afternoon the whole week. Heavy work had to be carried out in the morning and a number of logs had still to be soaked every day at the Edible Wood Farm.
Kilometers
A couple of friends and volunteers were kind enough to help out and the rest of the week was spent transporting the logs to the diverse locations in the area. Young logs, not ready to be sold, were brought to colleagues further away and sellable logs were given shelter by colleagues closest to the Edible Wood Farm. And yes… the logs came back but only once the water situation had improved.
Photo: oyster mushroom logs in reused water in the dompel basin
