Edible Wood Farm Journal: 2018 (9)
Improvements
Every year I try something new in order to improve the results of the shiitake logs. This began after a couple of years with depressing poor results. Enough good logs to sell but also too many worthless logs. I started to keep track of all sorts of variables and wrote down when I carried out different phases of the whole trajectory. During the quieter summer months and sleepy winter weeks, I tried to figure out if there was a pattern of weather conditions or man-made factors. Not being a statiscal wizard, it sometimes felt like working with a gut-feeling combined with the vague remnants of maths classes from a prehistoric period at University. Discussions with colleagues and information out of technical books were also useful. Theory turned into practice and slowly the number of logs destined to become edible wood steadily increased.
Drawing pins
This year I have decided to keep track of the flowering period (or fruiting) of the different shiitake variaties. The shiitake logs have been decorated with cheerfully coloured drawing pins. White ones for the winter shiitake mushroom logs and red, green and blue ones for the summer flowering shiitake logs. The drawing pins have been pushed into the heartwood so that I can keep track of the logs throughout the growing season. Winter shiitake mushroom logs can flower when the temperature is still quite low and I want to know how many of the logs do this outside of the official flowering season. The results are handy for customers and other small mushroom log farmers .
