Edible Wood Farm Journal: 2026(7)
July is generally a dry and warm month. This year it was particularly dry even though we did have an occasional light shower. The sprinkler was needed a couple of times a week to help increase the humidity in the forest. The dense foliage cover of the young beech trees kept the tiny droplets from evaporating straight away and turned the Edible Wood Farm into a mysterious misty world. This prevented the logs from drying out and kept the mycelium happy and healthy. No shiitake mushrooms during this period but that was quite normal.
On the other hand, the garden giant / stropharia mushrooms became very active. Due to the lack of damage by the almost non-existent snails and slugs I was able to pick several kilograms from the woodchip beds and hanging baskets.
The phoenix oyster mushrooms in my vegetable garden also started to wake up. They were probably trigged by a really good sprinkler session after many hot dry days. Welcome! These phoenix oyster mushrooms had been inoculated on poplar logs a year ago but had not been sold. Even though the half dug in logs looked pretty bad without most of their bark, they were still strong enough to produce a whole row of delicious mushrooms! My next meal!
Quite surprising but verrrrry satisfying!
