Sunday, June 13, 2021

2nd EcoEcho Mini-forest Shiitake cultivation harvest of the season

 Yeah I got 1 pound dried just caps so I figure the stems weight another 1/4 pound. So that's 5 pounds fresh. 1/4 pound dried = 2 pounds fresh or 1 pound fresh - depending. I said 1 pound fresh. So they say 3 ounces dried= 1 pound fresh while 4 ounces = 1/4 pound. So yeah I did 1/4 pound dried x 4

So I ate the stipes - I simmered them with some boiling for an hour - and then put in the Vitamix blender to make a shiitake soup. And I definitely noticed the antibacterial medicinal effect of the stems. So glad I ate them! The caps had a bit of a burnt smell (see below for details) - but people cook these as a "crisp" so should be good.

https://doctor.ndtv.com/living-healthy/top-4-adverse-effects-of-shiitake-mushrooms-1815931

 Though they are generally safe, consuming shiitake mushrooms in large quantities could disturb your digestive system. This happens because your body fails to process large quantities of mushroom in one go. The symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bloating and stomach upset. Stick to a limited consumption of these mushrooms at a time.

hmmm...

 daily intake of over 4 grams of shiitake mushrooms for a period of 10 weeks can lead to a blood abnormality known as eosinophilia.

how much is that?

.15 ounce!! That's not much at all.

 They must mean dried....

So these dried mainly on the logs as I was too busy trying to get sod to take root in 95 degree Fahrenheit drought weather. haha.

Also these were under burlap - to keep in moisture but it also blocked out sun. And on Birch - not sure how much that changes the melanin levels. So the Umami flavor is probably not as strong.

Still had a bit of Donko "flower" cracking from the morning cold. It was 50 Fahrenheit this morning and I had a frog in the Hermit Hut yesterday as I was drying out the shrooms on the wood stove - and inoculating more logs.

There were definitely more than one fruiting session - there was some rain up north. I'll check the National Weather Service to see when - but that appeared to kick in another fruiting. Otherwise it was just the logs that I had soaked - a pallet of Birch logs. So I soaked another pallet of Birch logs and will try to get up there soon. They should be ready in a week.

First I dried in the Sun for an hour or so - upside down - to increase the Vitamin D levels. The gills are the best for Vitamin D intake. The below "reddit" image shows the right side as "too late" to harvest while the middle is perfect and left is "too early." YES mine were "too late" to harvest but should be o.k. - just not ideal.


 

Then on the wood stove for the rest of the night. The stove was on low - and went out after six hours.


Yeah even still I had one shroom fall onto the stove and almost light the rest on fire!! oops.

So here I do inoculation - very slowly as I go cut each log by hand and haul in and then drill (off grid). Then if the drill battery runs out - I have a smaller battery and I can use solar power to recharge the battery. But not this time. Just inoculated a few logs. The spawn had been stored in the base of that bin to the bottom left - and was still moist and cool. Considered we had 90 plus Fahrenheit drought weather - that is testimony to my Hermit Hut being insulated (all by hand with wattle and daub). Still I put the rest of the mycelium spawn in my storage tipi that I insulated even better with clay walls and six bales of straw.... It stays 50 degrees in there pretty much all summer.

Here's the Stipes (stems) cooking now - do they need to be dried first for Umami flavor? We shall see - the stems actually have a lot of Lentinan medicinal healing energy. They had dried already partly in the forest. Lots of birds this morning at 4 am - outside the tent.

Drying in the oven on the lowest temp with the door ajar - I put a pan in. Again not much Umami conversion flavor-smell - as they were already mainly dried out. So I'm not sure how good they'll taste but I'll just eat the stems (stipes).

This time I sliced the shrooms so they dry more thoroughly and that may help increase the Umami flavor. Also soaking overnight will increase the Umami flavor.

I switched over to a local CSA subscription where I do the lawns - so this is just for the lawn owners as a local distribution. Thanks












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