Shitake Mushrooms!

Last May I innoculated a log from a Maple tree that I chopped down in the back yard.

I used shitake plug spawn that came in the form of short dowel rods.

I drilled holes in the log and drove the dowels in with a hammer. I was supposed to put melted wax over each of the dowel holes but I didn't do that step.

I wasn't sure that they were ever going to produce any mushrooms but today we got our first shitakes to my amazement! People throw around the term "set it and forget it" a lot, but this was truly that. I had totally forgotten about the inoculated log.

So about ten months have elapsed since the log was inoculated. We only got three good sized ones today, but there are some more that will probably be ready in just a couple of days.

This was pretty exciting considering it was totally unexpected. Shitakes are damn good sauteed in butter!

Tomatoes & pepper update

Here is a shot of some Roma paste tomatoes I started back in February.

They've been outside on a few nights that dipped into the high thirties and seem to be withstanding it fine.

Here is a shot of the Olympus F1 peppers we started at the same time as the tomatoes.

The eggplant was doing very well, but I left it outside and it got hammered and gave up the ghost.

The remaining bing cherry tomatoes are still growing but haven't done as well as the peppers and roma tomatoes.

Tonight it is supposed to get down to twenty-five degrees.

Build it and they will come...

Just more than a week ago I was bemoaning the fact that I hadn't seen an actual frog in over 20 years.

I don't mean toads, but actual frogs.

As if summoned by fate, an actual frog appeared today, literally on the front door.

I collected him, without any struggles he allowed me to carry him through the house into the back yard and down to the pond.

There I sat him upon a granite rock. Where he seemed to blend right in.

Where I grew up, near the Okefenokee Swamp, the frogs were always green. And abundant.

This is the first time I've ever seen a grey frog. I hope he hangs around and multiplies.

The pond is his if he'll have it.