I want to grow WHAT????

Yup, I want to grow mushrooms.

Hey if Ray can grow a pineapple in his living room, growing mushrooms can't be any harder.

Not that I've done it yet, you have to stay tuned and see if it works, but so far the hardest thing has been trying to research this. If you've been following along, you know that I get most of my info, whether it's right or wrong, from the internet.

Well try looking up "how to grow mushrooms at home" and just see how long it takes before you take that dreaded left turn to the land of "Shrooms"

NOT very long at all.......that's how long!!
Seriously, does nobody just like the regular edible, no "picture movies in my head" kinda mushrooms anymore.

Well I do, and I'm going to try and grow some. Why, because I love mushrooms.

I know that there are people in the area that are growing Shitakes, on logs and it's working for them, so rather than try that, I'm going to try something different still. Not sure what yet, or how, but I am leaning towards the Crimini / Portabello for now. I would love to grow the ultimate mushroom, Morels but I'm too impatient for that ( it takes years to get a crop ) and I'm still hoping to find that wild patch that is in this area, but for some reason no one will tell you where it is??

 I will let  you know how it works out.

HugleKulture

Hey, I'd never heard of it either, even with a German background and being the direct decendant of a man that forever picked up every dropped branch and leaf on this property and piled it, in a hole, on a hill, or wherever he thought that the ground needed to change shape. But he never once thought to plant anything in it.

I found out about it in a local newspaper article run on a young couple that were being very successful at sustainable agriculture and where doing a CSA basket program with their bounty as well as supplying a couple of local restaurants.

Now this newspaper article definetly got them noticed, not just by people wanting to eat local and/or participate in the CSA program, but it also served to bring out every Wingnut in the area ( namely me ) and have them drop by for a visit to see just what was going on here.

So what is it, well I'm no expert, that's for sure, since I've just gotten my first two built and have yet to plant them. But the principle is this....you take organic matter, branches, leaves, compost, anything that you can find, and you layer them into a mound. It really makes sense to put the bigger stuff on the bottom btw. The natural process of composting will take place and produce heat, which will be beneficial to the growth of whatever crop you've planted on top of the "Hugel" ( which btw means bump, or lump, in German )

So having now found out about this, as usual, I jump on the Internet and Google it, and I come across something else............terrace gardening!! Well, now this is all just calling my name isn't it. I have a lifetime supply of piled up organic matter, the hill from hell, a German heritage that just says I HAVE to try something called HugelKulture, and the desire to grow more, preserve more, freeze more, etc. and maybe be the winner in a 2 generation battle against this hill.

So I'm combining the 2 theories and hoping that in the end, I will have a leisurely switch back path, up that hill, that leads me from one bed of goodness to the next. At worst, I will have a hill full of bumps that is still a bugger to get up, in which case we will resort back to the quick and easy way of making it dissappear........throw a bag of sunflower seeds down there, let it grow and enjoy them and the birds that it brings. I mean really, sunflowers are like fireworks and rainbows... if they don't make you smile, you need to check your pulse to see if it's still there.