Way back in the early spring, the OE Gurus helped with an unusual task at the farm: they drilled holes into oak logs, filled the holes with sawdust laced with shiitake mushroom spawn, then dripped wax over the holes to seal the moisture in. Then they stacked the inoculated logs in a shady spot, and left them alone to do their thing.

Shiitakes can take anywhere from 6 months to two years to reach the fruiting part of their life cycle. The fungus decomposes its home (in this case, the oak logs), feasting on the nutrients and building a network of mycelia before putting out the “fruiting body” (the part of the mushroom we eat). And this week, we got our very first mushroom! Yum!