Shiitake logs, beeswax and turning poo into food

Last weekend was a real joy as I was able to convert a sad event, a neighbour's tree being chopped down, to a good thing - new mushroom logs for us. I popped over and had a chat with the lady, who I'd never met before and made a new friend and got two free logs.

I got the idea from reading Mycelium Running, a book that still excites me when I talk about it!

Check out Paul Stamets' website

I have understood for some time that we should always try to use a resource for the highest purpose possible. High quality 'waste' goes to the chickens versus lower quality material being composted. This way, we get a second or third yield, in this case eggs, from our 'waste' stream and keep the energy flowing.

Happily there are some organisms that we can eat that are fairly low on the food 'chain' which might surprise some people!

Detritivores are creatures who like to eat muck filtered from the water - classic examples are mussels, prawns and, the classic Australian favourite, marron. People grow these critters by sprinkling duck poo on their ponds, which in turn grows algae and boom! Food from poo, which just makes my day.

Permaculture gardeners should all be familiar with Black Soldier Fly Larvae as the best way to compost and produce high protein, self harvesting feed for chickens or fish.

Mushrooms are a whole other 'kingdom' in the same way that plants and animals are very different, so are fungi and plants. Fungi are ancient amazing organisms which are skilled survivors in highly competitive environments and in some cases, could well save your life. Read Mycelium Running if you have cancer or a troubled immune system.

The thing that fascinates me is the way that mushrooms can convert a log which would otherwise be left to decompose or burnt - into high quality food. Or better yet, poo into food. The old fashioned way was to simply get some horse manure into a compact garden bed, allow it to hot compost, then roughly chop some mushrooms into the mix and tamp it down. The new way is to mix in extra nutrients, hot compost or sterilise and then inoculate with cultivated mycelium growing on dowel or agar. Of course, you have to match the type of mushroom to your growing media.


Months ago I purchased Rowen Reid's Shiitake mycelium on dowel which arrived in a snap lock bag similar to the ones used for school lunches!

One fascinating thing that I noticed before I started my wood work was the rather wide ant 'highway' trekking to the logs and their sweet sap. This sap sits close to the surface of the bark and is sent around from the leaves to feed the rest of the tree and often, soil biota that have symbiotic relationships with the roots.

The process itself is simple:
1. Trim the log so that any cut surfaces are fresh and not contaminated
2. Drill holes around the circumference of the log
3. Put in a dowel plug to each hole
4. Seal any exposed wood and holes with beeswax

Keep moist and in the shade.
They say you should shock them into fruiting by dunking them in cold water... I'll keep you updated on whether you really have to torture them or not!

Systems Thinking: We are all Environmental Managers

I'm lucky enough to work in an exciting field: tree declines in Western Australia.
During the last 6 months I've been able to have numerous discussions with some brilliant minds and this posting will capture some of this thinking.

I've also been reflecting on being a self-taught learner (autodidact) - which I feel is a very valuable thing to be, if I can claim that status? I admire this sentiment from Margaret Mead: "I learned to observe the world around me, and to note what I saw." The way I see it, we must pay attention, put two and two together and remember what we have learnt.

My big boss took me to the window the other day and pointed out the line of dead trees - Tasmanian Blue Gums. They'd simply run out of ground water. Plenty of other vegetation had survived, but these were the thirsty crowd.

I thought about that, suddenly putting two and two together... humans are using water that the trees have historically counted on to get them through droughts, possibly tipping them over the edge.

Water is important. I looked it up - we humans in Western Australia are using up to 50% ground water in our 'tap' water... leaving that much less for the plants. Bearing in mind we don't draw from every aquifer.

Having been interested in environmental matters for some time, it occurred to me that this was the first time I'd taken the 'lack of water' issue seriously - previously I was always thinking about human need/use. I felt ashamed but then began to realise that this is probably true for most environmentalists. I bumped into Jarred, pastor and peace activist, on the train and he couldn't believe that we use so much ground water. It is interesting to see that for most of us, water is 'out of sight and out of mind', but it can be reconstructed as not simply a commodity but life itself for the various ecological communities we live amongst.

Some weeks have passed since I experienced this paradigm shift. I was discussing this with a guest lecturer who I was lucky enough to hear speak on world food security from a plant pathologists point of view. He mentioned coal seam methane extraction and associated fracturing of the aquifers. Certainly, this is a permanent degradation of the previously separate bodies of water and fossil fuels - to farmers' detriment.

I trust that I can remember this lesson and be a systems thinker and not just a consumer.