Two years ago we made the decision to add mushrooms to our product availability. We had a large, beautiful, oak tree at the bottom of the property which cast just a bit too much afternoon shade on the greenhouses. After doing some research and attending a class hosted by Washington State extension office, we determined that shiitake mushrooms love oak wood. So we had a few friends with chainsaws come over on a gorgeous October day in 2024 to help take down the tree.
Tree Hugger
The day before the tree came down, my cat George ran up it to give it one last big hug! There may have been birds up there as well ;)
Tree Down
The main branches were cut into 4 or 5 foot lengths for the mushroom operation. The smaller branches and leaves were chipped, and the trunk was cut into rounds to dry for fire wood.
Then in December of 2024 we started the inoculation process, which took about a month to complete the 80 oak logs and 20 cherry logs (another smaller tree we also took down in October). We bought bags of sawdust spawn from Field and Forest which had the mushroom mycelium already in it and the log inoculation kit with wax, dabbers, the plunger, and the drill. This is a multiple step process, so we set up stations and got to work!
Cleaning
The logs had to be brushed clean of all debris, moss, and lichen to limit competition for the mushrooms.
Drilling
Using a template and special drill, holes are drilled into the logs at intervals appropriate for the log's diameter.
Plugs
The sawdust spawn is loaded into a specialized plunger and injected into the pre-drilled holes.
Closer Look
You can see the holes which have been filled vs not filled yet.
Waxing
After all the holes in the log have been filled with sawdust spawn, they get coated with wax. This helps prevent contamination and critters from eating the mycelium.
Waxing
Last step is putting them into their yearly resting place called crib stacks. Here they stay until the next year.
The first two years after inoculation is all about patience. First 6 months, they stay in their crib stacks, all nested away and covered from direct weather, until the following summer. At which point we soak the logs for 24 hours, called dunking, and put them back into their crib stacks... for yet another year.
Dunking
We have two feed troughs we load up with logs and keep them submerged in water for 24 hours. This was June 2025.
Mushroom Fruiting
And this is what all 100 logs will look like this Summer! Are you ready for some mushrooms?! In the background are the covered crib stacks.
After dunking the first year after inoculation, we put them back into crib stacks to rest for another year. THEN, in the second year (this year), we will be dunking the logs at the end of May but putting them into fruiting position standing up... which hasn't happened yet so stay tuned for follow up pictures later in the year :) You can get an idea of what they will look like in the picture "Mushroom Fruiting" above.
The oak logs will be giving us Shiitake and the Cherry logs will be giving us Chestnut mushrooms. We plan to dunk three times and get fresh flushes of mushrooms in June, August, and October.
