Mmmmm... Mushrooms!

Soon, anyway.  Probably in a couple weeks, in fact!  Eric and I decided, after buying a shiitake log at the local garlic festival, to become mushroom farmers.  Yes, really.  Bees and honey, chickens and eggs, and now mushrooms.  I've always loved mushrooms, but until starting to read about them, neither one of us realized just how healthy they are.  It's pretty incredible.

So we started with shiitakes, pink and blue oyster mushrooms, and lions mane.

The blue oysters became fully innoculated with mycelium most quickly, so yesterday Eric and I built the fruiting chamber, sort of a greenhouse that's primarily about keeping the right level of humidity.

We built a PVC frame around metal shelving, and then covered the whole thing in a plastic tarp, leaving a door of sorts, so we can get in and work with the mushrooms.

We set up the humidifier with the electronic sensor Eric built, and a light on a timer, and then Eric cut slits in the fruiting bags.  See all that white all mixed in with the coffee grounds?  That's the mycelium, the body of the mushroom plant!  I know it looks kind of ick, but what comes from it is totally worth it.

And now we're just letting the humidifier do its thing.  Can't wait to watch them fruit!

Eggs, Baby!

I hope everyone had a terrific Thanksgiving (we did!)  and is looking forward to the holidays.  I can't believe Chanukah starts this Sunday night already!  Where did it all go?  I blinked and summer was gone, and then blinked again and it wasn't fall anymore.  They say time flies when you're having fun, but this is ludicrous already.

Anyway, we got a very cool "gift"... over the past week & a half, one (I'm convinced Cher was first) and then another (Lita) chicken started laying!  They've been giving us nearly an egg a day each, one brown, one tan.

And then... and then!  Last night I went to check on the chicklettes and get them in their coop for the night, since they still refuse to go in on their own, the little ninnies, and what did I see... but THREE eggs!

Tan and brown from Lita & Cher, which in total means they've given us 17 eggs so far between them...

... and a GREEN EGG from one of the Araucanas!  I'm betting on Reba; she's bigger than Adele and her little comb got redder faster, so she seems like the mature one.  But either way, a green egg!!!

Go girls!

So this morning, I brought one tan and one brown egg to work, and had myself some incredible scrambled eggs, courtesy of the chicklettes.

Thanks, ladies!