Yes, Scott and I are total suckers for anything related to the whole artisanal, DIY movement.  We are THOSE people.  While we haven’t done any canning or pickling yet,  I’m sure that will happen once the loquat tree in our front yard starts bearing fruit.  In the meantime we have ventured into the world of small scale mushroom farming – not not magic mushrooms, but large beautiful shitakes.  We purchased the ‘Ma and Pa log‘ from Lost Creek Mushroom Farm recently and grew our first batch of 3 mushrooms.  That comes to over 15 bucks per mushroom. But the good thing is that the logs last for years. They fruit every couple of months and the subsequent harvests should be more productive.  Here are some photos of the mushrooms (which grew to full size within a week of soaking the logs).

 The shitakes at their baby stage. Edible, but just a couple more days until full size

 Those is some big shrooms!

 How perfect are the gills on the bottom?  Way better looking than something you’d find at the grocery store.