Hi YouTubers.
I'm Al Gracian from albopepper.com.
It's the beginning of September.
I'm out here in the garden.
And many people may be closing up shop here.
But I have a nice crop of kale, broccoli.
But something in particular that I want to show you today.
In this edible landscape...
what's this?
Check it out guys.
We have our second harvest now that's come in of these wine cap mushrooms.
How cool is this!?
Check out over here too, another spot where I put some.
Just mushroom after mushroom, all these guys, tucked all inside here.
Isn't this great?
So, let me show you a little bit about what I did to set this up this Spring.
And maybe you might get a few pointers to help you out.
We're looking at Wine Caps (Stropharia rugosa annulata).
Great for beginners, these mushrooms are easy to identify.
They're perfect for applying to in-ground beds.
As they break down cellulose, they quickly build rich, black soil.
And earthworms absolutely thrive!
My preferred supplier for mushroom spawn is Field and Forest Products.
That's field forest dot net.
They provide lots of great tips and information to get you started!
I split an order with my Dad, reserving half of a 5.5 pound bag of sawdust spawn for myself.
In smaller areas they recommend peg spawn.
But if you keep it moist, the sawdust can work too, providing quicker results!
I'm in Western PA, here in Zone 6b.
In mid April a friend of mine dropped off a load of mulberry branches from a tree he
cut down.
I chipped them up in my small wood chipper and selected the areas I wanted to inoculate
and began by spreading my first layer of wood chips.
In my set up, I didn't use any cardboard.
Just fresh wood chips, along with some old straw from my strawberry beds.
These substrates will serve as the fuel for my mushrooms.
Wood chips laying in your beds makes them look a little different.
But in the end, we'll still be able to keep them looking nice - good enough even for people
in an HOA!
One 5.5 pound bag can cover up to 50 square feet on wood chips.
But with my half bag I'm covering 16 square feet, which matches the application rate for
straw beds.
That's 2.75 ounces per square foot.
I'm applying that in 3 layers.
So 0.9 ounces per layer, per square foot.
Patch sizes ranged from just 1 square foot to as much as 4 square feet.
These are all areas within my existing edible landscape beds.
Under fruit trees, berry bushes, asparagus and so on.
Let's look at how I put this all together.
Layer 1: I applied 2 inches of wood chips and marked off my inoculation areas.
I watered the chips.
Applied sawdust spawn, mixing it in and then watered it.
For Layer 2, I applied 1 or 2 inches of straw that had soaked in water for 3 days.
I applied more sawdust and water.
Then Layer 3 was more wood chips with the last application of spawn.
I mixed and watered it in and prepared to make the bed look a little nicer.
By adding a 4th layer, you create a protective skin that can improve moisture retention.
But in my beds, this layer was a conventional wood bark mulch.
The result was a bed that looks like any other landscape bed.
No less attractive wood chips or unsightly chunks of straw.
If you live in an area that is heavily policed by a Home Owners Association, this solution
is for you.
Guerilla gardening at it's finest!
I set these beds up on April 17th.
Our Spring came early and was fairly wet.
After 8 weeks on June 12th I had my first crop of Wine Caps!
These were just a foregleam though.
Now it's September 8th and a much larger batch of mushrooms has emerged with more on the
way.
I prefer to slice them at the base to avoid disturbing the mycelium.
You can store them in a brown paper bag in the fridge, unwashed for couple days.
Just dust off the dirt before cooking.
We took the smaller buttons and added them to a homemade chicken noodle soup.
You can sauté these too, of course.
Or the caps could be stuffed.
I had too many though, so I dehydrated my extras including the stems.
I sliced them thin and ran my food dehydrator at 120 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 hours.
The low temp preserves the nutrients.
And if they snap when you bend them, you know they are totally dried out.
Seal them tight in a glass jar, away from heat and sunlight.
Well guys, how cool is that, huh?
Even though it's September, here I am, having more and more things coming in, including
things I've never even been able to think about growing in the past.
I'm utilizing existing space and putting in multiple functions within that space.
Stacking those functions.
Not only am I getting a harvest of mushrooms, but I'm also taking a resource that might
have been dispensed with otherwise, such as those wood chips.
And I'm also building soil and helping beneficial micro-organisms.
So it's a win, win, win!
And even if you're in one of those HOAs, those Home Owner Associations, where you can't seem
to get away with doing anything.
Well, taking some wood chips, putting them down, covering them with a nice ornamental
mulch is a great way to disguise this little project.
And then, months later, lo and behold...
BOOM!
You have this little ninja harvest that comes along.
I hope that this video has inspired you and given you some cool ideas of some things that
maybe you might try, in your home, in your garden.
I appreciate you taking time to watch and for supporting my channel.
Please subscribe if you haven't already.
As always, Happy Gardening!