While shopping for holiday gifts on Amazon, I came across something I didn’t know existed: kits which include logs that have been impregnated with mushroom spores, and that will produce fruit for years with the proper care. Huh!

I like the idea of being able to grow my own cooking mushrooms, so I picked out a shiitake kit and placed an order. There are also other mushroom breeds available.

Yesterday I received the package, and today we started the process of preparing the log for fruiting…

The kit I ordered was the Original Log Kit, and we have just started the 24 hour cold soak. With any luck, we’ll have buttons in the next week and ready-to-harvest shiitake mushrooms in the next couple weeks.

I was a little bit worried that I might somehow totally fudge the process up (because yeah…I can sometimes have a bit of a black thumb), but the following put my mind at ease…

An included page shows us what to look for once the log starts budding…

Hopefully we now have a very happy (and wet) log, and in a few weeks will have some delicious cooking mushrooms!

Intrigued? Then you might take a look at the Lost Creek Mushroom Farm site, where you can pick out your own ‘shroom log!

Speaking of which: I can’t think about any log anymore, without thinking about this…