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Happy New Year, friends. I'm sorry to be a few days late wishing you happiness and health for 2012. As with all good intentions, sometimes they take a little while to come to fruition—especially with the kids home from school. A three hour Horse-O-Poly marathon takes precedence over planned writing time, especially when you're quite certain that in a few, quick years—the horse lover will balk at spending New Year's Day in PJs with her parents and little brother. We've got to snatch those moments now, while we can, and store the memories away for when her angst-filled teen years arrive.
So, did you make any resolutions? I admit, I'm attempting a few changes:
Bravery. Wellness. Patience. (Which I wish would hurry up and get here, already!)
Bravery might seem like a strange resolution. But I've realized lately that there are so many things I've been wanting to do—kayaking, horseback riding, growing my business, writing—that I need to force myself to get out of my comfort zone. I've been living life a little half-assed lately. It's time to shake things up, because I don't want to live with regrets.
The bravery resolution took a major hit this week, much to my chagrin—and Peter's relief.
There is, of course, a back story:
A year ago, I attended the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's annual conference, which was amazing. I enrolled in a workshop about growing mushrooms.
Let me tell you—Tradd Cotter from Mushroom Mountain is brilliant. Part genius scientist, part environmentalist, part fabulous entertainer, part magician...who knew mushrooms could be so fascinating?
Naturally, on the adrenaline high of Tradd's presentation and armed with recently purchased shiitake plugs, I decided it was time to add mushrooms to the list of edibles we grow.
Really, how hard could it be?
Most farmers grow shiitakes on small logs, which are portable and easily submersed in water, which is part of the process to get them to fruit. However, since we had to remove a tree prior to the greenhouse installation last year, I convinced Peter that we needed to use the tree for our shiitakes. He gamely cut up the truck for me, and we moved the logs to my newly designated “shiitake garden.”
When growing mushrooms, there are a variety of methods you can use, as well as an incredible array of mushrooms you can grow. The Mushroom Mountain website rates the difficulty level for growing each variety and tells the various mediums that can be used to grow each variety. (I plan to try the coffee ground method as an experiment with the kids in my next mushroom growing attempt.)
So, we had our hardwood logs in place. I had the shiitake plugs from Mushroom Mountain in hand. (The plugs are approximately inch-long wooden pegs inoculated with shiitake spores.)
Now, it was time to plant some mushrooms.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but even though I consider myself a pretty well-rounded kind of girl...I never used a drill prior to my mushroom endeavor. I know, I know. Pitiful.
I also learned that you can quickly burn up a drill if you aren't careful.
At no time in my drilling lesson did I learn that the
