Food Forest Archives - Survival Harvesting

Harvesting Forest Grown Mushrooms – Shiitake

Shiitake mushrooms from a spawn innoculated log can produce for 3-4 years

As a result of a bit of a wind storm, I am about to leap into log production of Shiitake mushrooms. Shiitake mushrooms can be more efficiently produced using bags of sawdust, but that method requires the growth medium the being kept indoors in a controlled climate. Something I don’t have the time or money for.

Shiitake mushroom log production is far simpler and it all happens outdoors. We have a couple of acres, mostly bush, and because of the storm we now have some logs.

I am going to try this on some smaller diameter birch, and some larger diameter poplar. According to what I have read, it is better to do this with the top branches because the heartwood contains chemicals that suppress fungi growth. Since

Since this is going to be my first run at this, I am not expecting tremendous results. I want to experiment a little to find out what works best with the mix of trees and conditions we have here on our property.

I was lucky enough to find a local producer of sawdust impregnated spawn, Summer Green Farm. He has both oyster and shiitake spawn on hand. I haven’t yet decided for sure if I will try both, but I am kind of leaning that way.

The logs have to be cut before the tree leafs out in the spring, or after leaves drop in the fall. It is suggested that the inoculating occur four to eight weeks after the logs are cut. This provides time for the tree’s fungus fighting abilities have stopped being present. There is a bit of an issue here. If you wait too long, other naturally occurring fungi may contaminate the logs. I am going to inoculate over a stretch of time and compare results. A walk through the bush in the back of the property certainly provides evidence of naturally occurring fungi.

My research says white oak is numero uno for shiitake mushrooms. Other hardwoods that give good results include the rest of the oak family, beech, birch, alder, sugar maple, red maple, balsam poplar, trembling aspen, willow and hickories. So my birch and poplar will be a useful test case.

The process itself is straightforward: cut your tree material into 4 foot long logs (for ease of handling). Drill holes in the log in rows, following the axis of the log, about five inches apart. The rows should be separated by 3 inches.

Holes are drilled 5 inches apart in rows and the rows are spaced 3 inches apart around the log — Holes must be drilled in your Shiitake mushroom log to receive the spawn impregnated sawdust plugs

A measured amount of the spawn product is inserted into each hole (about a thimble full) and the holes are sealed with wax. An alternative to wax is “backer rod,” a polyfoam product that is used to save caulking. It is available at hardware stores.

Shiitake logs can be leaned against a horizontal support. The log ends may be coated with wax to prevent infection with undesired fungi

The finished logs can be stacked in the shade, in a log cabin or crib style, or they may be leaned against a horizontal pole as in a lean-to. This allows rain to moisten the logs moderately without them becoming sodden.

Coating the shiitake log ends with wax will help prevent the infection of the logs with undesirable fungi. This will also help prevent the log from prematurely drying out.

The site the logs are placed in should receive 60 to 85 % shade.

Logs inoculated in the spring may produce some fruiting in the fall. The full bloom will not occur till the next year. Oak logs will fruit for up to five years. Other species will produce for fewer years.

I will be reporting in on this effort when there is news to report. It is not expensive to jump into this. Two pounds of spawn impregnated sawdust costs $27.00. You could do this in your backyard if you provide some shade, and provide sufficient moisture to prevent the logs from drying out to fast. You can experiment with different arrangements of logs, different amounts of supplemental moisture and different tree species. Get in touch with local tree trimmers and let them know you are looking for oak branches about 5 inches in diameter. Or maple, or hickory or beech.

My attitude is, spend a few bucks and the worst that can happen is I will wind up with some gourmet mushrooms. The best that can happen is I may wind up with some gourmet mushrooms and a highly desirable product I can sell at my local farmers market. or even to high end restaurants in my area.

Any gourmet restaurant is a potential buyer of surplus shiitake mushrooms

Garden Spot Harvesting – Sack Farming

No Topsoil, No Problem

A couple of posts ago I wrote a post about “straw bail” gardening. Straw bales can be conditioned to induce faster organic breakdown than they would normally undergo by feeding the microbes that break down the

Several plants are growing out of a straw bale — Vegetables growing in a conditioned straw bale

straw, giving the process a boost. Then the bales themselves can be used as the growing media.

The straw bales can overcome the problem of shallow or infertile soil. At the end of the growing season, the straw can be turned in to the compost pile, used as mulch or simply spread out where it is to help build up the soil in that spot. The bales have a more or less one to one ratio of the area that would be used in a normal garden.

Sack Farming

If the prospective grower has a lack of growing space (and/or problem soil) there is another alternative; sack farming. Sack farming is exactly what it sounds like. A large bag is stood on its end and filled with growing medium consisting of compost manure and soil. A central vertical path is provided for water by forming a column of stones up the center of the bag using a can with no lid or bottom. The can is slid up the interior of the bag as the soil/compost mixture rises, leaving behind the small stones that filled it. Holes are cut into the side of the bag in five rows of eight holes. Three to four week old transplants are put in place.

Sack s are prepared for transplants by filling them with growing medium and creating a vertical collum of stones in the middle of the sack for water dispersal. — Image Credit: “Multi-Storey Gardening Training Manual 2008”

The sacks can be reused for up to three years until the composted manure loses its fertility. At that time, the sack can be tipped over and new composted manure mixed with the soil and it can be reused.

In tests described in the “Sack Farming Innovation” PDF download below, they discuss an alternative to the central stone column that used PVC pipe with holes drilled in it. The PVC didn’t perform as well as the column of small stones. I had similar problems with a strawberry barrel I made using a PVC watering pipe. I like the idea of using small stones. I may give this a shot.

I want to say something about the “Sack Farming” PDF. It is available at a location called ResearchGate. You need to join to get access to this paper. It will be worth it. No cost. Free downloads. They have a lot of scientific papers, technical papers and study reports such as the link I provide. There will be a bunch of information in this paper that you probably aren’t interested in. But what it does provide is detailed information on two case studies, photographic images clearly showing what needs to be done and a statement of results.

This is a technique that could easily be used on stony ground, on concrete, in an abandoned parking lot or virtually anywhere with solar exposure and access to water. And if you think about the productivity of a 3 ft. diameter sack, five feet high, planted with 30 – 40 plants, compared to an equivalent garden plot, it is very space efficient.

I will leave it there. The downloads can explain it in more detail. I have provided several because this type of farming is being done slightly differently in different places. These downloads vary in length, but they all have additional insights. One of the downloads is a promotional piece from a company showing how their drip irrigation system could be used with Sack gardens. I thought it was instructional enough to include.

I hope you found this useful. I plan on giving this a try beside one of my raised beds this spring.

Sack Farming Downloads

Multi-Story Gardening

Garden in a Sack

Vertical Bag Farms Drip Irrigation

Sack Farming Innovation for Land Scarcity Farmers in Kenya and Ghana

Garden Spot Harvesting – Straw Bales

An Old Technique is New Again

Straw bale gardening has been around for several hundred years. Once farmers had figured out the utility of compost in growing vegetables and then stumbled across a pile of straw that was heating up because some high nitrogen product was added to it (livestock piss?), it is no surprise that they tried planting produce right in the pile. Today’s bound bales make the process so much neater and easier.

Straw bales are wetted down, have high nitrogen fertilizer added to them to feed the decomposition microbes, and are kept moist over the season. The microbes decompose the straw and the straw provides most of the nutrients plants need to grow. Your rocky soil, a slab of granite outcrop, a gravel pit (or driveway), any of them become a handy garden location.

Multiple straw bales with a variety of plants growing out of them. Usually two to three plants per straw bale — Straw bales make excellent growing locations for low or medium size plants.

Straw bales are preferred over hay, because of the large amount of weed seed typically incorporated in hay bales. Straw bales will be much less work. The bales require preconditioning before planting. So you need to acquire your bales a couple of weeks ahead of your planned plant date. Conditioning involves watering the bales daily for three days. You want to add enough water that it runs out the bottom of the bale. The bales will absorb a lot of the water, and retain it, so their weight will increase. Make sure you have them located where they will be staying for the season.

The Straw Bale Gardening Method

The bales should be oriented so that the stalk ends point up and down. That means the twine holding the bales together will be running parallel to the ground. It makes a lot of sense to run the bales in rows, one or two bales wide. This allows you to set strong stakes in the ground (if it’s not too rocky) and run lengths of wire or string from post to post, creating a trellis for support for your vines or tomatoes.

On the fourth day, you start adding high nitrogen fertilizer. Urea is a good choice. It has a ratio of 46-0-0. There is a method to follow. Over the next 6 days, follow this schedule. Day one, add a 1/2 cup of urea to each bale and add water until it is running out the bottom. Soak thoroughly on day two, but no urea. Day three 1/2 cup of urea again and water in. Then no urea on day four, just soak. Repeat this process for the next two day. For the next three days, add 1/4 cup of urea each day and soak thoroughly. On day ten, you should add a cup of granulated, balanced 10-10-10 fertilizer. Keep watering the bales for a few more days until the internal temperature falls to about body temperature. Now you are ready to plant.

This whole process is described in a popular book on the subject that is available on Amazon. You can find out more about the whole process at Straw Bale Gardens. Check out the pics and read his FAQ.

If you would like to download some free PDFs from agricultural extension services, that lay everything out, as well as provide planting and spacing details, try the links below.

Straw Bale Gardening – Clemson University

Straw Bale Gardening – Washington State University

Straw Bale Gardening – New Mexico Junior College

Gardening With Straw Bales – University of California

Straw bale gardening is definitely a solution when gardening soil is at a premium, or non-existent> It also provides you with a raised growing surface, minimizing bending. Because you are above the soil level, you are raised above many pests and your crops should suffer less from insect depredation. A huge bonus is that, at the end of the growing season, you are left with a big pile of composted organic matter which you can dump into a compost bed, spread around as mulch and generally, build up whatever soil you do have.

I’m going to experiment with this technique. The guides above provide direction as to which types of plants are most suited to this medium. You should give them a good read before you start. Try it yourself, then get back to me. You can email me here, just use the contact form, or visit my Facebook page, Survival Harvesting, and shoot me a PM or email.

Survival Pine Nut Harvesting

Imagine you could eat 3.5 ounces of something and get 28% of your daily protein, 30% of your calcium, 17% of your potassium, 14% of your daily fibre and 62% of your magnesium requirement. Oh, and also 670 energy supplying calories. Bonus: you get to pick it off a tree, which will continue supplying this bounty for the next 25 years or more.

The Korean Pine is the most popular pine nut species beign grown in northern areas of the US and Canada and produces the largest nut.

Pine nuts can do this for you. In all there are about twelve useful nut producing pine trees found across Asia, Siberia, Europe and in the Southern United States. While all of the 100+ pine trees found around the world produce seeds, approximately 20 species produce nuts large enough for collecting however, as I mentioned above, only about 12 are important nut producers.

In the US nut collecting from native species is done exclusively with pinyon pines. The bulk of commercial pine nuts sold are collected in the wild.

In the northern sections of North America pine nuts are collected from imported varieties, with the Korean species, Pinus koraiensis, probably being the most popular because of the size of it’s nut. The Korean Pine can be grown in Zones 2-9, so it is extremely tolerant of cold climates.

You can find a great round up of the various species of pine nut trees typically available for purchase here on Rhora’s Nut Trees web page.

For a great round up on pinyon pines and harvesting their nuts try this article by Hank Shaw.

Pinyon pines are slow growing so the likelihood of you harvesting from your own tree are slight. However, if you are on property you expect to stay on for a few years, you might want to consider starting some Korean Pine. As mentioned on the Rhora’s site, hybrids are now becoming available which can bear fruit in as little as 6 years, and they bear nuts that are up to 30% larger than non-hybrid types.

If you are establishing a homestead, whether rural or urban, you should consider planting some of these trees. They do reach a considerable size, but so do the pine and spruce that I see growing beside many a suburban ranch style home around town. And if you have a couple of acres, not only are you able to provide a tasty and nutritious product for your family, you could also be creating a small supplemental income. Pine nuts are selling for up to $40.00 a pound. At a farmers market, where you can advertise “locally produced,” and offer 4 oz packages, you could be making a lot more than that.

Pine nut trees are definitely multi purpose, providing shade, wind protection and landscape interest as well as a tasty and nutritious food product. They fit in perfectly with the Survival Harvesting principle of work once, harvest many.

I’ve dropped the nutrition table I gleaned the opening paragraph information from down below. Consider pine nuts. Remember, the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is today.

Harvesting Forest Grown Mushrooms

Shiitake mushrooms growing wild in a woodlot

I like the idea of working once and reaping benefits for an extended period of time. That is why mushrooms are appealing. Whether you find them in the wild or on your property, you can expect to see them popping up again in more or less the same place year after year. Search once, reap many.

Oyster and Shiitake mushrooms present you with a similar situation when you cultivate them yourself. If you have a little bit of space in your backyard, or a small bush lot, you can inoculate some hardwood logs and expect to reap a mushroom harvest for 3-4 years.

I am not going to go into the details of hunting for and picking wild mushrooms. There are a ton of varieties and sometimes the differences between toxic and okay to eat are subtle. I will provide a couple of guides. The Canadian one is suitable for a lot of the US, from the east coast to the west. Of course, the Eastern Forests guide is as titled.

Here is a 346 page guide to the edible and poisonous mushrooms of Canada.

Here’s one for the Eastern US forests.

I had a lot more trouble finding a large, comprehensive guide to US mushrooms than Canadian. Since there are a ton of agricultural research stations, university agricultural extension services and local groups, I suggest you try a Google search with your location and “wild mushroom education” in the search field. I tried it with “ohio wild mushroom identification” and got lots of results. Try a similar search and add the words “guide” or “class.” I am sure you will find something useful and worth your time.

What I want to focus on in this post is raising edible Oyster and Lions Mane mushrooms. These are two of the easier ones to cultivate. And I want to focus on doing it out of doors using logs.

Basically you need to find the right type of logs, fresh enough cut that they are still holding ample moisture. You have to inoculate them with mushroom spawn and place them in the right locations, or so arranged that they get the right amount of shade. Depending on the weather you may need to water the logs periodically. But essentially you walk away.

You maximize harvest by creating the right kind of log environment and using the spawn efficiently. In the wild, mushroom spawn may find the right environment to reproduce or it may not. If it does, it may be in competition with the spores from some other type of fungi. If there isn’t ample shade, then as the seasons progress, it may get too much sunlight. If there is an extended dry spell, then the small struggling mushroom may just dry up and blow away. By lending a hand to Mother Nature, we help ensure survival, and many meals for the future.

Oyster mushrooms in an efficient, prolific way, from the Cornell U Cooperative Extension

One of the simplest ways to get a harvest of mushrooms is to use the Oyster mushroom Totem Method of cultivation. Click on the picture to get a concise two page explanation of the complete process.

The same method can be used for Lions Mane. Select fresh logs about 2 feet long and around a foot thick that were cut before the trees leafed out. Keep your cuts at right angles to the length because you are going to stack the pieces on top of each other.

Cut the logs in half again (about a foot long) and slice a 2″ disk from the outer end of one of them. Put a sharpie mark on the logs where the cuts are going to go so that you can put the pieces back together as exactly as possible. This will make secure stacking more likely.

Placement of log sections and spawn for Oyster Mushroom production

Put a piece of cardboard on the ground to keep the wood from being contaminated by native fungi and put some spawn on the cardboard. Now stack the longer piece of log on the cardboard. Put more spawn on the upper end of this piece and stack the 10″ section on top of it, lining up the marks. Place more spawn on the upper surface of the second piece and then top it off with the two inch disk.

Cover the whole structure with the kind of brown paper bag used for garden waste and loosely tie it in place. The bag will waste away but you can remove it in six months or so if you wish. You want your logs to be well shaded so that your log sections don’t dry out too much. If your logs are surrounded by evergreens you can be sure they will receive shade summer and winter. All you have to do is check back in the fall or the next year and start picking. This type of setup will continue to produce for up to four years.

Shiitake mushrooms are a little more complicated, but not much. I will examine how to grow your own supply of Shiitakes in another post.

Survival Tree Crop Harvesting – Nut Trees

What feeds people, horses, cows, pigs, sheep and goats, produces a by-product of wood, anchors soils, preserves moisture in the soil, creates plant material that breaks down into compostand creates microclimates with shade and windbreaks? Nut trees, in particular the chestnut tree, according to J. Russell Smith in his 1929 book “Tree Crops – A Permanent Agriculture.”

Food for humans and livestock, plus it attracts game

Smith championed tree crops used in a planned and integrated way long before Robert Hart stated talking about “Forest Gardening” in 1980.

Low Work Feed for Livestock

In his book Smith describes the efforts of Georgia farmer R. O. Lombard who eventually had a wide variety of nut trees and other fruit producers including”two hundred everbearing mulberries, two hundred hog plums, two hundred wild cherries, three varieties of haws, and mock oranges.” In all he had twenty-six crops growing wild and cultivated on his three hundred acres. In addition to those mentioned he had huckleberries, blackberries, acorn bearing oaks, hickory nuts, chestnuts, chinquapin nuts and hazelnuts.

A range of nut trees ensures a range of tolerance to conditions and a spread of harvest times

These plants required little care from him and they kept him with a continuous supply of food for forty hogs who fed on the fruits of these trees throughout the year. YOU don’t need three hundred acres to take advantage of tree crops. A lot can be accomplished using a regular suburban lot. With some research, some careful thought and planning, you can start taking advantage of the space above the soil. This is a broad topic but in this post, as I suggest in the first paragraph, I want to narrow our focus to nut trees because of their special nutritional attributes.

Nutritional Values of Common Nuts

There are a wide variety of nut bearing trees and bushes. Stretching from northern lands down into southern latitudes nuts have provided food for man and beast alike. There are about a dozen nut trees that have become important from an agricultural point of view.

Nuts can be an excellent source of protein, essential fats and carbohydrates

For a technical paper on the impact of nuts on cholesterol and cardiovascular disease see this.

First Steps in Raising Nut Trees

No matter where you are you can probably find at least some these trees and their hybrids available from local nurseries. By crossing different cultivars growers have produced varieties with a wide level of tolerances to varied climate zones. Your local providers will be a big help in making the correct choices. Most areas, provinces or states also have nut tree growers associations. Meeting and talking to other growers right in your locality will give you a strong start with nut trees. In my province of Ontario, the Society of Ontario Nut Growers has a host of information that is directly applicable to me. You can find local or regional associations by doing a simple Google search for “<your region> nut tree growers” or some variation.

Smith referenced the Georgia farmer Lombard who wisely diversified his plantings. You should consider doing the same to the best of your ability. Most nut trees need two varieties for best production, yielding hybrid vigour in offspring and in nut production. Some trees come in male and female types, so you will need to pay attention to this after having selected what nut trees you want to raise. Talking to local nurseries or growers is an important way for you to receive advice tailored to your local conditions.

No Land, No Problem

Don’t forget to assess trees off your land and in your immediate area. You may be able to harvest from neighbours trees. Coming to an arrangement with the folks next door or down the street in which you gather some of their tree’s nut harvest and you give your neighbours some of your tomatoes or the use of your rototiller each spring is good for everybody. It might be worthwhile to encourage neighbours to plant nut trees of their own. Increase varieties, diversity and the likelihood of produce in any given year. Some trees produce large harvests once every two or three years, as opposed to consistently on an annual basis.

Are you close to crown or state or federal land? If there is open access land near you, what are the requirements around harvesting. Most jurisdictions are very liberal if your harvest is for personal use. What about empty lots or acreage? If you spot some nut trees on land that is not currently occupied, the absentee owner might be willing or even happy to have you harvesting nuts from his trees. Possibly you can exchange some kind of labour for the right to harvest.

Nut trees are infrequently thought of when people look at the “fruit of the soil.” But they were an important food crop in earlier times, in advanced societies as well as developing ones. They could be again. I highly recommend you consider downloading Smith’s book, “Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture.”

Note: Let give you some information about the source for this download. Here is a statement from their “Home” page:

“This website provides free downloadable e-books about radical agriculture, natural hygiene/nature cure and self-sufficient homestead living. There are secondary collections involving social criticism and transformational psychology.

There is no fee for downloading anything in this library.

The library’s topic areas connect agricultural methods to the health and lifespan of animals and humans. A study of these materials reveals how to prevent and heal disease and increase longevity, suggests how to live a more fulfilling life and reveals social forces working against that possibility.”

They do accept donations. For a one time payment of 9 Euros, through Paypal, you can download as much of their library as you like and you can avoid future requests for donations. Certainly a fair request. I paid without thinking about it.

A tremendous resource of downloadable books on agriculture, Health and more

When talking about “tree crops” there is a lot more to cover, especially if we also include shrub and bush providers of fruits and berries. We will be covering some of these topics in future posts soon.