Christopher G Williams

For actual sterilization a pressure cooker is irreplaceable. What you are doing with the hot water bath would be more like pasteurization. I think mere pasteurization of grain substrates is fairly common among a certain type of hobbyist mushroom growers, but you are guaranteed to have higher contamination rates than you would with a pressure cooker. Oyster mushrooms are quite aggressive and fast to colonize grain, so are more likely to work with your methods. I predict you would have a much harder time growing other, slower colonizing, species with mere pasteurization though.

This is a fun site: Mushroom Color Atlas

I've grown mushrooms on logs for many years, and only occasionally would have some minor losses due to squirrels nibbling off the bark. This past spring however I put up around 1500 red oak logs and the squirrels have just been relentless. I blame myself for not keeping a closer eye on my piles; by the time I noticed they had about 100 logs nearly destroyed. They are attacking my red oak fire wood with the same veracity, so I know it has nothing to do with with mushrooms, I guess they just like to chew the bark...

I'm about at my wits end. I have been able to pop a few with a pellet gun and a few stepped into my rat trap, but they are smart and numerous. I'd really like some way to keep them off the logs rather than trying to pick them off one by one. I did try mothballs, but that doesn't seem to bother them. Any advice appreciated!  

LibreOffice user here too, highly recommended. I used OpenOffice for several years as well, but find Libre to be superior.

Something you can often hear on public radio over Easter weekend.

I used to make a living in the chaga business and funny enough, was Mt. Rose's main supplier for a number of years. They were great people to work with. It's been several years now since my business has been active, but I do consider starting it back up from time to time. My main picking grounds were the Upper Peninsula of MI, and I would buy chaga from WI and MN to resell as well. As far as medical benefits, I think there is a lot of hype and probably some truth to all the claims, but it's hard to figure out which is which. One reason I stepped away is from all the people emailing asking for medical advice, or clearly putting all their hope in this fungi that could well turn out to be 'snake oil' for all I really knew; that will weigh on you after a while.

You may be able to find the odd chaga conk up in the mountains of OR. I've heard of it growing in the Cascades anyway.

RIP

Gene mentioned in an interview that this was one of the most challenging routines he ever performed.



Fosse!

Great story. That sure looks to be an Old Man of The Woods to me, and they aren't likely to be mistaken for anything else. The one thing that stands out as odd to me is that you found a number of them growing in the same place; I generally find them to be solitary mushrooms, but that is just in my limited territory. In fact I count it a lucky year if I spot one or two when I'm out looking for Black Trumpets- they are fairly rare in my area.

I shy away from eating boletes myself, but The Old Man is edible, if not choice.

I'm not that well acquainted with the mushrooms in your region, but if I had to guess I would say it is some type of Fomitopsis species, perhaps Fomitopsis officinalis or F. pinicola. I'm prepared to be wrong, but if I ran across something with those features in Northern Michigan, I'd say F. pinicola for sure.