Vicki Boliard

If I were you I'd make a dozen jars of wild bird seed and inoculate them. Unless something catastrophic happened to them I'd go into it assuming they were viable.I chose WBS because it's what I've got available and it's the only procedure I know at this point. I use a home made glove box and 91% rubbing alcohol as my cleaning solution. I then would put them some place where the temperature stays in the upper 60's to the upper 70's. (I use a closet in my living quarters). If "the force is with you" they will start to show pretty fuzzy white mycelium in a couple of days. I had sawdust spawn that was a year old that had never been opened or removed from it's original cardboard box that it had been shipped in. I know it hadn't been refrigerated ever and it was fine and very viable. Good luck and May the Mold be with you!

I'm tired of reading so I'm here to ask for help.I am an Eco-Farm Owner. We are fully employed here on our farm with the products that we produce on the farm.We normally spend the winters traveling or just resting for the upcoming growing season.In an effort to keep busy year round we've built an indoor, temperature controlled inoculation chamber(Part of our cold storage) and a 12 x 13 temperature controlled fruiting area. We can provide constant humidity and temperature. We've also got enough equipment to sterilize about 40 medium sized autoclavable bags in one day.I've purchased every suggested book on every mushroom website. I've spent hundreds of hours reading websites and watching youtube. But here is where I get stumped. This seems to be a tinkerers type of venture. No one seems to be able to just give me an outline of how to proceed. What I'm saying is I do not want to know how to grow or incubate agar and make my own culture so I've purchased both inoculated sawdust for about 10 different kinds of mushrooms. Also I've purchased the liquid culture version of all of the same mushrooms. I was wondering how to start...seriously I know this sounds like putting the cart before the horse. But what I've done is spend the winter making sure my environment and equipment is working perfectly. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to keep these varieties I've chosen going. I have read tons of stuff about Grain Master spawn and about liquid master culture. What I'm trying to determine is how to keep a constant supply of spawn available to keep my fruiting chamber constantly in production. I have purchased hickory sawdust and hickory chips and also gypsum and grain. My future goal is to be able to take what I've learned and use my worm castings and compost as my substrate. But in the meantime I'm looking for a good recipe and the next step in getting this operation "in production". I do not want to purchase a laminar hood or learn about how to make my own slants. I've found a local source for those things. I do have a sterile glove box large enough to inoculate 10 medium sized autoclave bags at a time. Now do I just keep a liquid culture master to directly inject the bags or do I make a grain master...too many questions. I'm a grower not a tinkerer.

Oil-Free Pesto

Ingredients:

2 cups packed basil leaves

1 cup packed chopped parsley

1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

2 garlic cloves

3 T white miso

1/4 cup water (more or less depending on desired consistency)

Directions:

Blend basil, parsley, garlic, miso and bread crumbs in either a food processor or high speed blender until smooth. Slowly drizzle in water while machine is running to reach desired consistency.

Spread pesto on sandwiches or use as a pasta sauce. Freeze individual portions in little snack sized sandwich bags for later!

Time:

10 minutes

Garlic Scape Pickles

Choose your flavor--- basil with chili pepper flakes or dill with black
peppercorns.

Ingredients:
1 lb. or more Garlic scapes, whole
5 cups vinegar
5 cups water
½ cup less 1 Tbsp. Pickling salt
Fresh basil leaves or Dill heads (or ½ tsp. dill seed)
Chili pepper flakes or Whole black peppercorns




Directions:
1. Rinse the scapes, trim off the hard bit end that formed at the original cut, and cut them into uniform shapes. Cut the straight part to fit in a pint jar. Leave the curly part with flowers to round and shape into the jar.

2. Have jars clean and very hot, and lids and sealers ready in scalding water. Prepare the boiling water bath canner.

3. In each jar, place 1 Fresh Basil Leaf and ¼ tsp. chili pepper flakes OR 1 Fresh Dill Head (or ½ tsp. dill seed) and ½ tsp. whole black pepper corns. Pack the scapes into the jar, starting by rounding up the curly parts, then using the straight pieces to fill the center. Flower tips may be trimmed off if needed. Leave about 1 inch of headroom.

4. Combine the vinegar, water and pickling salt in a pot and bring to a boil. Slowly pour the hot brine over the garlic scapes, leaving ½ inch headspace. Once the jar is full remove any air bubbles. Check headspace again and add more brine if necessary.

5. Wipe the rim, apply the lid and ring and process in a Boiling Water Bath for 10 minutes.

6. Let the pickles cure at least 2 weeks to develop full flavor. Makes 6 to 7 pints.

Can you be more specific about how you brew your tea and your brew cycle? Even under refrigeration is the tea subject to spoilage? Also I've got an enormous comfrey patch. Do you think making a foliar spray or compost mix using them is a good additional income? I sell at to farmers markets per week. One being Tuesday and one being Saturday. What kind of time frame do you suggest to have at least 10 gallons mixed up for each market with more for sale on the farm. I've only got a small worm operation at this time but I'm planning on expanding as the season progresses. I've got my composting shed and I'm planning on keeping it temperate enough year round to keep the worm activity growing. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated. I've got a small 11 x 12 temperature controlled greenhouse and I'm in the process of inoculating sawdust spawn bags and growing mushrooms indoors. That starts full swing in about two weeks. Right now we are still regulating temperature and humidity.

Your kombucha will grow in a cooler house but it will be slower. Once the weather warms up your brew will go faster. I know I gave up on a couple different starter batches because I didn't think they were working. I put them in my warm laundry room and now they are growing strong.Check out www.getkombucha.com he's very informative and energetic. Fun to watch his movies.

I buy nothing but organic veggies in the winter and I ferment them all. Every night with dinner I serve a HUGE salad with mixed greens and whatever fermented veggies I have. Indian spiced cauliflower, garlic and ginger carrots with a dressing made with fermented pepper sauce. Keeps our tummies humming all winter long!

I've started making my own airlocks. Just use aquarium hose and silicone.I poke a hole in the top of the metal lid.Then I insert about a foot long piece of tubing.I just put it in about an inch and leave a "tail". I also use the silicone to seal the two pieces of the ball jar lid together. After this is all cured I fill quart or half gallon jars with my ferments using a 19 grams of salt per 2 quarts of filtered water brine solution. Then I fill a plastic bag with about 1/2 to 1 cup of solution and tie that off. I use that as the weight for the fermented veggies. Then I install the lid with the hose contraption I've made. I have a main quart sized jar that I've poked as many holes as hoses. I then make a solution of water and bleach(very weak). This is what's in the quart jar. Now all of the hoses from the ferments are inserted in the bleach jar. As the veggies ferment they "burp" in the bleach solution. As soon as they no longer are burping they are ready to eat. I love watching these little guys burp all day. I use this for my kiefer and whatever other veggies I'm fermenting. Right now I've got garlic cloves, sourdough,cauliflower and kiefer burping away on my counter.I'm tired of everyone trying to sell me something. I've spent hours on the "pickle-it" website and every other site trying to sell me some kind of airlock. This is cheap and easy and best of all IT WORKS!

I've got some oil free pesto recipes and I'd like to figure out how to pressure can "Oil Free Garlic Scape Pesto". Also I've got a pickled garlic scape recipe I would like to can. Anyone have any other pressure canned garlic scape recipes?

I have been making indoor worm bins for the winter to sell at our local composting symposium.I'm also a "no weird stuff" vegetable farmer.Now we've built a 60 x 40 pole shed complete with a concrete floor for a year round composting operation.Any suggestions on how to make it more efficient are greatly appreciated.I love the technical drawings you all build but for some reason without pictures I can't wrap my mind around these things.The screen contraption makes sense. I think Will Allen made something with an old dryer. I'm not sure what I'm going to screen with but I'm sure it will be something I find here on this AWESOME site!Thanks for such great ideas.