Martin Jelenc

The real question is why would you go through all the work of light straw clay with risk of problems and poor insulation value? My shop-and ideal construction method- is ext B&B with dense pack cellulose for a mold and bug free superinsulated wall, at low cost. With white oak B&B, sawn locally, you have a wall that will last many decades, likely a century, with no maintenance if done right.
I see this is an old thread-what did you finally do, Phil?
Martin

Hey Josh
We have had decades of permaculture theory and not enough reports on what is really working well.
Tell us your biggest successes and how you are building on them.
Thanks!
Martin

I want to bump this thread to address liquid cultures. I learned about this at the Radical Mycology Convergence last year. LC offers an easy way to store fungi cultures. You sterilize the sugar media by pressure canning and the hole in the lid with RTV silicone allows you to add and subtract culture with a syringe without exposure to contaminants. This is huge for us kitchen inoculators. I have just spent a lot of time searching the many spawn providers for cultures. Some have a few liquid cultures, the more popular ones and some have a few unusual ones as well. Some have slants or other forms of culture. They come in a syringe and cost 15-$25 each. Slants are $125 and up. Once you have it, it is easy to increase, and share, and inoculate your own grain, straw and sawdust. I want to start the following Pleurotis Blue and gold, Pulmonaria, and Eringii, Stropharia, Hericium, Chicken and Hen. These are the easy ones. Also looking for Blewit, Parasol, Hedgehog, Almond Agaricus, Morel,and Tessalatis. I have emailed a couple of the vendors to check stock, still waiting. Anybody want to trade, or suggest a reasonably priced vendor who will actually sell them?

We really need more info here...if the salaries come from the "profit" they are speaking another financial language. How many hours do 2 hard workers with great planning skills work per year to earn $45K? How are startup costs repaid? Does the book give better info?