-~Clinton~- @$prey

Hello to All you Good People!!

Let me introduce myself; my name is Clinton Asprey, I am 24, and I live in Austin, Minnesota. I grew up in this town and have my diploma as well as a little bit of college. Right now I am focused on growing a business in either commercial organic mushroom production or commercial botany; a combination of both would be ideal 

I have been partnered with a small family-owned greenhouse/bakery/grocer at the edge of town for a couple years now. Jim's Superfresh Produce is the name of the store. Jim Stiles, the owner, is a great guy and he generously offered use of his greenhouses and walk-in cooler just to get me started in producing enough Blue Oyster mushrooms for marketing to the general public.

His help was so essential to learning about small-business and growing in the world of organic cultivation. I got to a point of producing what I would call a small-scale commercial level working solely by myself. Jim oversaw the operation and basically took me under his wing to teach me basic inventory taking, advertisement, and marketing strategies. It was a wonderful learning experience

I used only organic materials for substrates. Organic Rye Berries were bought from a local store; Good Earth Natural Foods. The rye was used for spawn production while organic oat straw was purchased right from Jim's Superfresh to be used as a bulk material. The mushrooms were grown inside the main-greenhouse during our cold Minnesota Spring and eventually moved outside in the shade as summer heated up.

Sales were a bit slow at first but steadily went along as production increased. I would bike there everyday just to water the oysters and mostly to talk with customers about the many benefits of mushrooms in general. After many requests and ideas from customers and Jim, I began making up straw log "kits" for people to buy and take home to grow. Those sold quite well and were simple enough for a 5 year old child to care for.

I have been into mycology since I was about 18 years old and have been growing mushrooms on and off ever since. Recently in the past few years, my passion has been expanding into botany as well. I have a collection of various exotic plants from around the world as well as rare cacti. I take great pride and joy in growing anything that grows.

I also have a passion for nature that is ever-growing. I love to help people out in any way I am able to. Ultimately, I believe I will do this for the rest of my life and never get tired of it!

I would love to hear back from anyone that has an opportunity for me to do some work or even just apprentice in any kind of organic farming. I feel I have the energy and drive to contribute some skills of value to your establishment. If you are looking for someone to help, please hit me back either in a PM on here or at my e-mail address-----> psilocelium@gmail.com

Thank You Very Much
& Have an Awesome Day!! 

Good points, I  can imagine getting really pissed off at your pig while hes eating hundreds of dollars worth of truffles haha.

They would be worth it still. You would have a MUCH smaller volume to shovel out your barn after all the fruiting is done. On top of that, the amount of food or cash you get out of it would be well worth the wait.

Some types of roughage that would normally not even be fit for animal consumption can be made nutritious by colonizing with some type of mycelium. Oyster mushrooms for one have a very sweet smelling mycelium that smells good enough to eat in my opinion.

I can see that; pigs have hooves that would prolly bludgeon the crap out the truffles. Dogs do have claws but they are much smarter it seems than a pig.

I'm sure it would take a bunch of training but I have hunted with dogs that handle the pheasant with great care to not bury their teeth into the bird.

I thought pigs were the prime hunters for truffles. I know they are used in European countries often for that purpose. Having a pet pig would be a different experience for sure.

If you are in town I imagine there would be restrictions on having farm animals as pets. A dog is much more cuddly too.

Alder trees are great for most species. Paul Stamets says these are his tree of choice for cultivation of wood loving species.

There are symbiotic species like Morels that do well with Box Elder and Elm but there again, they are somewhat unpredictable for fruiting and require time to establish themselves.

If you want to knock up trees that are dead or dying, you can almost guarantee good results unless they are pine or other sap-filled trees. Oyster mushrooms fly in colonizing almost anything you put them in.

Using solely TP rolls to grow oysters or any kind of wood-lover probably isnt your best route. Toilet paper is pretty darn expensive and just as frankenstoen said, paper that is destined for recycling would be far cheaper. Corrugated cardboard is a great substrate since it has structure that is easily colonized by most mushrooms.

Cardboard is also an easy way to transfer cultures and expand the mycelial mass.

A simply constructed Fruiting Chamber with a clear rubbermaid tub will solve your problems with Relative Humidity. Even a clear trash bag will hold humidty. The only obstacle after that is fresh air exchange and lighting. Diffuse light works well but more important is the rate of air exchange for oysters.

The oyster mushrooms in most stores, at least the grocery stores here, are nasty looking gangly specimens that I cant imagine paying money for. Summertime and spring are great times for outdoor cultivation in most places. Im in minnesota and it's very dry here. I am starting some spawn right now for a laundry basket of straw. I have yet to see how it will go with almost no humidity.

Good luck with your grow!!

I read an article about a tribe in South America that actually gave up a deal by huge oil companies to drill in the rainforest for crude oil.

It is refreshing to know there are people that value nature far more than any amount of money. Nature is one thing that cannot be replaced.

Interesting, I would think that gypsum could only buffer the PH upward since both gypsum and drywall are alkaline substances.

I cant imagine gypsum or drywall ever lowering the PH. I am no chemistry major though.

I have used both crushed drywall and garden gypsum to buffer PH for mushroom substrates. I cant say whether or not drywall would hurt plants but perlite is a sharp-looking substance under magnification and it is used widely in all types of cultivation. I only use drywall when my supply of gypsum has run out.