Episode-222- Make Room for More Mushrooms In the Backyard

Today’s short video gives a view of  how well the shiitake (Lentinula edodes) and oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus) mushrooms are growing in the backyard. It is also a good time for planning expansion of this mini mushroom farm. It has almost been one year since my son and I drilled all the holes and filled them with the mushroom plugs. In the past two weeks we began to see some mushrooms developing and even harvested a couple of delicious oyster mushrooms. The next step is to dunk some of the logs in a garbage can full of water and I will show that when it happens.

The question now is whether or not I will purchase more mushrooms. They are not cheap and it takes quite a while to get a return on the investment if any. However, if it works out well the mini mushroom farm will produce for at least a few years. It will last even longer if I continue to add to it slowly over time. I am smiling as I think of that because I could produce and share the best tasting mushrooms in my neighborhood.

From an investment point of view it does seem to be a venture that is at least less risky than some of the most popular stocks on the market because I still consider their price to earnings ratio too high. It will be interesting for me to put together some research measuring the time and resources necessary for growing my mushrooms since last year compared to some stocks or funds I might have invested in for the same amount of money. Right now I am in for $60 worth of shiitake and oyster plugs and about 5 hours of labor. I would pay my labor at a rate of $10 an hour so I am in the mushroom game for about $120 so far. Will I retrieve a return on investment, come short in mushroom product took or exceed expectations? Not sure yet and I will have a better idea if I can accurately measure yields before they get eaten.

Right now though I can see what my options are this year for gathering freshly cut trees and finding some mushroom plug sellers to compare. I’ll share what I learn in a future episode. Until then check out the resources to see how I got this far so you can try it too. That’s it for today now go and think about what food you can grow this time of year. Write back and let me know.

Resources

Song of the Day – Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band –  Video  –

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