Mushroom class

Last Saturday Jeremy offered a mushroom class here at the house. We're on a couple different listservs for gardening and agriculture so he put out the word and a lot of people showed up! I estimate about 30 or so.



They crowded into our back yard and of course there was some chicken coop envy going on. We went around and did introductions and people were there for all different reasons. Some had grown mushrooms themselves, on logs or in straw or other medium; one guy makes his own spawn; some were interested in growing mushrooms themselves; and a few just wanted to learn more.

Jeremy talked about mushroom log culture, when to get the logs, what kind, etc, and then everyone packed into the garage for a little demonstration about inoculating the logs.



Back out in the yard he showed off the 100+ logs in our yard and did a little demonstration of the "totem method."







People kept coming and going and the last ones left at about 4:30. The class started at 1:00 so it was a long day! But it was a great class with lots of good input from other experienced growers. Several folks bought logs from Jeremy to get themselves started.

There was also a guy from the New York Times (!) so Jeremy is (maybe) about to be famous. I'll let you know if something is published.

I'm behind on my posting (as usual I guess) because we just got back from five days in Kansas City. Jeremy's mom is off traveling in South East Asia so we went down to hang out with her partner. We had a great few days down there and were, of course, very productive. More on that soon!

Socks

I've seen several people lately knitting socks. I am so impressed. It's incredible how much time it takes to do that - especially when they can be bought so cheaply at the store. It makes you wonder about other things we buy at the store so cheaply: how much labor actually goes into making this?

Anyway, I know nothing about knitting and I have too many other hobbies and interests to take it up (and someone tried to teach me once and I was too impatient to learn!). So I was very pleased to discover a pattern for fleece socks. After a few failed attempts (the stretch has to run in just the right way) I made these:



Then I made a giant pair for Jeremy out of this fabulous thick, thick, thick fleece I found at Savers.





They are lovely. In fact, I'm wearing them right now even though I have about 3 inches of toe space in them! I'll have to make my own pair.

They make great bed socks and keep-your-feet-warm-around-the-house socks and lounging-around-the-house socks, etc. I can see many more pairs of these in my future.

Sprout room

It's that time of year for everyone to be sharing their sprout growing setups. I showed you our disastrous mudroom a couple weeks back.

Jeremy inherited (lucky us) two giant 8-foot-long lights which we'll use for our sprouts. A few days ago he lugged in those lights and an extra door we had lying around and set up our sprout area.



The lights are plugged into a timer so we won't have to worry about turning them on and off. But of course, we don't have any sprouts planted yet! Don't worry, I'm sure in another week or two we'll have something planted and I'll post pictures then - or at least when something comes up!

Jum Jum Balls

Jeremy remembers his mom making this when he was growing up. I have no idea where the recipe - or the name - came from. He has been talking about them for weeks and he finally decided to make them. I certainly wasn't going to - they have raisins! Eww!

So you mix up peanut butter, tahini, flax meal, raisins, and pecans. Just the right amount so it all holds together (sorry there aren't any amounts, Jeremy doesn't work like that when he's baking).



Then you roll them into balls and roll them in some wheat germ, which keeps them from being really sticky.



Jeremy keeps them in the fridge so they don't get all melty and he munches on one (or two or three) for snacks from time to time.

An odd snack I think, but he enjoys them immensely.

Doodles

We're visual folks around here. Translated, that means, "I can't understand a thing you're saying. You're going to have to draw a picture." So we have a lot of doodles, drawings, diagrams, pictures, plans, and scribbles lying around the house.

I collected several of them to show you what I mean. Some of these make sense even now and some have ceased to have any meaning. What on earth were we drawing there?? Who knows...

We really need bees

Because we use a lot of honey! We often buy it in bulk at the co-op from Ames Farm.
Then we were at a foods warehouse last week and discovered this monster 12 pound container of honey! It was a pretty good deal so we got it. This should keep us going for a little while.

Hello

Hello garden beds! You've been buried under so many feet of snow for so long, we practically forgot you were there.



Hello rain barrels! We are so glad to have you back! We are so glad we can put you back out since it's probably not going to freeze (too much or too bad) again.



Hello mountain of dirt and rain garden! Okay, the mountain of dirt is kind of ugly. We've got to get some plants in that mountain soon. And it's so good to see the rain garden again; it even has a few green plants in it. Amazing!



And what's this!?!?



I can't believe things are actually coming up! Last fall one of us found a bulb (or two?) somewhere in the yard. I think it had been dormant because I don't remember ever seeing a plant in the place where we found the bulb - and I think it was down deep. So I plopped it in the rain garden and put the ? tag on it. Now something is coming up. I can't wait to see what it is! But given how early it is I should really go cover it over with more hay so it will be protected from any frosts.

Sigh, this reminds me so much of last year and all my secret garden posts (here, here, and here!). I'm so looking forward to seeing what comes up this year, especially after how much transplanting, moving, disrupting, and digging we did. I hope things survived!