MAKING
A DECEMBER MUSHROOM GARDEN
turning wood chips and cardboard into food
December 23 and 24,
2011
In which site
preparation for Lyle and Tami’s new home yields material for a
garden of wine cap mushrooms to eventually feed the neighborhood.
SHADES OF
FARGO
Anyone who’s seen
the Coen brother’s 1996 classic dark comedy crime film, “Fargo” is
unable to hear the words “wood chipper” without conjuring up one of
the final scenes in the movie. Lyle and Tami rented this cute yellow chipper and
went to work with their sons a couple of days before Christmas. Zafer packs the
hopper with limbs and a seriousness befitting the task.
A LONG,
SATISFYING DAY
December 23rd came
to a colorful close after several truckloads of hardwood wood chips had been
accrued.
WHERE THE
CHIPS MAY FALL
Lyle, Arlo and
Tami were up early Christmas morning to turn those chips onto cardboard on the
back acre at Trouts Farm. For this exercise, Bob chose the Wine Cap or Garden
Giant mushroom, Stropharia
rugosoannulata; a mushroom none of us have ever tasted.
DIGGIN IT
We discovered that
Tami is a dynamo with a shovel! Meanwhile, Bob and Arlo prepared the garden by
poking holes in the cardboard with a pitchfork and broadcasting spores before
covering with wood chips and watering everything down.
MERRY
CHRISTMAS
A top coating of
leaves and we all got a mushroom garden for Christmas! What a great excuse to
take the rest of the day off to eat and play!
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