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by the Japanese, is to lean them against a long horizontal post. UI didn’t like this so much,” said Ulf. “Then you lose part of one of the ends.” Now Ulf stacks them in square piles with four logs in each layer, only the ends touching.
After a year or so, Ulf can begin harvesting. He soaks the log for 24 hours and, in about a week, he harvests the mature mushrooms. During the fruiting period, he tries to protect the logs from direct sunlight and wind.
“After the harvest,” Ulf explained, “the log rests for 60 to 90 days and can be soaked and harvested again.” One log can produce for several years until the log is completely decomposed, a side effect of fungus growth.
At $5 to $10 a pound, shiitake is a profitable sideline and, like the grapes, a retirement project for the Ulfs. The Forest Resource Center, publishers of the Shiitake News, is also promoting shiitake culture as a forestry product, a tool and extra cash crop in the management of a wood operation. And researchers writing for the News see shiitake as a partial answer to the diversification needed on struggling midwestern farms.
“The funny thing is,” Ulf chuckled, “until I got into this I didn’t even know what shiitake tasted like. Now I’m completely sold.”
The Samurai, and some modem shiitake enthusiasts since, claimed curative powers for the dark fungus. Ulf makes no such claims. “I just like the taste,” he said.
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