Gearing up for shiitake pluggin' season, workshops updated

At this point Spring feels like a distant memory. I vaguely remember sometime back in ought-9 when the leaves began turning green, the crocuses and tulips pushing up. With more snow rolling through today, the fondness of warmer temps and green landscapes only grows stronger.

However, here at the Mushrooms Shop we're in full blown Spring anticipation mode, getting all our little spawns in order for the Spring rush. This means a massive expansion of mycelium, the little white "root-like" tissue of the fungus. Mycelium begins it journey on our petri dishes and culture syringes, then onto specially prepared grains where it is allowed to grow and flourish. Next it can find its way onto 6lb blocks of sawdust, or into bags of hardwood dowels. The next step is up to you...

So while the mycelium army is growing and spreading through our lab and incubators we are currently accepting "pre-orders" for spring mushroom plug spawn. If your project is large, or you just want to guarantee your spawn by a certain date please give us a ring, email, tweet, ect and we'll be happy to take your name and info.

Plug spawn for some species is just now becoming available, we anticipate shiitake mushroom plug spawn to be ready for shipping again in the next two weeks. We intent to keep all our varieties in stock throughout the season, but if you plan to work with 50 or more logs this year please let us know. We have suggestions that may minimize your wait time for spawn and decrease your overall project costs.

On a related note: we've updated our mushroom workshop schedule for classes into March. The March and April classes fill up quick, as people start getting their mushroom gardens prepared. Be sure to call 865.329.47566 and reserve a spot. Through May we plan to have at least two Saturday and two Wednesday evening shiitake log workshops each month.