Blues Hill Farm

Hello everyone.  Farmer John here from Blues Hill Farm again.  I tried to post this blog once before, but it didn't work so I hope this one does.  I'm much better at digging in the dirt than working on the computer.

I had promised to tell you about our first Shiitake mushroom Workshop so now I will.  I felt it was a great success.  Everybody found our farm with only a little trouble.  Once they all arrived I took them on a farm tour and pointed out the White Oaks in out woods.  I also showed them what was left of the trees I had cut for our logs.  When we got back to the house we all had some of my wife Becca's wonderful baked and stuffed shiitakes.  

After that we talked about how to grow and care for mushroom logs.  They all had a lot of questions and I did my best to answer them.Then we got to work drilling and inoculating our logs.  That part was fun and we got finished a lot sooner than I expected.  

Our group was very diverse and I enjoyed meeting all of them.  I think they were pleased to be able to take their logs home and wait for spring so they could start getting mushrooms.  Luckily, I had a pretty good crop on the logs so I could show them the end result of what we were doing.

That one went so well that I decided to start having one every spring and fall.  No one spent a lot of money and we all had fun and learned something valuable.

I like the idea of teaching someone to grow things much more than I do selling them something I have grown.  Like the old saying about teaching a man to fish...  For that reason I am going to try and do a little more assisting first time gardeners with their growing.  I want to do this by answering questions online, as well as providing a service to those nearby where I can come to your garden spot and help prepare and plant it with the gardener.  Raised beds are great for this kind of project, and I have had a lot of luck with them for certain vegetables.

I believe the more people we can teach to grow their own food, the closer we get to freeing ourselves from the consumerism that is making us so helpless.  So lets get our hands dirty and come on spring!!

See you around,

Farmer John