Look! Mushrooms!

Today we got a BEAUTIFUL harvest from our shiitake logs, because of all the rain we had this week. Ash, my mom, my dad and I each got a mushroom log when we took a workshop at Pickards Mountain in Chapel Hill this spring.

My mom cooked them into a stir fry (broccoli, onions, carrots, etc) and served it with wild rice. The mushrooms tasted so SWEET and wonderful! Dried mushrooms are the best dietary source of vitamin D... in fact, don't eat too many dried mushrooms (don't ask me how many that is, probably an ungodly amount), because you can actually overdose on vitamin D that way.







We are trying to keep the dogs from running through the vegetable beds. They don't dig so much, but they walk all over the seedlings. We have put up sticks with green string to deter them, but it doesn't seem to be working. Tomorrow we will go get metal T-posts and wire to make a sturdier fence.



I think we are favoring the name "Black Snake Homestead" for our project. Ever since we moved onto this land ten years ago, there has been a strong black rat snake presence, with an especially beautiful snake that is easily over 5 feet long and lives on the bluff behind the house. When we broke ground on the first day, a beautiful, young black rat snake slithered out of the grass and across the field, sort of christening the project. We took it as a good omen, and think it would be good luck to name the project after him/her.

Ash and I have been thinking a lot about what kind of home we want to build for ourselves. One option is to buy a yurt, another is to build with cob (clay, straw, sand, water, wood). Either way, it's our ticket to a sustainable future!

http://www.blueridgeyurts.com/
http://carolinacob.com/