Monday, February 06, 2006

mushrooms and eggs

I bought a mushroom kit for me and fox for christmas and I just harvested the first mushrooms from it. We are very interested in growing mushrooms with our horse manure. To me, mushroom farming would be the ultimate union between biology and farming. Fungi are just incredible.



Here are the eggs I collected yesterday. I can't believe so many of my girls are still laying. I cleaned out the hen house on saturday and gave everyone lots of new straw. It seems to have sent them on a laying frenzy. Most days I get about 3-4 eggs. In the spring that will change to about 30 a day with everyone laying about an egg a day.



What is so cute about this picture is the difference in the sizes. Some of the new hens just started laying--they are just about 9 months old. Their eggs are so small. Look at the two blue eggs on the top left. The larger one is from a 2 year old and the little is from an 8 month old--both of the breed Araucana.

4 comments:

bugheart said...

i have to agree with you...funghi are amazing...
i could definately get into funghi research...
i love your egg picture! what do you do when you can't eat all the eggs... do you sell them at a farmers market?

f. pea said...

i am so jealous of your mushrooms! i have a shiitake mushroom log but i have neglected it and it only made a few mushrooms before apparently giving up the ghost. now it's just a regular old log. do you have any tips for mushroom habitat improvement?

rooster said...

yes, i sell eggs to friends and colleagues and such. is that the euro spelling for fungi?? that is so hot!

i have no advice on mushrooms, ms. pea. i am an embryo mushroomer myself. i may have just been lucky this time. we have a really cool mushroom culture book, though. and there is an excellent picture of this woman with her mushroom log. i want to be her. i'll get the name of the book tonight.

MikaJ said...

nice placemats!