Day one: Soaking the log

So one day a few days before Christmas my Nanima sent me a shiitake mushroom growing log.

As you probably know, I loooove mushrooms. This summer I was in France, hunting for ceps.

After we hunted we cooked and then ... we ate!

They were delicious and I'm so excited to eat my shiitakes, too.
So today ( 12/30/11) I started the log. Once we got it wet it started smelling like mushrooms.
After a few minutes of soaking our whole tub started smelling like mushrooms!

The log has to soak for 48 hours a week, at a minimum, so that the mycelium that was injected into the log can fruit. Once it has soaked, you stand it upright in a shallow tray of water. Next, when they grow, you can pick raw shiitakes off the log and eat them straight. Or you can cook them. 

Sunday is 48 hours. Until Sunday!