What are your favorite plants suitable for permaculture?

[Billyn]

Gray Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)

are distributed in most mainland Europe, in parts of North America and in much of Asia, including Japan.

Pleurotus ostreatus occurs in deciduous forests and along rivers, usually on dead standing trees or on fallen logs. Pleurotus ostreatus is often found on beech stumps. There are several types of mushrooms that a layman can confuse it with. I recommend studying these species depending on where you live.

This mushroom is widely used in East Asian cuisine as a traditional delicacy and medicine. It is used baked with vegetables, excellent is fried separately, or on strips with a mixture of vegetables, in soups and excellent sauces, or even raw in salads.

Oyster Mushroom is the easiest to grow on logs. The harvest is usually large and can take up to 7 years on one log. The most suitable woody plants for growing are beech, aspen, birch, poplar, willow and apple tree.

 

[Billyn]

Indian Oyster (Pleurotus pulmonarius)

also known as Lung Oyster or Phoenix Mushroom occurs in temperate and subtropical forests around the world. It is very similar to oyster mushrooms and its use and cultivation is almost identical.
But while the Gray Oyster Mushroom breeds in the fall, when temperatures drop below 10 ° C, the Indian Oyster breeds from May to September. These two species complement each other perfectly, so harvesting can take place from spring to winter. (an error in the penultimate paragraph of article # 20 - "growing mushrooms on wooden logs" that paragraph belongs specifically to Pleurotus ostreatus - each species of mushrooms requires a different temperature to form fruiting bodies, unfortunately the article cannot be modified)
There are other species of Pleurotus that can be grown. It is possible to grow on sawdust, but I have no experience with that, and it seems to me unnecessarily laborious.

 

[Billyn]

Velvet Shank mushroom (Flammulina velutipes)

is widespread in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. Occurrence is described on maple, hornbeam, hawthorn, beech, apple, thorn, elm, horse chestnut, alder, dogwood, ash, poplar, willow, mulberry, walnut. It is grown most often on logs of beech, poplar, willow and birch. It does not form a beautiful and fragrant white mycelium as we are used to with Pleurotus. Instead, it has an indistinct blackish mycelium, which, unlike oyster, does not form tufts on the surface of the wood; we can observe it more as indistinct dark spots.

Cultivation is identical to oyster mushrooms. It bears fruit in the winter months, so it complements perfectly with oyster mushrooms, which cease to bear fruit at this time.
It is used in Asia as a medicinal sponge and delicacy. It is excellent, for example, in risotto. Before eating, it should be boiled for at least 30 minutes, substances that make this species inedible when raw will become harmless.

 

[Billyn]

Shiitake Mushroom (Lentinula edodes)

Shiitake are edible mushrooms native to East Asia. Unlike previous mushroom species, it is more difficult to grow.
Unlike them, it is not resistant to low temperatures. When the fungus grows through the logs, it is best to place the logs in covered areas so that they do not freeze, for example in the cellar, they can withstand temperatures of up to -5 ° C.

Temperatures for fruiting growth are in the range of 14 - 18 ° C; excessive temperature limits their formation.

If it does not want to produce a log, it is recommended to soak it in water for 1 day and change the water several times to wash away the inhibitors.

Shiitake is very healthy, it has been intensively researched, because in the areas where it is consumed, the incidence of cancer is declining.

 

[Billyn]

In addition to mushrooms growing on wood, we can grow, for example, champignon mushrooms on compost enriched with horse manure. However, I have not tried their cultivation and it seems to me much more complicated than with other types of mushrooms. As a replacement, therefore, one type of mushroom scores for me, which I will list below and it can serve in the kitchen similarly to champignon mushrooms.

 

[Billyn]

Wine Cap Stropharia (Stropharia rugosoannulata)

also known as the garden giant grows up to 1 kg and the diameter of the cap can be up to 12 inches. The color of the cap is from yellow to reddish brown. Overall, it looks like a large mushroom with a longer stalk and a colored cap.
Due to the fact that the cultivation of the collar is very simple both outdoors and indoors, it is the most widespread cultivated fungus among especially European gardeners.

We establish beds for growing collars about 3 feet wide. On this surface, we remove the ground to a depth of about 10 inches, place fresh boards or plastic foil on the bottom and fence the walls with boards. We prepare moist straw, preferably fresh and obtained from a farmer who does not use chemical sprays. We then immerse such straw in water for 1 day and then place it on a selected area in a layer of 10 inches and slightly step on it. We insert pieces of the purchased spawn substrate with a mycelium the size of a pinkpong ball in an 8x 8 inches clip into the resulting flowerbed 3 inches below the surface.

After inoculating the straw, cover the bed with a jute cloth or cardboard. We can also protect it from drying out with plastic foil. No water should get into the straw with the fungus, which lasts 4-6 weeks. The temperature should be in the range of 20 - 28 ° C at that time. However, it must never exceed 30 ° C.

As soon as the fungus grows just below the surface of the flowerbed, ie when the mycelium becomes visible and the straw smells pleasantly fungal, it is time to remove the jute sheet and foil and cover it with 2 inches of covering soil. The soil should be slightly acidic to neutral. We keep the covering soil still moist, but the water, as well as when growing, must not penetrate into the fungus.

The first caps appear on the edges of the flowerbed about two weeks after the soil cover. As with mushrooms, we harvest the fruiting bodies by carefully turning them while they still have closed or opening their hats. It bears fruit in waves that last 5 - 7 days at an interval of 2-3 weeks. Fertilization stops when the temperature drops below 10 ° C. So if we want to let the outdoor culture overwinter, we cover the flower bed with a layer of straw about 10 inches thick. It can happen that the culture penetrates into the compost or into the raised beds, where we used straw or hay and the Wine Cap settles here.

 

[Billyn]

It is possible to grow truffles on oaks. It is even possible to consume oak fruits. Most species have acorns full of tannins, yet their ancestors ate them. The acorns are boiled several times until the water stops browning. At this point, when the water is clear even after boiling, the acorn is edible. Acorns are rich in nutrients and high in calories. Another advantage is that before boiling, they are easy to store thanks to tannins and last a very long time without devaluing them.

 

[St. Phatty]

Potatoes for sure.

Seed potatoes are FREE. They come in every bag of potatoes from the store, which are cheap anyway.

Potato plants are incredibly hardy - deer can eat all the leaves and stalks off the top, and as long as it has water, the plant will re-grow. Over and over.

 

[heirloomganja]

It is possible to grow truffles on oaks. It is even possible to consume oak fruits. Most species have acorns full of tannins, yet their ancestors ate them. The acorns are boiled several times until the water stops browning. At this point, when the water is clear even after boiling, the acorn is edible. Acorns are rich in nutrients and high in calories. Another advantage is that before boiling, they are easy to store thanks to tannins and last a very long time without devaluing them.

Acorns can be grind and put in a jute bag and then in the water for several days.In the earlier days they did it in the river.After a few days, press the water out of it and dry it above a fire in a pan or so.

 

[Billyn]

Good idea, it is perhaps more practical than tedious repetitive boiling

 

[St. Phatty]

Danish Flag version of Opium Poppy.

It grows HUGE lettuce leaves.

Legal because the DEA thinks it doesn't produce any Opiates.

If you have some growing in early fall, it goes BERSERK and produces large quantities of MASSIVE lettuce leaves.

When grown normally (late winter early spring ) the leaves are very tasty, like a Romaine that tastes like Butter lettuce.

The early fall plants aren't quite as tasty, but it's still lettuce. No noticeable buzz.