To grow mushrooms, start with the spawn

HERE'S a step-by-step guide to growing your own mushrooms.

1. Purchase spawn in sawdust or ready-to-go plugs. If using the sawdust kind, you need a little tool called an inoculator, which costs about $35. If using plugs, just whack them into drilled holes with a hammer.

2. Use freshly felled oak logs about 6 inches in diameter. Cut in lengths 36 to 40 inches long. Using a 5/16 drill bit, with a stop, cut evenly spaced holes along the log in a diamond pattern, 5 to 6 inches apart. Each hole should be exactly 1 inch deep for sawdust, 2 inches for plugs.

3. Put spawn or plug in each hole, then seal each hole with warm beeswax or edible cheese wax to protect the mycelium while it's growing.

4. Stand the logs on end in a shady, moist spot sheltered from wind and sun. If the weather is dry, sprinkle them with water every day.

5. In about three days, you'll see what's called primordia bumps emerging all over the wood, through the bark.

6. About 45 days after you harvest, your log will be ready to produce again.

7. A typical inoculated log will produce a year of fruit for every inch of its diameter; 5 inches yields five years of mushrooms.

- Beth D'Addono