worowa

Pity I've just moved from Wilsons Creek to Canberra! Not sure when I'll be back north-I'll see if I can find someone heading to the bluesfest kind enough to escort one back. Just checking, re Harry's post, these are used for hayfever? Cheers

Sorry business. Forgiveness takes courage. Funny how Obama is "black", when half his heritage is "white". Same goes in this country. We're all related, all one mob, and whoever you are, you deserve justice and respect. Thank goodness we've got a leader to be proud of, at last.

Bravo Kev! Poor Brendan Nelson just didn't get it. Primary school kids had to listen to him talk about rapes etc. that have nothing to do with stolen generations...and as for Wilson Tuckey and the other gutless pollies who didn't even turn up to parliament for the apology-I feel sorry for you and those you represent. The Secret Country by John Pilger is a good read, as is The Taming of The Great South Land, and Blood On The Wattle...they give a good broad historical account of settlement, not just the two "Great" wars, the first fleet and Don Bradman, as little johnny coward wanted His-story to be taught.

T'was a pleasure to share the wine with a bunch of budding botanists. I look forward to some forest forays. Thanks for turning up, good to put some faces to names.

A small step towards reconcilliation-our parliament apologizing (on behalf of previous parliaments) for stealing babies for no other reason than skin colour. Good news for a change. Lets hope forgiveness comes with it, and a bit of mutual respect and understanding. I wonder when we'll apologize to the Iraqis for the atrocities still being committed there, supported not by most aussies, but by our parliament.

Sounds good, hope to be there. I was thinking of bringing a bottle of Monstera deliciosa wine, is it an alcohol free venue? Still on if it's stormy?

The New Inventors on the ABC featured an array of LEDs to replace street lights, looked like a bright idea Bit more technologically advanced than the ebay one. They keep the articles on their website.

Very interesting, I'ld better get on down to the brew shop and get some DAP. Have you tried adding coffee? Everytime I've done a batch of agar, or paper/coir spawn, I inevitably have a long black brewed coffee, and add some to some of my mixes. So far Ganoderma, Hypsyzigus, Lentinula, Hericium and Eryngii all grow faster and thicker with some coffee, only the Coprinus didn't do as well-it stalled for months. Lamentably I've been slack at keeping records, and very dodgy with amounts...but I really like the way the coffee makes the agar dark-easy to see your myc. I wonder if there's phosphate in coffee? Or if other sources of phosphate accelerate growth?

I gave my son Passiflora tincture from a 'naturopath' to help him sleep. He started stuttering for the first time, it was scary. As soon as I took him off it, he stopped. I've read it causes temporary mental problems. My suggestion is admire the flower, they're so intricate, and deeply inhale the perfume for several minutes. If that doesn't calm you down and lift your spirits, pick another flower and try again.

I've had 2 successfull experiments using no PC. The first was while cooking dinner-I had left over brown rice, not PC'd, just cooked for dinner, and I had the big butt of some "shimeji" mushrooms (probably Hypsizygus ulmarius). Well, in my not very clean kitchen, I half filled a plastic food container with the rice, then shoved in the butt (half the size of my palm), put a lid on, and off she went-no contams visible, and we had small shrooms straight off the rice sometime later. The culture lived in my car while I camped-no special care. The second was with shiitake on hessian, the hessian was soaked in hot water, drained, soaked in peroxidated water, drained again, then chucked into a pot of boiling water for a minute and left to cool. I had been practicing cloning on agar, using the peroxide method, and put a chunk of myc on the hessian, and she took off. Hasn't fruited yet. I use a PC sometimes, just got a BIG one , but I really don't think it's essential, just a more reliable option. As for disinfectants, there's so many different sorts, some nasty, some possibly cheap and useful...what have you got to lose experimenting? A couple of bucks for a bit of education. Mycotopia is also worth a look.

Many ways-e.g. peroxide...try the shroomery, lots of ideas there.

I know it's a bit early for some sp., but still keen to start sniffing around for edibles. Anyone willing to give me some tips on easy access, nice forests? This rain is promising...

Pressure Cookers are getting cheaper,$100 and up for a new one. I'm thinking of upgrading, I could sell you mine it's a Fagor Duo, 8L. I paid $160-I don't know what postage would cost. Agar is $5 a packet, Asian food stores. Jars are free if you're into recycling-don't have to be Mason jars. Substrate-depends on what you use-popcorn is pretty cheap, paper can be free, so can sawdust if you go to a mill-plenty on the mid north coast. Try building your spawn up indoors, and then start transferring bits outside.

Thanks for the leads, hopefully after tonights full moon the shrooms will be popping up. I'm also looking for blackberry patches-hopefully near shrooming grounds. Blackberry wine The puffballs I've had have been a bit bland, but enjoyable, reminiscent of those little balls of cheese(can't remember the name), great with fresh basil, tomato, toast and olive oil.

They're "kiln dried victorian ash", probably eucalyptus regnans. Well many thanks to both of you, gecko and WT, for the various cultures, and to all the others who contribute their knowledge and experiences. Took me 10 years to put theories into practice, and stumbling across this forum really got things moving.

Innoculating shiitake with hessian sack spawn, reishi with popcorn spawn, and hericium with malted milo agar. I'll probably do some eryngii from newspaper spawn as well. I've been experimenting, and so far these substrates match these species. The coprinus comatus (thanks WT) also likes my paper/coir mix-unfortunately I didn't keep very good records, I think I mixed some milo in the water when hydrating it. Thanks for the lead

Oops, didn't mean to do that quote thing. Feb 9 sounds fine to me, and I reckon I'll check out the music in the gardens this weekend and maybe next weekend. Anyone else going to these gigs?

G'day Ace, I've just moved to this amazing little city of plums and oaks, and I'm loving it! So Bike friendly. And the shrooms...think I found Himematsutake growing wild by the lake. Any advice on internet providers down here? Look forward to meeting you.

OK, so I had a rat problem-keeping me awake. Read that Deb, the dehydrated potato and salt stuff kills em, so I tried it. It Works!! Just disposed of 4 babies, mummas been quiet ever since I opened the bag and put it in the roof. The rats gorge on Deb, then go for water, then their tummies swell up, then they die. Sad, and cruel, but so is sleep deprivation. Cheaper than poison, and safer.

I tried the bucket half filled with water, placed just below a bench, and above the bucket you tape a beer bottle to the bench, put some peanut butter on the end of the bottle(lined up with the middle of the bucket), and a bit of grease smeared on the neck. It worked, a bit like jonos set up, but you still have to check it, move the dead rats, set it up etc...this new Deb method is revolutionary, well I'm excited. The pythons here are fat and lazy, they really couldn't keep up with ratus ratus, but I love having them around.

It was a joke, sorry to upset you Illegal brain. No need to be so rude. I was just sharing my thoughts on books. Thanks for the judgement, made me feel crappy. You love everyone? Words are cheap.

Apothecary, ...'all that is very well, come let us tend our garden.'...is there a better end to a book? Siddartha by Herman Hesse, The way of the peaceful warrior by some tripper who later got into numerology, The Prophet by Khalil Gibran (and his other stuff), Plants of the gods by Hoffman and schultze, Kama sutra by some horny Indians, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers by someone i've forgotten, The Taming of the Great South Land by?, The Secret Country by John Pilger, Bury my heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, Bill Mollisons Permaculture books, The naked ape by desmond moriss, some book by Alan Watts on Zen. Oh, the books that god apparently wrote or dictated, well I've read some of most of them and all of some of them, and they're shite. Don't even bother, you know they're crap. I'm not suggesting i like these books, but they influenced me.

Oh, I forgot the best one, IMO...tagetes lucida(mexian tarragon)...think french tarragon with oomph. Great for bernaise and hollandaise. There was a type of Bergamot, monarda didyama?, anyhow, it's an awesome tea herb, and good in vinegar. Most types are pretty ordinary, but some varieties standout...don't know their names unfortunately, and the seed I saved has escaped me.

Yep, I used to muck around with vinegar....plenty of apples in Tas and Vic, and there's only so much cider you can drink before the barrel turnd to vinegar. I used to swear by my vinegars, never got sick while I took em. I used what was in my garden, and made several sorts. There was some for food, with sages, thymes, rosemarys, mints..and homegrown honey. Then there bottles of 'medicinals', wormwoods, mugwots, hops and popps, yarrow...others...these ones tasted awfull, but I'ld have a capful whenever I felt the urge. Galangal might be trippy, think it's in 'Plants of the Gods'. Lions tail..yukk! That'ld be medicinal I guess.