Organic Farming & Applied Design

As Ben Hartman is fond of saying, “eliminated waste equals capacity”. One of the most prevalent forms for waste for early stage farmers like us (who are still figuring out their production systems), is wasted time through repetitive and unnecessary movement. Towards reducing this form of waste, we’re building and sharing tools created to increase our capacity.

MUSHROOMS

INTRODUCING OUR ‘MUSH ROOM’

We’ve built a Mush Room in the woods to control environmental conditions ideal for bolt (i.e., hardwood log) mushroom production.

MUSHROOM WAX GUN

Our mushroom wax gun applies molten beeswax to 3-ft hardwood logs to seal in mushroom spore/sawdust mix for the final step in mushroom inoculation. A stainless steel Venturi valve at the end of an air gun pulls melted wax from a stainless culinary piston funnel (wrapped in heat tape) through a food-grade silicone hose. Pressure can be finely controlled at the air compressor, and on the air gun, to dose wax atomization. Silicone tape helps to hold heat tape wrapped around the silicone hose, ensuring the beeswax remains liquid at cold ambient temps.

MUSHROOM SPAWN BLASTER 3000

We’re currently building a mushroom spawn blaster, that (at the pull of a trigger) deposits the precise amount of spawn into a timed air-powered barrel, shooting the spawn into the log. The blaster consists of a few Arduino Nanos and modified open-source foam dart blasters (credit: FrontlineFoam) using 3D modeling + 3D printing. On trigger pull, this prototype sends a Bluetooth signal to turn on an LED - a modest step towards pulling a trigger and firing a live-made 'spawn dart.'

SEMI-AUTO LOG TURNER

Also, we've also been developing an automated log turning tool, to precisely rotate our bolts for each inoculation row. Stomping a foot pedal turns the logs 2 inches at a time, minimizing material handling for each log. One NEMA 23 stepper motor rotates the log over four drive wheels.