Shocking logs; forcing fruit

Our 1st shiitake

We're experimenting with a few of our mushroom logs to see how colonized they are by the spawn we whacked into them during our first and second April Work-ation weekends. You can "shock" a log into thinking it is spring or a rainy autumn season by soaking it in very cold water for 24 hours. Once it's been soaked, you should see small white "pins" sprouting from the log, the first signs of your forced fruit. Then in a few days, these pins should turn into the full mushroom fruit, ready to harvest with a twist. Forcing the fruit just 6 months after inoculation will result in just a small harvest, because the mycelium haven't had sufficient time to truly take over the felled log. But isn't it exciting to experiment with a few this fall, and leave the rest for the spring?