Major Spawn and Substrate Progress

Rolled up straw mushroom substrate ready for steaming.

Today we focused on our spawn and substrate processes. In the morning, we had a training session with our project manager, Jawara, and another World Hope employee. We went through the step by step process behind growing mushrooms and the design behind each room in the MPS. This meeting allowed us to both review our own knowledge as well as help our colleagues develop a stronger understanding of growing mushrooms. We showed them the draft of our spawn manual and added to the document so they can better follow the steps. After we leave Sierra Leone, we will be relying on them to conduct different trials to figure out the optimal way to grow commercial mushrooms. Conversely, they will be relying on us to give further input and recommendations as they follow our initials manuals. Our trip here is only the beginning of this project and fostering strong communication amongst the team is essential for a successful venture in the future.

After the training, we opened up the pressure cooker from yesterday and found that the sterilization had run into issues. One of the jars had cracked and water had entered both this jar and a smaller one. This was unfortunate to see but we suspect that it was caused by how we arranged the jars to make them fit. Our pressure cooker is very small so we hope to use the substrate barrel to do spawn sterilizing in the future. For the time being, we will use smaller jars in our cooker and place them upright. We also suspect that the reason our cooker keeps running dry is that it is too close to the heat source, thus getting too hot and using up all the water too fast. We want to design a grate to elevate the cooker further above the coal stove.

We made a two sample substrate bags, one of wetted sawdust and the other of straw, and used our PVC rings and polyfil to make the top. The plastic is not polypropylene and we are worried it won't withstand the pasteurization process. We'll see how it looks after steaming the barrel for two hours today; if it is damaged, we will look into getting plastic bags from Freetown. We cleaned out some of the sludge in the barrel and made a makeshift grate out of extra wood. These were split second solutions, as we had prematurely lit the fire, but will hopefully let us test out our system and refine it later.

In order to seal the barrel for pasteurization, we went to the market for more tubing to wrap around the edge of the barrel itself. This way the two layers of rubber close all the gaps and prevent steam from escaping during the pasteurizing. We decided on using a heavy brick who's weight will counteract the pressure within the barrel and keep the lid attached during the steaming. We also put marks on the barrel and lid so it is clear how to orient the top. To let off some steam and prevent too much pressure build up, we made a hole in the top and left a gap in our tubing. Hopefully these are sufficient pressure releases so that the barrel does not explode, while still not letting too much out and rendering the pasteurization ineffective.