Methods Of Making Grain Spawn

[notplants]

For about one year now, I’ve been making grain spawn pretty regularly by letting it soak over night, and then boiling for ~15 minutes in the morning, laying it out to dry on some towels, and then a couple hours later putting it into jars to sterilize in a pressure cooker for 90 minutes.

Every time I do this I find it quite beautiful.

[image of rye grains drying on towels]

I’ve had interesting conversations with @glyph about the nice rhythm of overnight soaking and not rushing cultivation, and also a conversation with @Lando who said they saw a talk from someone that said soaking the grains and straining them actually loses some nutrients that might be beneficial to the mycelium that get strained off along with the water (would be curious if you still have the link). In his lab they also don’t dry the grains.

Even though the drying is beautiful, I’m interested to try a tek where I just put the grains in the jars the night before with the right amount of water and let them soak overnight (as there’s also not a great place to dry the grains at top).

@lando do you have a recommended water amount for a jar of rye grains? This can also be an open thread for sharing favorite teks for making grain spawn.

ps: found this thread of others debating the same topic how do you guys dry your grains? | myco-tek.org. Apparently an age old debate. @EvilMushroom666 maintaining peace in the thread and arguing for tolerance and equanimity.

[glyph]

I’m also keen to hear more about @Lando’s experience with this no strain, no dry method (and the nutrient loss).

As always, I’m skeptical of these short-cut methods haha. Usually when a friend tells me they’ve found a short-cut, I hear from them again a few weeks later to say they lost a bunch of work and have returned to the old ways.

I’ve seen the water + grain in a jar method work well for brown rice but it took the cultivator a lot of trial-and-error to find the perfect ratio of rice to water. Of course, rice also absorbs water easier than harder grains like wheat. I tend to think this method works best for softer grains and should be avoided for wheat and rye. Maybe try sorghum?

Another caveat: if your grain source is not highly consistent between batches (kernels of equal size and weight) then you’re likely to run into issues, even if you’ve worked out the perfect water:grain ratio.

I’ll keep doing my old-fashioned prep I steam-dry the kernels while they’re still in the pot: pour out the water then shake and roll the kernels around in the still-hot-pot. The excess moisture quickly steams-off. Then I lay the kernels out to cool briefly and load em up. Great upper-body workout!

@EvilMushroom666 says it best: “In the end its just a matter of what works for you”.