Beyond Burger (Plant Based Content)

That’s the best one, it’s not soy based. Fully plant based/ Whole Foods only here so we enjoy them on occasion but I usually make my own out of lentils as I have an adversity to anything I didn’t make myself 

i was finally able to try impossible burger from my local safeway this week...its pretty cool, although i probably wont buy it again. impossible is unique due to the "heme" protein, a blood like thingy found in meat thatt they are able to produce using some kind of genetically modified yeast or something like that, so when you open the package of meat, there is red liquid just like the myoglobin you find in a package of beef. its miles closer to beef than anything ive tried in the past, but i dont think id confuse it with beef. ive had the impossible in restaurants before this, including burger king, and my final evaluation was that if i had eaten the one i made myself in a fast food place, i might be able to be tricked into thinking it was a standard fast food burger, but i dont think i would be able to be tricked by the actual fast food impossible burger, or by the one i made myself if i knew it was homemade or made by a competent chef. was pretty impressed att the level of sear and browning able to be achieved also - when you get it really brown and crispy you can tell something is off but at low-moderate levels of browning it looks like and has the texture of browned/seared beef. kinda stinks when raw but cooks up fine.

again, not something id eat as part of my normal diet, but im pretty interested in eating weird scientific innovations in food and this heme stuff is pretty neat.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/burger-king-vegan-impossible-whopper-animal-testing-peta-a8854481.html

I'm sure "It Tastes Great"  but can't fathom people actually eating excretions of Slime Molds.

However,  I can put together a Priority mailer of various Wild Animal poop if there's enough interest in Nouveaux Culinary Experiments.

There's Deer Poo,  Woodchuck,  Raccoon,  and the Rare Fox excrement.

 

 

     

     

 

     Jim Cramer: 'Going against Beyond Meat is going against history'

 

 

     https://youtu.be/Vtc8xpTVMqI

I think it's great how Biologists isolate and train Bacteria and / or Fungi to consume sewage and convert the Poop into less offensive stuff with a better transition into their eventual resting place.

However,  I'm really not interested in eating that stuff along the way.

Although I get how the Vegans are not attracted to consume Cow or Pig or Trout,  I can't see the attraction to Bacteria - waste product designed to imitate Meat.

Hence the reason for consuming a whole food diet, not just a vegan “product” ...I’m sure my lentils have killed a couple of animals 

the Burger King link above is about the impossible burger, soy based. 

Hmm - if you don't want to eat dead animal burgers, why eat your plants in the form of a dead animal burger?

or

If you like dead animal burgers, why not just eat the real thing?

Perhaps one enjoys the taste of a burger but doesn’t want to eat a dead animal?

     I realize Owsley and Jerry ate dead animals, [although when Jerry was with Manasha he was vegetarian] as we all have at one point or another, but I have a difficult time understanding how eating carcasses of dead animals coincides with a psychedelic lifestyle, I don't get it...how can you be super high on a regular basis and take a knife and fork tearing flesh into bite sized pieces and ingesting it?  It doesn't make sense to me.

     

how can someone claim to exemplify a psychedelic lifestyle while being a fucking troll?

 

or be all in for trump. 

it doesn't make sense. 

     Have you listened to Joe Biden attempt a complete sentence lately?

See what I mean?trump supporters are incapable of advocating  without what-a-bouts....

     Fish, you're most definitely a Biden voter, and that's ok, hopefully logic and reason will carry the day and mathematically, enough voters will provide a counterbalance to the brainwashed masses...otherwise this fragile 244 year experiment will be in serious jeopardy.

     Biden supporters are people too.

I packed a 1/4 grass fed beef into the chest freezer last week. I’m probably taking a mushroom trip in the garden later on today.

     It figures.

Did you hear Trump ::yesterday::?

"Swif and swiffering"

 

His PSP frontotemporal dementia is eating him alive in front of our faces on tv.

 

.

    
 

     
 

 

     Take a moment, as a mental exercise...and imagine Joe Biden's handlers failing to figure out a way to get out of the three agreed upon debates with Trump.

     
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Does that begin to register?

     

Why on Gods green earth would Biden not want to debate Trump?

 

He would own Trumps badly orange masked face.

Trump has nothing but destruction and failure in his wake and thinks we took the airports in the Revolutionary War and "rammed the manpartz"

 

The adderall / benzo cocktail Trump would need for such events would destroy him.

 

Why do you think everyone who.ever worked for him thinks he's a moron.

 

Maybe because hes a moron?

 

The only people left circling the drain with him are family, sychophants and compromised lackeys desperate for proximity to power they'd never approach in any real.world.

 

     You should probably take it easy on the CNN

Bry, every time you try to predict the future you're wrong. "History will show..."; "Biden won't debate..."

You were also wrong to vote for Trump based on your prediction that he'd be a president of peace. The guy stepped up bombing in Afghanistan and Yemen right away.

It's truly amazing that you think yourself so right, when at every turn you've misjudged.

I dont even, like, own a tv, maaaan.

 

 

<<<It's truly amazing that you think yourself so right, when at every turn you've misjudged

 

 

Lol, its so bad, he's like the Zone's own Peter Navarro

What channel should they watch, bry? 

I try to watch 15-20 minutes of Jerry Springer a day. I learn much more about the world than I would from CNN, MSNBC or Fox.

"Toe-Tally-Terry-Tism" Trump's brain worms are winning. The years of speed (cocaine and later adderall) abuse are catching up to him. His family should have him hospitalized but they and his other enablers are all too selfish. He can't escape this trajectory and it'll only get worse.

look dude, nobody is excited or "into biden", so give it a rest.

most of the country that are not racists or pseudo-fascists, are upset about the absolute clown-show dumpster fire that the 2-bit crooked con-man has made  of our nation.

so, the appeal of someone less deranged is bigly....

I like the flavor and texture of meat, but avoid consuming commercially harvested animal products for environmental reasons.  I will still eat fish and game I catch myself, but that is often a lot of work so I end up eating a lot of the faux meat products when I am grilling or making American/Southern style meals.    Aside from the "Beyond" brand, the "Impossible Burger" is quite good.   I will even sometimes get the "Impossible Whopper" from Burger King if I am traveling or running errands and need something quick.  Its also about half the cost of a similar burger at the brewpub.

There are plenty of great faux chicken, sausage, hams, and deli meats that are hard to tell from the real thing.  There is also a chain of Chinese restaurants up and down the west coast that specialize in making authentic tasting faux meat dishes and the big Asian supermarkets carry a wide assortment of fake meats,  It seems like that for every type of weird fish or animal product you might find at an Asian "wet market," there is a faux version of it at the Asian supermarket.

The only meat products for which I haven't found a good fake substitute are bacon and steak.  There are plenty of fake bacon brands, but none of them are that good (except for the fake bacon bits).   Haven't every seen a fake steak, but read the other day that they are working on it and expect it to come out in 2021. 

Fake wet market fare = lifelong hypochondria and addiction to placebos!

 

Don't do it!

I enjoy 'above-ground'  Vegetables and root-veggies of many stripes,  but the faux-meat spooks me a bit.  If thousands of people eat it for fifty years with no ill effects,  I'll consider tasting the Stuff.  So I'm waiting.

Have some pretty good local Venison (Bambi) in the freezer,  and Hüsky has a decent supply of Lamb bones (farm-raised) plus some frozen Deer Heart / Liver for treats.  I've tasted that Stuff after cooking, (Deer Heart / Liver ) and it's a little Too rich for me.

Some Canines don't like that Stuff,  but he really seems to enjoy it. At six years old He is in great shape,  and his teeth have no tartar.  Raw meaty Bones a few times per week.  The veterinarians always say "Whatever you feed H.I.M. keep doing that. This animal is perfectly Healthy."

Any protein in this plant burger?

Trader Joe's sells a plant based burger (pea protein) in the refrigerator section  that isn't quite as tasty as Beyond Beef burger, but it worked well to make a ' meaty' tomato sauce  on top  of spaghetti.

>>>Any protein in this plant burger?

Every 4 oz serving of both the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger contains19 to 20 grams of protein-- the same as ground beef.

Let them eat goo 

https://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s23e04-let-them-eat-goo#source=57...

 

but I have a difficult time understanding how eating carcasses of dead animals coincides with a psychedelic lifestyle

i feel like ive commented on this before - its like a circle of life, life/death/rebirth kinda thing...our bodies were made to eat and process meat. i understand the desire to reduce suffering, but then we get to alot of mystical stuff on the nature of suffering - is it bad? is there any such thing as bad? is suffering inevitable? nothing about any of my psychedelic experiences have led me to believe that death is bad, or suffering is bad.

of course factory farming is a whole other beast, but simply killing and eating animals? just death alone sans the torture of factory farming? like i said...circle of life. 

Not complete proteins. I prefer real food.  With the exception of a street taco addiction, I only eat grass fed and/or organic beef. 

THEYRE JUST TACOS

We have incisors. They aren't made for a diet of masticating only veggies.

that's debatable, but I'll just leave these links here and not further muddy up a perfectly good thread about beyond meat burgers that the carnivores just had to ruin by getting all defensive about their diets. 
 

https://www.peta.org/features/are-humans-supposed-to-eat-meat/

 

https://www.peta.org/living/food/really-natural-truth-humans-eating-meat/

Lol. 

"Im sorry I ruined your Black Panther partaaay."

 

https://time.com/4252373/meat-eating-veganism-evolution/

 

"Sorry Vegans: Here's How Meat-Eating Made Us Human"

 

(Its a link from a non PETA source, who I understand get pretty defensive about eating meat.)

 

It actually addresses the PETA articles linked directly. Apparently those are really common go-tos for defensive veggies.

 

"But sorry, it just ain’t so. As a new study in Nature makes clear, not only did processing and eating meat come naturally to humans, it’s entirely possible that without an early diet that included generous amounts of animal protein, we wouldn’t even have become human—at least not the modern, verbal, intelligent humans we are."

 

 

For the record, my wife ran a vegetarian juice bar for years and my diet is largely vegetarian, but I recognize balance and moderation....and bacon tastes good.

It is amusing to watch the carnivores get all defensive about their diets, Nancy... 

Some people just don’t want to eat animals, big deal. All the explanations given here for meat consumption just appear as insecurities, no one really  cares either way. There’s plenty of propaganda to confirm whatever bias you want for either side. No ones right or wrong 

a vegan cant recognize balance and moderation, tho, 73guy? That one confused me

Not completely related --  but I just watched a National Geographic program showing a bunch of chimpanzees hunt down, surround, and attack a group of baboons... in order to catch and eat one. They did. 

I forgot that chimps are sometimes carnivorous.

(maybe they should invent a Beyond Baboon Burger)

Dont get so defensive, Fish, Im talking about my own diet parameters.

 

I was just commenting on Daylights post initially, not trying to take away from anyone's thing. The Beyond Burgers are tasty!

Be confident in your choices and dont be so touchy.

Im.not trying to get anyone to eat animals that dont want to.

 

Calmer n you...

:)

Not defensive, just amused

 

    

     "Bry, every time you try to predict the future you're wrong"

   
     
     It's a searchable database, I'd challenge anyone to copy & paste an instance where I've been mistaken.

 

     Thanks, tip your waitress.

Impossible Burger is some weird soy protein magic and Better Burger is pea protein. Which one do you guys find more easily digestible?

Lol at Bry

Im one of those weird vegans that doesn’t do soy, so it’s beyond burger for me. 

no cheese. man, that's rough. 

My 23 year old daughter has been vegetarian since she was 4, and turned vegan a few months ago. I'm kind of astounded at how varied and balanced a diet she has, but damn, she spends a lot of time cooking.

Hard pass on both.

im super pumped for lab grown meat. the next frontier!

the Burger King link above is about the impossible burger, soy based<<<

It was brought up, it's not like I posted this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh1kmVwS4Hw

I can't imagine a veggie/vegan person ever going to BK.

>>I can't imagine a veggie/vegan person ever going to BK.

Think there was one in Florida who ordered an impossible whopper but then sued BK because the grill used to cook the impossible whopper was also used to cook meat.

Had beyond burger "ground" in a taco salad last night, f'n awesome.

White Castle uses a separate grill especially for their impossible sliders and damn they're good.

 

it still amazes me how some people are so fragile about what other people eat.

 

<<<amazes me how some people are so fragile about what other people eat

 

 

Straw man describing literally no one that I can see in this thread.

 

Dude, that's not even by definition what straw man is, lol

A straw man (or strawman) is a form of argument and an informal fallacy of having the impression of refuting an argument, meanwhile the proper idea of argument under discussion was not addressed or properly refuted.[1] One who engages in this fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man".

 

take a lap

 

 

Good for you guy, you just Ivanka Trump'd this thread

 

 

It's good in taco's and lasagna. Prefer a beef burger if I'm going to eat a burger which doesn't happen much these days. My hardcore food purity friends say it is horrible because it is processed and filled with GMO's but at the end of the day plant based food is way better for the environment than eating meat. 

I can't imagine a veggie/vegan person ever going to BK<<<

Imagine all the people sharing all the world, you

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Heard a story on NPR this morning about a possible "sin tax" on red meat:

https://www.marketplace.org/2020/07/06/red-meat-tax-carbon-emissions-cli...

O Thod, what's hilarious and simply precious is you had to look it up and took the very first entry from wikipedia and came running back here with some kind of perceived "gotcha".

 

Heres another meaning for ya.....

 

 

"The straw man is a fallacy in which an opponent's argument is overstated or misrepresented in order to be more easily attacked or refuted. The technique often takes quotes out of context or, more often, incorrectly paraphrases or summarizes an opponent's position"

 

Which is exactly how I meant it.

 

Now please, go ahead and parse the terms "arguement" or "refuted" if you feel like it and you'd still be wrong here.

 

Talk about "opening ones mouth and removing all doubt".

You can't even gaslight right man

some strong animal subconscious guilt you got there 

 

 

good luck with that

 

Lol.   Talk about misusing a term......

 

Just because you dont understand something, it doesnt mean someone is trying to manipulate you.

Thanks for the laughs today Thod.

There are several things I want to comment but only have time for one (not a dig at any vegetarians, only addressing the point of psychedelics and meat).

In Peyote ceremonies it's not uncommon in the morning for the participants to eat food, dried salted corn, berries, fruits and yes, pieces of meat. All these gifts come from the Earth and in that moment the tremendous gratitude you might feel for the sustenance that an animal can give another can be very powerful. Like Daylight said above, I would prefer the meat industry was not cruel and disgusting but a) so is industrial agriculture in every way possible including death of animals (rodents, rabbits, etc); and b) all sustenance can be seen as part of the gifts of the planet, of Pacha Mama. The separation is in your mind, not in any objective universal balance.

But of course everyone is free to make their choice, just like different people come to different conclusions after eating psychedelics. 

As far as spirituality and meat in general, well, just ask the fucking Aghoris on the banks of the Ganges whom it is considered a privilege to have them eat the brains of your dead relative and cover his body in their ashes. But hey, what do those guys know?

>>>>>to have them eat the brains of your dead relative and cover his body in their ashes. But hey, what do those guys know?

They probably know mad cow disease.

.

Is the plant based ' meat' less expensive than the price per pound of beef?

Thanks in advance.

Guess I should chime in....chose not to eat meat for one year in 1989, only because of land-use issues....(check out chrisopher Ketchum's This Land: How cowboys, corporations and corruptions are ruining the american west).  since then, stayed veggie, and the reasons continue to grow.  Better health, enviro, less expensive etc....Not opposed to people eating meat, but think all should eat less. 

so, if you want something that isn't meat, but you can make taste like bacon....Grow shiitake on logs!  Lentinula edodes has nine essential amino acids, as well as Beta glucans, which reduce tumors.  Healthy, easy to do in your own yard.  You just need to be able to lift a wet log now and then.

Shiitake, pronounced she-tah-kay.  It's whats for dinner.  Try it sometime.  Not the small crap ones from other countries, but shiitake grown outdoors.  big difference in flavor.

 

>>>>Is the plant based ' meat' less expensive than the price per pound of beef?

Depends on what you get and where you get it.  Generally, faux meat products bought at places like Whole Foods or New Seasons are going to be more expensive pound per pound than meat you get at Safeway. But there is still variations in prices and some fake meats are more expensive than others.   I always look at the unit prices for deals and the less expensive fake hams and sausages usually come in at about 40 cents per oz or $6.40 per pound.  I periodically stop by Grocery Outlet and sometimes you can find clearance deals for about half the price or less.  I once found fake chorizo for about $1.20 a pound.  When I find those types of deals, I stock the freezer.  

Also, if you go to the Asian supermarkets, the price for the faux meats is considerably less and can often be less expensive than comparable real meat products.  Problem for me is that there isn't a big Asian supermarket in my neighborhood and have to drive all the way out to the new Chinatown on 82nd to take advantage of the lower prices. 

TVP is the cheapest meat substitute out there and is less expensive than meat, but requires additional preparation to get it to have ground meat flavor. 

did 10 years veg.

i get it...

neo, be more interested to hear about the shroom growing. how much space do you need? sun/shade?

sucks being the "oh turtle is vegetarian" at every dinner party or whatever...

I've been vegetarian on and off in my life. Last time was just three years ago, I was vegetarian for the entire year almost. I dig on the spiritual, economic and environmental reasons behind it. But finally, in my mind, all those arguments can be directed at industrial agriculture and livestock. Eating industrial soy products is MASSIVELY destroying the planet, so yes, your vegetarian diet is potentially one of the main drivers behind deforestation of the Amazon. The solution, both spiritually and environmentally, to me, is a different model of food production that is aligned with nature and its ways. It exists.

I’m one of seemingly few soy free vegans on the planet

I noticed that you mentioned that, Fish. That's pretty cool and must be fairly difficult.

I find it to be a good bit hypocritical when people take on the environmental stance argument for vegetarianism and yet are now equally judgemental of their own environmental footprint. Most people aren't aware of the amount of animal protein that is killed in industrial agriculture, but it's huge. Think about it: mice dens, rats, moles, rabbits, insects. Not to mention the destruction of the topsoil flora and so many other negative consequences. So yeah. If your soy burger is coming from Brazilian or Argentinian soy (likely), your definitely contributing to massive rainforest destruction.

Thanks , Ken. I will consider trying this new product.

fake meat products are super processed and not very healthy....

Javs, as I understand it, most soy crops are grown for animal feed.   The United States is the world's largest producer of soy (108 million metric tons per year) and 70 percent is used for animal feed.  Much of the soy grown for direct human consumption is processed into vegetable oil, not processed fake meats. 

https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/coexistence-soybeans-...

I assume South America is similar, so based on the stats, it would seem that with the rainforests being destroyed in Brazil for soybeans (they are the second largest producer), most of the crop is going to feed livestock for human consumption.

It started for me with the Monsanto roundup connection and grew from there as I poked around . It’s a shady biz for sure 

I'll admit that I eat way too much meat. But damn, it tastes good!

Other than seafood, I'd say that close to 75% of my meat consumption is local, pasture fed/free range. It makes me feel good about it, that I've moved away from factory farmed meats.

Beans, including soy, do a number on my gut. I wish they didn't, but I digest meat a lot better.

That's an interesting point, Ken. So while the damage may be less caused by veggie burgers or oil than feed, internet says Brazil produces about 87 million metric tons of soy a year. 30% of that is about 26 million metric tons. It's not like it's coming free of environmental cost. So you can say, yeah, my soy burger damages the Earth less than your cows, but it's still really damaging. And that's before discussing indigenous land rights issues, toxic pesticides and fertilizers, transportation of produce via fossil-fuel powered ships, trucks, etc, factory processing, so on so forth. 

My point is that the current model of production of vegetables and fruit is not sustainable, any more than the livestock industry is. On the other hand, both can be done in a sustainable and humane way that creates feedback loops between all the forms of life, and no, that doesn't need to be on a tiny scale. So if environmental reasons are someone's reasons for being vegetarian, my logic leads me to understand that it is not a more environmental option, unless you know where your food is coming from. And in that case, then the meat is also more environmental.

There's an interesting example from Africa where proper livestock rearing actually helps the land grow healthy and generates a positive feedback loop into the ecosystem but I can't find the article now. There are a lot of studies on how livestock can be positive contributors to ecosystems if raised properly, though.

 

Agree that it is important to know where your food is coming from, but its also important to consider how feeding animals soy and grain to turn them into meat for human consumption is an inefficient use of resources.   

For every 16 pounds of grain and soy fed to beef cattle in the United States we only get 1 pound back in meat.  The other 15 pounds are either used by the animal to produce energy or to make some part of its own body that humans do not eat (like hair or bones) or excreted.   16 pounds of grain has twenty-one times more calories and eight times more protein than a pound of hamburger.

That being said, livestock other than cattle are more efficient in converting grain to meat - hogs consume 6, turkeys 4, and chickens 3 pounds of grain and soy to produce 1 pound of meat.

Beyond meat has no soy

I was grooving on the Beyonds for awhile but they are a little pricey and I grew a bit tired of the taste. 

I've gone back to Dr Praegers California Veggie Burgers. Just the right size and price point.

^ Dr Praegers California Veggie Burgers

I'm trying their Korean Vegetable ones tonight.. sounded different

eight times more protein than a pound of hamburger.

but the pound of hamburger has much higher quality protein with a much more useful and nutritive amino acid profile

Ken, that's all good and well but by your own numbers then, 4 pounds of grain has as much protein as a quarter pound of beef. Let me ask you, have you ever sat down and eaten four pounds of grain at once? It's a pretty ridiculous comparison that vegetarians love to make, but truth be told, bite for bite nothing on the planet has the heavy protein pack of meat. That's why your equation of how much water per grain or hectares etc falls apart. Because with that equation you get a malnourished populace. And proteins are pretty dang important...

Well my protein recovery doesn’t seem to be too poorly off and seems much better then a decade ago, I’m still competing at a higher level at 50 as a vegan than I did at 30 as a meat eater. I’m a long distance runner and marathon paddler. My sub 4 hr marathon times are consistently better than even 10 years ago with a whole food plant based diet. I set the 500 mile time record on the Yukon river in 2017(still stands) and was 2018 National canoe champion for men 40-50 and completed the ausable 120 mile marathon in under 17 hrs.My BMI and weight match my high school health records and my bp and cholesterol are low with a standing hr in the low 50s. 

>>>> set the 500 mile time record on the Yukon river in 2017

Damn.  Uh waiter, I will have what he is having.

And if 16 pounds of grain/legumes has eight times the protein of one pound of meat, that is only a two to one protein ratio in favor of meat.  So doing the math, if it takes 16 pounds of grains/legumes to produce one pound of meat, a beef diet is eight times less efficient in terms of overall grain/legume resource consumption than a plant based diet .   And I have eaten a half pound of grain/legumes in one sitting.  

Ninety million acres of US land are used for corn production. Forty percent goes to ethanol and 36% to animal feed. Therein lies a big part of the problem. Corn is a god-awful form of animal feed. It fattens up the animals, but is nutrient poor. Plus, it robs the soil of nutrients, and turns the soil into dirt.

The natural cycle would be that the land is pasture land. Cows graze and shit, creating a fertilization cycle. They get killed by predators or natural causes and decompose, further fertilizing the land and adding blood and bone meal.

Factory farming and corn feed has messed up the cycle. The land is dead. The animals get sick, requiring antibiotics. The meat has protein, but is poor in other nutrients. It doesn't taste that good.

Think of all that land that hundreds of millions of bison freely roamed. A huge hunk of it is now used to grow feed corn. Maybe they should plant grass there and set the cows out to graze. I know it's a pipe dream, but damn, would it make a difference.

I just checked on some protein levels:

1 lb of boiled lentils = 40 g

1 lb chicken = 123 g

1 lb beef = 117 g

1 lb cooked Lima beans = 34 g

I used cooked beans because that's how we eat them. A pound of raw beans has over 100 g protein, but that's not a fair comparison to meat because it's inedible that way.

 

 

garbanzos are little atom bombs

 I'm constantly amused at how many people simply can't imagine how to have a meal without meat. Telling people in the midwest that you don't eat meat gets you a look of confusion and more often than not, "yeah, but you eat fish, don't you?" 

And we like things sanitized. Especially messy images. Industrial meat has a nice sanitary image in the supermarket; throw it in the cart and bitch about the price. We can't even get adults to understand that wearing a mask in places where we can't socially distance protects others, not themselves. Trying to point out the benefits to the environment / people of a veg/vegan diet just makes most people cringe.

We get what we work so hard for....obesity, heart disease, strokes, a multitude of cancers, diabetes. 

Eat what you want and keep your health insurance premiums paid on time. 

ice cream is the best. 

Telling people in the midwest that you don't eat meat gets you a look of confusion<<<

I've found this to be especially true in northern Wisconsin. 

>>>Telling people in the midwest that you don't eat meat gets you a look of confusion<<<

My ex-wife is Mexican-American with a huge family so I know the feeling.  I did make a pasta one time with fried tofu at a family get together.   Didn't tell them that at first and then nobody could believe it was not chicken when I revealed the secret ingredient. 

>>>sucks being the "oh turtle is vegetarian" at every dinner party or whatever...

Ha!  The worst is my mom who has to announce that I am "vegan" to every restaurant server even though I am technically not.  I have to remind her that I am a grown adult and know how to navigate pretty much any menu at ant type of restaurant without making a scene.   

I enjoy eating Beans,  Rice,  Quinoa and other Vegetable stuff,  but I also don't mind mixing in some Pig,  Poultry,  Cow and / or Fish with all that.

My main concern is that the Stuff I eat is clean,  and not poisoned with insecticides,  herbicides or other toxic Poisons.

So I am now over age 50,  and my belief system for nutrition is :: eat whatever makes you feel Good and Healthy.

For me,  it's been a goal to blend the excellent combination of Stuff which enables Nutrition.

 

Turtle ~  back to shiitake....thanks for asking!  I drill holes in oak logs, (or chinquapin, maple, alder, ash, beech, birch....no fruit or nut trees, no conifers...just hardwood), and put the spawn in.  With dowels I don't wax the top, but with sawdust spawn I wax the top lightly to keep pests out and moisture in.  then, the first season, I need to keep the logs at about 60% moisture.  I'm cheap, so don't sprinkle water all night long. Instead, I soak a few logs in a kiddie pool for a day or two every 7-10 days, depending on how hot, dry, or windy it is outside. 

So for space, you need to be able to stack a few logs, about three feet long, 4-8 inches in diameter.  And room for a kiddie pool.  And you'll need someone with a chainsaw. And a drill. 

I get my spawn from a company that does not advertise, NW Mycological Cons.

An important aspect is to have healthy logs with more sapwood than heartwood.  Here is a good article from a great magazine, Northern Woodlands   ~https://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/growing_shiitake_mushrooms

Perhaps I'll start a thread w/photos on Sunday....

And yeah, too much gmo soy out there.   There are plenty of other beans to try.  I've never understood why people stick with soy, when there is so much more out there.  Again, I'm not opposed ot eating meat, (some people's bodies really need it, some can't digest beans well etc), just that every meal doesn't need meat...or beans!  Beans/legumes have rhyzobia, a bacteria that, with the plant host, produces nitrogen ~ good for soil. 

I was inspired, and last night I had a Dr Praeger's Tex Mex burger for dinner.

We tried growing mushrooms from logs two years ago and had only limited success.   We got the plugs from Fungi Perfecti and fresh oak logs, drilled the holes, set the plugs, sealed with wax and then soaked them in the kiddie pool, before storing them in a shady part of the yard.   However, two thirds of the logs ended up being duds and only got the Lion's Mane to grow.   I think we didn't keep the logs moist enough after the initial soaking.

thanks KeseyB! I just have a small patio though, enough of a corner for some logs, but no room for the kiddie pool. 

am interested in this though, very cool.

yeah, Ken, that is what most people do wrong the first time.  The watering of logs is very uneventful, which is why I soak them every 7 or 10 days the first summer.  After that, the rewards burst!  

I have also heard that strains make a huge difference regarding success....

Turtle, the first log I got I had bought for $5 from a dude on a street corner, opposite the eugene farmers market in '93.  He had inoculated it, claimed it was colonized.  (at the time, I didn't know what to look for in terms of colonization....marks at the end of the log showing spawn run, as well as a 'give" where inoculum was placed).  

I followed his instructions;  soaked the log in the tub, wherein I was woken the next morning:  "Can you get this log out of the tub?  I have to shower and get to class!"  I had to clean the tub a bit! 

So then, I put the log in a bucket, and would spay it w/water now and then.  Housemates thought I was bonkers. 

Until they started to fruit.  Then everyone was watering the mushrooms!

I'll ~ again ~ try to figure how to send a photo....after caffeine....