Odin's purpose is to speed up production ensuring control of mixture and moisture. It allows you to easily change recipes in seconds in a digital menu and eliminate waste by only make exactly as many bags as you need.
What The Fungus YouTube Channel's November 2018 Interview
What traditional issues does Odin eliminate:
- Setup time - Typically you have to load a mixer with materials by weighing them out.
- Hydration time - Mixing a batch has idle time watching the mixer spin, testing moisture. In short, there is lots of standing around time.
- Ribbon mixer expense and cleanup - Mixers are much more expensive and when you're done the last bag with Odin, you can just stop and walk away. There is no clean up of wet messy leftovers or hose cleanout.
- Redundancy - 2 motors, 2 scales, 2 sensors, 2 servos and 2 sides. If one side stops working it does not stop production.
- Waste - You make exactly the number of bags you want by just stopping when the digital counter hits your number. There's nothing left to discard or you don't have to worry when your batch is short. You can fill your steamer 100% full every time not wasting energy.
- Labor - Faster bagging and a single operator can bag with the machine often waiting for the operator.
- Speed - With my new combination pellet, it's a "just add water" solution so multi-ingredient layering isn't needed and neither is mixing.
- Flexibility - You can use wood chips, pellets, sawdust, meal or loose hulls. All have been tested in my production.
- Safety - The system uses water and electricity. I've made the whole system 12VDC so there is no shock hazard. Customers have to provide a transformer which I recommend is either sealed IP67 waterproof type mounted above any water or located safely away from the unit.
I've been using Odin exclusively on our farm for over a year now running thousands of bags and all types of media through it and in the process I've made numerous improvements. When I've found a rare edge situation that had a remedy in code or by re-engineering the components, I'd tweak, upload and test iterating towards something I'm happy using.
Observed issues and recent improvements:
The scale platforms used to accumulate loose media that fell down when a bag was not in place through simple vibration or natural material settling. Solution: A bee-hive grill design helps keep material off the scale by letting it fall through.
Sometimes when adjusting a bag, the scale and Odin would think you had removed the bag and it moved on to the next bag automatically. Solution: I added a wait period of about 2 seconds when the bag was in detected to be in place or when the weight of the scale went to zero for several loops in the code to be sure the system could tell for sure the bag was removed.
I wanted Odin to start as soon as I put the bag in place but sometimes the bag goes right on but sometimes plastic is unwieldy and can catch an edge and just take a few seconds longer but it would start filling even though the bag wasn't perfectly set yet. The bag may be in place but not ideally seated for example. Solution: I added a way to tell Odin that it was ok to start filling manually without the 2s wait for confidence that the bag was actually in place, you just tap the scale with a finger just like a big button the pulse of weight that returns to zero tells Odin that it's ok to begin right away.
Density varies with types of materials like bran and loose hulls are about 1/5 the density of a pellet. Solution: I've made Odin react differently to different substances by being able to change speed or change when it starts to put the brakes on ahead of hitting target weight using the augers. The biggest improvement is the one where you don't need to do anything. Odin just learns from prior runs and tweaks settings for you to try to get better at being more accurate. It constantly tries to hit the target with more precision and remembers that the next time you power it on.
Development status: ( Nov 26 2018 )
Functional prototype has stable code for new substrate type (combination pellets) and independent threaded processes for each bagger.
I'm soldering up the new PCB boards but waiting on a few parts to make Odin modular and massive reduction in wiring.
Evaluating some hopper and structural options for more contemporary industrial design.
Changing the controls to rotary encoder button and RGB 128x128 pixel display for less abbreviation in messaging.
PCB version 1, Arduino Mega shield. Using ethernet jacks for sensors, a color screen and some LED indicators.
Market timeframe:
Feb-March, 2019 - Release to selected early test users to gather feedback to implement improvements.
June 2019-ish - Official release.
Projected Cost:
Not specified at this time unfortunately. Contact me and I can give a bit more clarity. For now I can say It's vaguely between $1500 and $4000. That is about all i can say now. It's a balance in frugality and making it industrial quality.
Configurations:
Currently only considering releasing an assembled and tested unit. It will require some re-assembly. Electrical Notes: Water and electricity don't mix well (bzzzzzt). I've made the whole system 12VDC primarily for safety. However, UL and CSA electrical standards require anything with a plug but tested and approved but a 12VDC system does not require this. So it will be sold as a "kit" where you supply the power supply and wire up 12 volts from a transformer, car battery or even a solar panel.
Interested? Email me here brad@topshelfmushrooms.com
Soup
Salad
- The mycochitin composition of mushroom cell walls is difficult for humans to digest until heated.
- Health benefits are released by heat tempering which makes beneficial compounds available to be absorbed by the body.
- Some species like oyster mushrooms contain ostreolysin which require 140F to neutralize.
- Button mushrooms contain agararatine which is a potent carcinogen, cooking drastically reduces concentrations
- More detail here
Appetizers
Hot Mushroom Dip
1 pound mushrooms, very finely chopped
1 stick butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced onion
8oz or 1 pound sour cream
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules.
Chips, crackers or fresh round slices of cucumber.
optional - 4 strips of bacon fried crisp and crushed into bacon bits
1. Sauté mushrooms in a large frying pan on medium-high heat with 6 tablespoons of butter and lemon juice until soft.
2. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Add onion, sour cream, bouillon granules and salt and pepper and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes more.
4. Mix remaining butter, optional bacon bits and enough flour to make a paste to be used to thicken the dip
5. Add the paste to the hot mixture and stir until thickened.
6. Serve in hot serving plate with chips, crackers or fresh vegetables.
Soup
Asparagus and Mushroom Soup - Serves 4
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
3 green onions sliced thinly white and green parts
1/4 pounds oyster mushroom caps sliced
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
2 pounds of asparagus with 1/2 of root end sliced off.
1 cup milk
1/4 cup salsa
shredded cheese monterey jack or chedder
sea salt and pepper to taste.
1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and mushrooms and sauté over medium-high heat for approximately 3-4 minutes.
2. Add chicken broth and the whole asparagus spears. Bring to a boil and simmer until asparagus is tender but not limp. Set aside the tips of 8-10 of the spears. Simmer until asparagus is very tender.
3. Transfer the broth and asparagus to a blender. Add the milk and salsa. Puree.
4. Return soup to pan and cook over medium heat until steaming hot. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve into 4 bowls and sprinkle with cheeze and garnish with the reserved aparagus tips.
Salad
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
1/2 cup minced scallions
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh dill
sea salt and pepper to taste
1/2 pound mushrooms, quartered or sliced
1 pound green beans, sliced into 3 inch pieces.
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon lemon juice
handful of bacon bits
cherry tomatoes for garnish
1. Combine vinegar, oil, scallions, mustard, dill, salt and pepper in a jar and shake well to blend.
2. Put mushrooms in boiling water and cook 3-4 minutes. Remove mushrooms from water, transfer to a bowl, and pour dressing over them.
3. Put green beans in boiling water and cook until barely tender, approximately 8 minutes. Cool beans quickly by plunging them into ice water.
4. Add green beans to mushrooms. Add sour cream and mix thoroughly. Chill 2-4 hours.
5. Remove salad from refrigerator about 20 minutes before serving. Add additional seasoning if needed, and garnish with cherry tomatoes and bacon bits.
Over 100 recipes are available from www.Mushrooms.ca here
Nutrition
- Contain almost no fat and sodium.
- Have no cholesterol.
- Low in calories.
- The amino acid count in mushrooms is higher per serving than corn, peanuts, and kidney and soy beans.
- The vitamin content of mushrooms is actually similar to the vitamin content found in meat.
- Potassium: good for the heart, reduces the risk of high blood pressure and strokes. A Portabella usually has more than a banana.
- Copper: aids iron (also found in mushrooms) in making red blood cells and delivers oxygen to the body.
- Selenium: together with Vitamin E it produces antioxidants that neutralize "free radicals" which can cause cell damage.
- Riboflavin for healthy skin and vision.
- Niacin aids the digestive and nervous systems.
- Pantothenic acid helps with the nervous system and hormone production.
- Mushrooms have been used medicinally in China for more than 6,000 years.
- Gourmet mushrooms have antibacterial, anti-candida, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitumor, and antiviral properties. Mushrooms also reduce blood pressure, moderate blood sugar, reduce cholesterol, enhance the immune system, and reduce stress. They are a kidney, liver, and nerve tonic. For 30 years, researchers have studied mushrooms' effectiveness against cancer. They found that mushrooms fight the following cancers: breast, cervical, uterine, colorectal, stomach, leukemia, liver, lung, lymphoma, melanoma, ovarian, pancreatic, prostrate, and sarcoma.
Facinating
- Louis XIV was one of the first mushroom growers growing 3,000 pounds of mushrooms a day. (Also Brad Kuhns of Top Shelf discovered he is a descendant of Louis XIV)
- Some mushrooms follow light like plants yet scientists still don't know how
- Mushrooms are comprised of 85-95 % water.
- Hieroglyphics from 4600 years ago feature mushrooms
- Mushrooms have their own immune system.
- Mushrooms are more closely related in DNA to humans than to plants.
- Most plants have a mycorrhizal relationship with fungus. The roots of the plants have a symbiotic relationship with the underground mycelium. Mycelium nourishes the plant's roots, and in trade, the plant transfers nutrients to the mycelium.
- The antibiotic penicillin was derived from the fungal species Penicillium.
These will blow your mind
- Some mushroom spores can dry and stay dormant for a century.
- Like human skin, mushrooms can produce vitamin D by being exposed to sunlight. In fact, exposing a freshly cut shiitake mushroom, gills up, to the sun for eight hours can increase its vitamin D content by as much as 4,600 times!
- Each mushroom cap has tens of millions of spores each theoretically capable of producing billions more mushrooms
- The Honey Mushroom (Armillaria ostoyae) is the world's largest known organism. This massive organism covers 2,384 acres (nearly four square miles) of soil in Oregon's Blue Mountains. The fungus is estimated to be 2,400 years old but could be as ancient as 8,650 years.
- Mycelium can use toxic substances such as oil, diesel and even e coli bacteria as a food source converting it into ... well ... mushrooms.
- Some mushrooms actually glow in the dark using a process called bioluminescence. In the past, people illuminated their way through the woods using these glowing pieces of fungus-colonized wood.
- Fungi produce antibiotics to fight off other microorganisms.
- Mushrooms have recently be discovered to use radiactivity as energy to make food and researchers are considering it for growing in long term space missions to convert cosmic radiation into food.
- One of the largest documented mushrooms was 10meters (33 feet)
- Mushrooms added to bandages are showing amazing promise in accelerating healing.
- Top Shelf Mushrooms grow-at-home Oyster Mushroom kits will produce mushrooms that can double in size in 1 day.
Top Shelf Mushrooms handles every stage of mushroom production. We employ sustainable growing methods, green technology, local organic ingredients and daily attention to quality.
To ensure top quality, we use our own pure cultures, make our own spawn (seed) and do our own harvesting, packaging and delivery. Our innovative growing system combines a computer-controlled environment, filtered air and Blue Mountain spring water for a truly superior product. We harvest mushrooms every day...so fresh is 100%guaranteed!
Top Shelf Mushrooms are grown by hands you know. Request a free sample of our mushrooms.
Our product speaks for itself.
Wholesale Prices: pricing is per pound delivered
| Variety - species - shelf life | 10 lbs | 2 - 9 lbs | 1 lb |
| Chef Mix - Mix of Oyster, Elm and other seasonal varieties - 7 days | 10. 00 | 11. 50 | 12. 50 |
| Elm - Hypsizygus ulmarius - 7 days | 10. 50 | 11. 50 | 12. 50 |
| Blue Oyster - Pleurotus columbinus - 7 days | 10. 50 | 11. 50 | 12. 50 |
| White Oyster - Pleurotus ostreatus - 7 days | 10. 50 | 11. 50 | 12. 50 |
| * Shiitake - Lentinula edodes - 14 days | 10. 50 | 11. 50 | 12. 50 |
| * Chestnut - Phiolota adiposa 10 days | 14 . 50 | 15 . 50 | 16 |
Other varieties available by request: Shiitake, Golden Oyster, and more to come ....
Order fresh mushrooms: |
Questions ? |
|
Angela Vessie call 705 - 888 - 5070 angela@topshelfmushrooms.com |
Brad Kuhns call 705 - 888 - 0398 brad@topshelfmushrooms.com |
Order by phone: 1-705-888-0398
The answer depends on which kit you have enjoyed. As with all outdoor culture, be sure the mushrooms you pick are the same you already harvested indoors as sometimes dangerous other species can invade.
Elm kits - Hypsizygus Ulmarius
Instructions: We recommend you use one 5 pound Elm kit for about 15-20 pounds of straw (dry weight). This results in a spawning ratio of about 20-25%. Spread the straw out in a thin layer around your garden's plants or where you plan to plant your vegetables. Break up the Elm kit into crumbled chunks and spread them in clumps or like islands instead of being completely evenly spread. Then cover with more straw to retain moisture and create a sort of mycelium sandwich. Wet the bed with non-chlorinated water and engage in benign neglect (forgetaboutit). In 4-6 weeks you can peel back some of the straw to see if the mycelium took hold and expanded.
Oyster Pleurotus varieties and Shiitake Lentinula edodes kits
Where our finished kits go to their final resting place ... or not!
We have also had some similar experiences with shaded shiitake blocks that provide extra surprises long after you thought all hope of another flush was lost.