Bill - I emailed a mushroom "seed" company and found that the shitaki mushrooms will grow here in alaska on birch. So I'm hoping this year to give some a try. We aren't gardening this year because we are finishing our house - and I'll start looking at a good spot to put the garden through the gardening season and then I have to have "the" arguement with my husband. We have 80 acres of trees, and I have to discuss every single one we cut down. He isn't a tree hugger (in the strictest sense), but when we lived in Michigan we were on old farmland - 10 acres of NO trees and so.... grin