Not many pics, but basically I got a compressed block of chopped straw from the farm supply place which is used for bedding (I guess for rabbits or chicks?). The pasteurization process was just soaking it in a lime bath for a day and then letting that dry for a couple hours. I put the bags together on a table outside under the tree, wiping down the surfaces with alcohol. I have a small amount of contamination in each of the bags, but the mycelium was growing nice and strong before the mold really got started so it’s never been able to grow beyond about a 1" circle so I just ignored it.
Overall it’s been quite a process. The spawn I got from ebay was way smaller than expected, I guess 10g isn’t as much as I thought, so I’ve spent a lot of time learning about prepping grain jars and then growing out my spawn on that before having enough to transfer to the fruiting bags. For these I split one quart jar between two bags. I wasn’t sure if it would be enough, but apparently it was plenty. I still have two more jars of blue and one jar of pink in the basement, plus I have the other two fruiting bags that I haven’t cut holes in yet. I’m taking everything real slowly because once I get a harvest from these first bags I still have to figure out dehydrating and storing the extra mushrooms to use later, plus I need to prep some more grain jars that I can use to get a new batch of mycelium started.