Fall is here and garden fresh tomatoes are gone. But have you ever thought of harvesting a mushroom log?
I have, every time I drive past the Everything Mushrooms building on Sevier Avenue in South Knoxville. One day, it got me curious enough to stop by to see what goes on inside there. The following is what I discovered.
According to Bob Hess, owner of Everything Mushrooms, there is still a window of opportunity to take home a mushroom log and get one last harvest before temperatures fall too low for them to grow.
Come spring, the log will resume producing mushrooms right where it left off.
“They survive just about anything, and that’s the nice thing about them,” says Hess.
Everything Mushrooms is one of about six companies in the United States that specializes in the production and maintenance of gourmet mushroom spawns and cultures.
The UPS truck pulls onto the property three times a day, shipping out a total of 50-100 packages of mushroom growing supplies. He ships everywhere from California to Australia. Farmers and gardeners are his main buyers. Each package is worth $50-$60.
Education is also a large part of the business.
“That’s been the biggest challenge in this business is educating the clients in what we do, said Hess.”
On the local end, Everything Mushrooms has a specialty store that is open Tuesday-Saturdays from 12pm to 4pm. Locals can drop by to shop the selections of resource books, supplies to spawn mushrooms at home, dried gourmet mushrooms, hard to find truffle oils and dried soups by a company called Fungus Among Us.
Next spring there will be more teachings. An educational mushroom garden is in the works. And Hess is working on a prototype for a mushroom terrarium that uses a small cake style spawn, to grow mushrooms indoors, an educational display he thinks adults and children will find interesting. Classes and workshops will resume then too. He has a new baby at home, so he’s taking it slow right now.
To help in his educational efforts, Hess has a new blog-style website, at everythingmushrooms.com. He is using it to share about the process and material for making mushrooms – from starting spawns, growing mushroom logs, harvesting them and the daily effects the seasons have on it all.
Typically to start a mushroom log, it takes about a year to get the first crop. But at Everything Mushrooms, they cultivate the logs and keep racks of thriving, pre-made logs of either Pearl Oyster orShiitake mushrooms.
“We drill about 20 holes on a mushroom log, then plug them with wooden plugs that we have grown the mycelium onto,” said Hess. “The mushroom mycelium eats the wood so it creates a little mushroom colony on the plug.”
Hess’s own educational background provides an unlikely beginning to his company. He has a degree in journalism. He started his mushroom business on the side, while he worked a job doing public relations for Roane State College.
“Originally I was collecting and trading mushroom cultures and spore prints, which was the easiest way to store and ship them around on the Internet. And it slowly grew out of that,” said Hess.
“As our company grew, we tried to develop a product that is more accessible to people who want to garden, pick up the tools and go home and use them,” he added.
For the mushroom logs, it’s working.
“I have been amazed how many people buy and ship a pre-made mushroom log,” said Hess.
Bob Hess, inside his shop Everything Mushrooms.
