{"id":14858,"date":"2018-04-25T19:47:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T23:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=14858"},"modified":"2018-04-25T19:47:48","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T23:47:48","slug":"mushroom-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/mushroom-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Mushroom Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 2018 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Indoor mushroom cultivation<\/strong> is thriving in Maine. We follow three companies through the process.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Claire Z. Cramer<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MAY18-Hungry-Eye\"If you like mushrooms\u2013and who doesn\u2019t?\u2013you\u2019ve probably noticed oysters, maitakes, shiitakes, and other exotic varieties receiving star treatment in Portland\u2019s restaurants. That these are Maine mushrooms, both cultivated and foraged, adds to their local and often organic pedigree. You may find them saut\u00e9ed, roasted, or starring on designer pizzas. At the charming new Elda<\/strong> in Biddeford, diners are presented at the start of the meal with warm, fragrant cups of clear mushroom broth infused with a sprig of thyme and a twist of lemon.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Tipo<\/strong>, the casual Italian caf\u00e9 on Ocean Street, an assortment of North Spore mushrooms comes in a sauce that works as an appetizer or a light lunch. Chef Michael Smith \u201cmakes the sauce from mushroom stock, marsala, and just a dash of sherry vinegar,\u201d says the waiter as he sets down the shallow pottery bowl. A tangle of tender mushrooms in its rich, dark sauce is heaped on a crisp, creamy-centered square of fried polenta and garnished with dabs of white-truffled egg yolk. It\u2019s the earthy, exotic essence of mushroom mystery.<\/span><\/p>\n

This inspires a trip to the North Spore<\/strong> stand at Portland\u2019s Saturday farmers\u2019 market. Vivian Ewing walks me through the varieties she\u2019s offering today. \u201cShiitakes and oysters are the most popular. These chestnuts are prized for their color.\u201d They\u2019re slim-stemmed, with rich russet caps. \u201cAnd we call these lion\u2019s manes, but they go by other names, too, like hedgehog and bear\u2019s tooth.\u201d Aptly, they\u2019re big, white, and ruffly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI cook them all pretty much the same.\u201d She smiles. \u201cJust saute them in butter with garlic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

North Spore\u2019s wares include products made from medicinal mushrooms. There are tins of dried chaga, which resembles smashed fragments of dusty bricks, for simmering into tea. There are eye-dropper bottles of mushroom tinctures, which can be taken as a few drops on the tongue or in herb tea. Most fascinating is a plastic bag about the size of a shoebox, which appears to be stuffed with soil. Out of a hole in the bag, a fist-sized cluster of shiitakes is growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an indoor growing kit,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can order a variety you like and grow it right in your kitchen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To The Source<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe work with mushroom farmers all over the country,\u201d says Matt McInnis of North Spore Mushrooms. He\u2019s a co-owner, along with Eliah Thanhauser and Jon Carver, of the four-year-old company based in the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook.<\/span><\/p>\n

The three met as undergraduates at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor. \u201cCOA is small enough that everyone pretty much knows everyone else,\u201d McInnis says. \u201cThe three of us were fairly biology-focused. I got into mushrooms through restaurants\u2013I cooked all through school at the Burning Tree restaurant in Mount Desert. But we all liked to forage for mushrooms in the woods downeast.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got basically two tracks to our business,\u201d he says. \u201cWe do spawn, which we sell to other [commercial mushroom] farms. And we also sell mushrooms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

North Spore mushrooms can be found in restaurants, the Portland Food Co-op, and other retail outlets. \u201cWe put out an availability report to restaurants every week, and we have a delivery van.\u201d They also have a thriving mail-order business for indoor and outdoor growing kits, medicinal products, dried mushrooms, and books.<\/span><\/p>\n

North Spore\u2019s spawning lab is the key to its success. \u201cWe had a leg-up because Jon has a graduate degree in mycology. We make master spawn from cells in petri dishes. We have a \u2018cell bank\u2019 of familiar and unusual mushroom varieties. I believe we\u2019re the largest specialty spawn producer catering to small growers and home cultivators in the east.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Block Farm<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mark Robinson of Cap \u2019n\u2019 Stem <\/strong>in Gardiner explains his company\u2019s place in the mycological food chain. They buy spawn mixed with grain from North Spore. \u201cFirst we incubate the mycelium\u2013the part of a mushroom that\u2019s underground\u2013in a temperature-controlled room.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This incubation room is \u201cfour or five thousand square feet. We\u2019ve got about 12,000 total square feet here,\u201d says Robinson. \u201cWe\u2019re in an old wool mill that later became a shoe factory. Now it\u2019s home to an commercial bakery and us.\u201d If nothing else, commercial mushroom cultivation seems to rival craft brewing for creative re-use of Maine\u2019s once-abandoned industrial spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cap \u2019n\u2019 Stem produces the colonized substrate bricks of\u00a0 <\/span>\u201ca mixture of red oak sawdust with different ratios of carbon and nitrogen,\u201d depending on the variety of mushroom. It\u2019s from these bricks that edible, organic mushrooms will grow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eliah Tannhauser at North Spore explains, \u201cIf this was tomato farming, we\u2019d say we sell tomato seeds. Cap \u2019n\u2019 Stem would sell the tomato seedlings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The substrate medium\u2013grain and sawdust\u2013is sourced from companies in Northern New England. \u201cOur red oak sawdust [is byproduct] from a company operating in Skowhegan and New Hampshire,\u201d says Robinson. Nothing goes to waste. \u201cOnce it\u2019s used in our process it can\u2019t be reused in the same way, but we can sell the spent substrate to farmers as a soil amendment that\u2019s high in nitrogen.\u201d After harvesting mushrooms from their bags of substrate, home growers can shake the spent medium right into the compost heap.<\/span><\/p>\n

Robinson sums up Cap \u2019n\u2019 Stem. \u201cWe\u2019re primarily business-to-business, selling substrate to commercial mushroom farms all over the country.\u201d The company also does retail online sales of shiitake, oyster, and lion\u2019s mane blocks for home growers. <\/span><\/p>\n

READY TO SHIP<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a unique situation with mushroom farming in Maine,\u201d says Aron Gonsalves of Mousam Valley Mushrooms <\/strong>in Springvale. His wife, Emily Sharood, and her family started the company in 2012. \u201cWe have strong relationships with the other farmers. North Shore in Westbrook makes the spawn. Cap \u2019n\u2019 Stem makes the [bricks] and sells them to us, and we fruit them out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Or, to complete the tomato analogy, Mousam Valley sells tomatoes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re shipping about 5,000 pounds of mushrooms a week,\u201d says Gonsalves, \u201cAnd we expect it\u2019ll be up to 10,000 pounds or more by the end of this year\u201d as the company implements some new production innovations.<\/p>\n

Mousam Valley presently employs 15 people and has a fleet of delivery vehicles. \u201cOur biggest business is with grocery stores, from Rosemont Markets to Hannaford.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 2018
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