Mushroom Hobby Turned Into Business

Mushroom Hobby Turned Into Business CROPS New Techniques Tavis Lynch has turned a childhood interest and passion into a business As a young child he put mushrooms on stumps to see if new mushrooms would sprout the following year Today he sells mushrooms teaches about them and introduces others to his passion in a variety of ways “My father was into wild mushrooms and taught me which ones I could eat ” says Lynch “Everyone we knew thought we were crazy As he got into cultivating them so did I ” It wasn’t until he was an adult and discovered social media that he found others who shared his passion By the early 2000’s he was bartering the mushrooms he found and grew for maple syrup and eggs As the demand grew for his mushrooms he got serious about cultivating them “My dad took a couple of classes from Field and Forest Products Vol 32 No 5 and Vol 42 No 4 around 2010 and 2011 ” says Lynch “He took me along the second year It was a very intense program That was about the time I started growing mushrooms full-time ” Since then Lynch has taught about mushroom culture at a local technical college and the University of Wisconsin as well as in community education classes He leads mushroom foraging and identification events and has written two books and has two more underway He also hosts an annual gathering of wild mushroom fans including well-known chefs and nationally recognized experts in the field In his spare time he seeks out rare and yet undiscovered wild mushrooms in the forests of northern Wisconsin Lynch grows shiitake oyster and wine cap mushrooms at Tavis’s Mushrooms farm selling them there at farmers’ markets and to several restaurants He also sells a dozen different grow kits such as Black Pearl oysters and bags of medium already inoculated with spawn They are available locally and on his Facebook page These are ideal for people who want to harvest mushrooms without doing the preparation “Just open them up at home and watch the mushrooms grow; no tools needed ” he says “A $25 bag will produce from 4 to 6 lbs of mushrooms Even a child can do it ” While Lynch makes his living growing and selling mushrooms he’s a strong advocate for people growing their own He suggests starting with easy-to-grow types outdoors as he did years ago “Oysters were the easiest as I could do them without any sterile techniques ” says Lynch “They can be grown in a flowerpot filled with coffee grounds From there I went to shitake wine caps and Lion’s Mane Things get a little tougher as you have to be more careful ” Of those he suggests wine caps are the easiest to grow especially with a method he developed now promoted on the Field and Forest website www fieldforest net It involves a bale of straw and spawn Lynch provides detailed instructions in “Mushroom Cultivation: An Illustrated Guide to Growing Your Own Mushrooms at Home ” It covers growing mushrooms on logs straw sawdust and wood chips as well as on compost A chapter on problems and solutions covers concerns a grower may have Processing and preparation are also covered as well as what to do with the finished product “The Beginners Guide to Mushrooms Everything You Need to Know From Foraging to Cultivating” was co-authored by Britt Bunyard and covers major groups of mushrooms and where they grow as well as mushroom cultivation and culinary uses and preservation “It’s a guide to wild mushrooms of the northern hemisphere ” says Lynch “My co-author helped with mushrooms of Asia and Europe and I covered North America ” The northern third of Wisconsin has the greatest mushroom diversity in North America Four different forest zones merge here each with its own species He describes it as a collision zone of trees that aren’t supposed to grow together As a result some mushrooms are only found there both edible and inedible even toxic “For me it’s not just about edibility ” says Lynch “I’m more fascinated with what cool and interesting mushrooms we have here I’m increasingly concentrating on collecting photos versus a payload of mushrooms for the table ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Tavis’s Mushrooms 1323B 2nd Ave Cumberland Wis 54829 ph 715-419-2399; mushroomtavis@gmail com; Facebook: Tavis’s Mushrooms

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.