Mushrooms are not your typical crop, but they grow well in Wisconsin… in temperature controlled grow rooms that is at this past weekend’s Farmer’s Market on the square in Madison I stopped by a vendor selling fresh mushrooms and I tell you what, there is a lot more than just spreading seed around involved in growing delicious fungus ..
I met Ned Palm whom owns and operates Palm’s Mushroom Cellar, an independent mushroom farm outside of Helenville, WI. Ned built the farm back in 1980 after working on a nearby mushroom farm during high school. His job at that farm, which is now closed, a couple classes at Penn State, and trial and error taught him what he needed to know to successfully grown mushrooms. Today the Cellar currently grows White Button, Cremini, and Portobello mushrooms for the intent of selling to anyone within the Wisconsin boarders. Retail, wholesale, Farmer’s markets, and restaurants are how the mushrooms are generally sold, and as Ned explains when he first started he had to bang on a lot of doors but today most of his customers come to him, and he likes it that way.
Another interesting part of production is the byproducts as the spent mushroom substrate, also known as mushroom compost is also for sale by any quantity, but supplies are limited to what we have on hand. This compost is highly sought after by horticulturalist and gardeners alike; Ned himself even spreads the stuff on his corn fields!
Like most commercial mushrooms growing facilities the farm uses the Dutch Tray method of cultivation and creates its own compost from high quality materials. There are currently eight large growing chambers, which are on a very precise schedule.
Listen to Bryant and Ned Palms interview by clicking the link below
