Meet the Mill City Farmers Market Vendors Series - A Discussion with Jeremy and Aimee McAdams of Northwoods Mushrooms

Article by Becky Fillinger, photos provided

Aimee and Jeremy McAdams

I learned so much in interviewing mushroom farmers Jeremy and Aimee McAdams. The cultivation process is fascinating and their crop varieties are delicious, beautiful and bountiful. You'll find Northwoods Mushrooms at every summer and winter Mill City Farmers Market. 

Q:  How did you get started in mushroom farming?

Aimee:  Jeremy's first career was architecture, and that career is either feast or famine. A huge number of architects were laid off, including Jeremy, in 2008. Jeremy was tired of those ups and downs and a bit disillusioned about having to design parking garages and airport shops, so he started looking into his other love: growing food. He went to a Bioneers conference and took a workshop about mushrooms from Paul Stamets. Then he bought one of those indoor, table-top grow kits. It produced a few mushrooms, it was fun. Jeremy then looked into inoculating our own home kits. We got a bale of straw, which Jeremy had to cut into little bits by hand with scissors! There was straw everywhere! The straw needed to be cleaned, and the best we could do was boiling it in a pot on the stove and then strain it out in the tub. And then we needed to call in a plumber for the straw clog that caused in the drain! We mixed the straw up with spawn, packed it in bags, and waited. Something grew eventually...but nothing edible! Then Jeremy decided to go out and buy 100 logs and inoculate them. Then one beautiful morning in September 2009, we stepped out the back door and there were shiitake mushrooms growing all over the logs! It was magical and we were hooked!

Q:  What types of mushrooms do you cultivate, and why did you choose them?

Jeremy:  We are currently growing varieties both on logs and indoors on blocks. Our log-grown varieties are shiitake, oyster, nameko, chestnut, lion’s mane, olive oysterling, and turkey tail. Our indoor block-grown varieties are shiitake and oyster (when the outdoor logs aren't producing), black pearl, black poplar, chestnut, lion's mane, and reishi. We have also grown some in-ground kinds in the past, and may again in the future - wine caps and almond agaricus.

Above, a lion's mane mushroom - so exotic!

Mushrooms aren't exactly easy to grow - each variety wants a certain kind of log type or growing medium, and each wants a particular environment to grow in: heat and humidity levels. We grow the mushrooms we grow because they have worked for us, and they’re delicious! We don't grow cremini or button mushrooms as they need a whole different system for growing that we're not set up for - and it would be pointless as there are some massive farms growing those already. 

Every now and then we try a new mushroom (to us) to see how it works for us, if we have the right environment for that type to succeed. 

Q:  Can you walk us through the process of growing mushrooms?

Jeremy:  For log grown mushrooms, we cut new logs every year. We work with landowners who are looking to thin a forested area to maintain the health of the woods. We look for trees that are between 3 to 6 inches in diameter and cut them into 4-foot lengths. We drill holes in the logs, 100-150 holes per log, depending on the size. Then we use a special inoculator tool that pushes spawn into each hole and caps it. Spawn is just the mushroom organism, mycelium, mixed up in some sawdust or other growing medium.

A log gets inoculated

Once the logs are all inoculated, we move them to an incubation area. We lay them down close to the ground and make sure they get watered for a “controlled rot.” This incubation period is when the mycelium spreads throughout the log. Ideally, logging starts in November or December and wraps up in February, and inoculations can start as soon as we have logs and hopefully wrap up by May.

After incubating, some of the logs might start producing mushrooms as early as August! But generally, they keep incubating for the rest of the year and into the next year. A year after setting them out to incubate, we move them farther up in our shade structure to crib stacks (picture Lincoln Logs). Some of these are now ready to force-fruit. This means we soak them in a tank of cold water overnight before setting them up in a greenhouse. The cold water "shocks" the mycelium into producing mushrooms, and the greenhouse protects them from wind and soaking rain.

Then the mushrooms start growing and we pick and pick! After all the mushrooms are picked, we move the logs back to the shade structure to rest. We'll repeat that force-fruiting process again about two months later, and then again twice the following summer. We've always got new logs incubating, logs that are on their first year growing, logs on their second (and final for us) year, and older logs.

Q:  That’s so interesting! How do you ensure the quality and safety of your mushrooms for consumers?

Aimee:  For safety, we have lots of procedures regarding refrigeration, wearing gloves at all times while handling the mushrooms, etc. We have a rule that if a mushroom ever drops, it needs to stay there! We've all dropped mushrooms when picking and you know when it happens - suddenly you hear a groan or an 'aargh!' from somewhere in the stacks. "I just dropped the most beautiful mushrooms!" While we always recommend cooking mushrooms, we know people might like to try them raw, so we make sure they are clean and can be eaten that way. For quality, we pick our mushrooms twice every single day of the year to make sure they're perfect. We know they'll taste great and we want them to look great, too!

Q:  Are there any sustainable practices you implement in your mushroom farming operation?

Jeremy:  Growing mushrooms on logs is one of the most sustainable way to grow mushrooms. We harvest our logs with a mind to thinning and managing forest land - making space for the trees left behind to get bigger.

Mushrooms grown in beds can also be quite sustainable – especially how we do it! We use the wood chips from inoculations as a growing medium for wine caps. Also, old mushroom logs that aren't as productive anymore can be used for garden borders, Hügelkultur, terracing, or back-yard fires.

Q:  What do you enjoy most about being a mushroom farmer?

Aimee:  Jeremy's favorite time is the brief logging season each year. Going out in January in the freezing weather when the woods are so quiet and beautiful, seeing the wildlife around, and seeing how the forest changes from year to year. 

Seeing the mushrooms starting to grow on the logs again every spring, it's still magical even after 15+ years. Our cameras are just full of mushroom pictures, you'd think we'd get bored with them or think "If you've seen one, you've seen them all," but that's just not the case. They are all so beautiful! 

Q:  I agree, the photos are stunning! Can you share any interesting or unexpected insights you've gained from your experience in mushroom farming?

Jeremy:  You learn a lot more about our food system as a farmer in general. Before farming we knew that many people are disconnected from farmers and from where food comes from and how it's grown. But there is a whole other hidden part about how that food gets to people in the first place - middleman distributors that buy from the farmer and sell to grocery stores; the people making the decisions about what food products to buy; decisions about where to place things in stores, what shelves, what departments. There is a lot going on between us picking mushrooms any given day and those mushrooms being selected by a shopper at a grocery store. 

Q:  When will we see you at the Mill City Farmers Market?

A:  You can see us at the Mill City Farmers Market all the time! We're at every summer market and every winter market. Follow us on Instagram.

In addition to fresh and dried mushrooms, Northwoods also sells log kits (which will develop like the Shiitake version shown above) and other related products at the Mill City Farmers Market. Look for them to the right of the demo station at train shed entry.

Photo: Mill City Times

Photo: Mill City Times