2023 Local Food Guide

Gwen. “It’s hard work, but it’s
worthwhile—especially when
someone comes back to say
how much they enjoyed eating
mushrooms or that they feel
better after changing their
eating habits.”
Building the Business
Gwen and Jay didn’t set out
to be mushroom growers, but
couldn’t find suitable land for a
conventional farm. They decided
to figure out a niche that would
allow them to make the most
of sloped acreage and subpar
soil. Gwen had been studying
fungal ecology in a PhD program,
so mushrooms seemed like a
good fit.
At first they tried growing with
outdoor logs, but the labor and
materials cost was too high for the
yield. It was also unpredictable—
not conducive to a weekly market
schedule. “Outdoor logs didn’t
make sense to do as more than
a side hustle,” admits Gwen. “It
was important to us that we could
make a living at this.”
Indoor cultivation was a newer
concept, but one they realized
could be more financially viable
for them—even if there wasn’t a
lot of information on how to set
up systems. “It was hard to learn,”
says Gwen. “There are some
people teaching courses, but it’s
mostly on YouTube.” Gwen and
Jay worked off farm in 2017 and
2018 as they built infrastructure,
and in 2019 went full time on
the farm. In addition to farmers
markets, they started selling to
restaurants.
Most of Black Trumpet’s
mushrooms are grown yearround,
but they do swap some
types seasonally. Pink and golden
oysters do better in hotter
weather, whereas king blue
oysters and trumpets do better
in cold. By rotating strains, they’re
able to use less power, keeping
the grow rooms at 58 degrees
in the winter and 65 degrees in
the summer.
Indoor cultivation does create
sustainability tradeoffs with more
power usage and plastic grow
bags, notes Gwen. One way they
work to offset this is by using
sawdust recycled from local
furniture factories as a substrate.
They’re also planning to launch a
compost business this year.
In 2022, after two years of
construction, they completed a
new 2,000-square-foot growing
facility with more advanced HVAC
and solar panels. They estimate
their yield will double, or even
triple, over the next several years.
“We’re up to 1,000 pounds a
week,” says Gwen. “It’s really a
huge difference.” Plus, the new
facility gives them the ability to
grow new species, such as beech
and maitake.
With the increase in production
and new business on the horizon,
they’ve hired several employees.
Gwen and Jay—who had a baby
in January—are moving into
a phase where they can think
beyond the farm’s day-to-day
needs. For Gwen, that’s more
outreach and education.
“It’s been five years of constant
building things ourselves,” she
says. “We made it through the
pandemic, supply chain issues. I’m
happy to see us in a place of more
stability, but I’m ready to stop
building infrastructure and start
building the business.”
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