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Episode 13 of Let's Talk Clermont. We visit Richlife Farm and Fungi in New Richmond to talk with founder and owner Pete Richman about the art and science of indoor mushroom cultivation. Pete shares how he and his wife Emalee turned a homegrown hobby into a full-time farm producing hundreds of pounds of gourmet mushrooms every week.

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We've been living in sin so long.   All  

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Welcome to episode 13 of Let's Talk Claremont. I am your host, Patrick.   And, thank you for listening.   We always appreciate everybody who's tuning in, and we're doing pretty well. We're getting new listeners.   And if you are new, I'll just say that, normally, we would, start this off with   a little bit of news from around the county or from legislation from the state house,   but I didn't really, find anything. And, it's kind of a function of me just getting back from vacation and having to catch up on a lot of work stuff. And there just really wasn't anything interesting that I could find. So instead of going through some news, we'll jump into the interview. But before that, I do wanna talk about,   how we're a value for value podcast.  

And what that means is that if you find value in what we're doing,   all we ask is that you show some value, in return, and that can be in the form of time, talent, and treasure. And as I've said many times before, treasure is great. If you wanna send some money, shoot us an email. We'll make it happen.   But   time and talent just as just as important.   If   especially if there are things going on in your community that you think we should know about or that, other people in Claremont should know about, and that can be things going on in local government. That can be events that are going on in your community.   Really anything. We wanna hear from you. We wanna hear from people in the county, and we wanna talk about the things that that everybody's interested in. So,   a really good way to interact with us is our Facebook page at Let's Talk Claremont podcast. You can find us at Instagram at Let's Talk Claremont.  

And you can also follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.   And that's a really easy way to stay up to date with what we're doing and get notified,   when a new episode comes out. And you can also email us at info@let'stalkclaremont.com,   and we would love to hear from you. And if you got a really interesting note, I'll read it off on air so you can you can be Claremont County famous,   from having your your letter read on air,   by me.   Okay. So today, we, we interviewed Pete Richman. He is the founder and owner of Rich Life Farm,   and they are a mushroom farm here right here in Clermont County. I'm not sure if they're the only one, but if if they're not the only one, they're probably one of two or three.  

And we just talk all things mushrooms,   which is great because   I love mushrooms. I   personally, I've grown oysters and lion's mane, and it's a a really fun hobby. It was also really fun to see   somebody who's doing it professionally because it's   it's a very intensive process. Labor not just labor, but, you know, you've gotta think about a lot of different things.   Contamination   is a real problem. You can lose an entire crop   just from it being contaminated with stuff that's in the air.   And we also talk about some, you know, medicinal mushrooms and and how to cook mushrooms and things like that. So,   as I've said with all of these interviews, it was really great, and we'll probably talk to Pete again at some time.  

And, obviously, thank you to him for having us out there.   Oh, and he also gave me some of his mushrooms. It was   a   a, oh, bear's tooth. I believe it was a bear's tooth mushroom.   But I cooked it up pretty simple.   Just put some olive oil, salt, pepper on it, and roasted it in the   oven, and it was really delicious. So   I I don't I think he might go to I can't remember if he goes to farmer's markets, but I know he sells wholesale to some restaurants. So if you're looking to, to find some of his mushrooms out there in in the wild, so to speak,   you can go to his website, and I think they they show you,   what restaurants feature his mushrooms.  

But it's a great interview, and I hope you enjoy it.  

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So   I always start these things with just tell us who you are and what you do. So my name is Pete Richman.  

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My wife, Emily, and I own Rich Life Farm and Fungi in New Richman, Ohio,   and we grow gourmet mushrooms   indoors   so that we can harvest fresh mushrooms every day of the year.  

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So   how how did you get into mushrooms? I mean, we're sitting in your your production facility, and there's tons of bags and mushrooms everywhere.   Like, how did this all start?   So  

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there's a few different places that feel like to start, but I guess since we're in a podcast, we'll go all the way back.   Yeah. After I graduated high school, I grew up in Cincinnati.   My parents really encouraged me to not take the college route to   get out and experience life. So I took a year off and   traveled around, worked on a bunch of different farms,   and spent some time on a farm   outside of Frankfort, Kentucky that was owned by the head of the forestry department at UK.   And her big thing was non timber forest products. So finding value in wooded land without   cutting the trees down. And she was a big proponent of growing shiitake mushrooms on logs.  

And that was the first time I'd ever seen mushrooms being cultivated,   first time I ever enjoyed eating a mushroom,   and that was definitely the initial spark.   After that, went down to school in North Carolina   and studied natural resource conservation management. So basically a forestry degree.   Met my wife, Emily, down there.   And   then after graduating, I realized I didn't wanna spend the rest of my life cutting down trees or fighting,   forest fires. You know? Wanted to get back into agriculture,   but didn't really know how. At the time, we were living in a rented house, had a small garden, but there was only so much we could do. And then   remember watching a YouTube video on growing oyster mushrooms on straw. Which, which YouTube video? At this point, I don't even remember. It might have been, like, a fresh cap mushroom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They've got a lot of really good resources.  

I don't know what it was, but that was   it just kinda, like, hooked me there, and I started, you know,   buying and reading any book I could find, like, Paul Stamets, also in this, Trad Cotter, lots of really good   resources out there,   and eventually   tried it for myself. So I started growing some oyster mushrooms on straw,   had a small greenhouse in our laundry room that I was rooting them out in. Yeah. And   I I loved it. Like, every morning, I'd wake up. I'd go check my mushrooms, see how much they've grown. I'd get home from work.   They they're basically doubling in size every twenty four hours. So   I have ADHD,   and it's perfect for my brain. Like, I I see this progress happening right in front of me, and   then it quickly just took over our house. So I built out a lab in our spare bedroom.  

Do you have a flow hood in your spare bedroom? Eventually built the, flow hood, put that in the spare bedroom,   running a fresher sterilizer on our stovetop Yeah. All the time.   Built a or had a greenhouse on our back porch that I was fruiting mushrooms in.   So it quickly took off and then   I think Why did Emily take all that? She was not on board at that time. I can't say she liked it at all.  

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When she tells this so my wife is never on board with things I get into. When she tells the origin story, there's definitely,  

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I don't know, maybe not animosity, but   I feel like I tell it as, like, a a journey or adventure, and she   Or have had a trial. Yes. Definitely.   So, yeah, at a certain point, she got fed up, and   we bought a, like, 200 square foot shed and put everything in there. And that was, like, the earliest iteration   of ever taking this to a   commercial scale. Yeah.   You know, I had, like, a   small area sectioned off as my lab, small incubation space, and then a little fruiting room.   And   that was when I first tried to approach restaurants and actually sell this product. So did you just go to the restaurant and were like, hey. I've got these mushrooms? Well, I never really wanted to because I'm not a very, like Yeah. I'm shy and, you know, I don't wanna go You just wanna grow a mushroom? Yeah. I was just psyched about growing mushrooms, and I was like, well, this is taking up our refrigeration space also. And, yeah, we have to get rid of this. Yeah. I I might get divorced if I don't do something. Yes. So,   yeah, that may have been the   kick in the butt I needed. So,   yeah, go out there, start knocking on restaurant doors.  

At the time, we were living in my wife's hometown down in North Carolina,   and there's a really great restaurant scene there. So I was   relatively successful, had a couple regular customers down there.   But there's,   there were some other farms doing it, and it was kind of a limited market. There's a lot of, like, forage mushrooms also down in that part of the country. Really? So it never really,   appeared as though it could be something full time   and, like, an actual commercial operation.   So   I guess it was the end of twenty nineteen.   We   started thinking about making the move and actually   making mushroom cultivation a full time gig.  

When I would come up to visit family, I'd fill up the car with boxes of mushrooms,   start approaching chefs in the Cincinnati area, knocking on the back doors of restaurants,   talking with people that we knew that were already in the restaurant scene.   And at the time, it seemed like there was really nobody doing it, and there was a lot of demand,   relatively open market. So   we   sold our house in North Carolina in March of twenty twenty   and   moved up here, stayed with my parents for a few months. For COVID to hit all the restaurants to shut down. Yeah. It was perfect. The   I mean, I remember when we were driving up, we were like, okay. We have our closing papers on, like, the passenger seat of the cars and,   the moving van we were driving. It was like, it was a weird time. Yeah. I was like, are we allowed to cross state lines? If, looking back at all, it doesn't seem to have that severity to it anymore, but, yeah, it was pretty weird. Yeah. And I remember it because we had had our daughter,  

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like, in May of twenty twenty. Wow. And it was I mean, the hospital was Yeah. It was terrifying. Yeah. That's a scary place to be. Yeah. Yeah. We wanted to get out of there as soon as we humanly could. Mhmm. And and we did. So  

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So then,   we found   our farm here in,   I guess, in April of twenty twenty and moved in at the May.   When we moved here, this was basically the shell of a pole barn.   There was no insulation.   There was electric down here.   We basically framed out all of these rooms.   It was really hard to find contractors at the time because Yes. Everybody was, you know, remodeling or adding a deck on things like that, and   nobody really wanted to come   help us build out this strange mushroom farm. No matter what we're trying to do, nobody else had nobody else really saw the vision of it. So, except for my dad and my Tough to convince people on mushrooms. Definitely. Like, that's my vision. That's what I wanna do. Yeah. But, fortunately, we had a lot of support from my parents. My dad's a carpenter, so he was really instrumental with helping us frame out walls. He would come out and kind of, like, run Emily and I through how to do things in the morning, and then he would leave, and we'd spend the rest of the day   framing,   pulling electrical, all sorts of stuff. We definitely had some, some help along the way, but, yeah, pretty much designed and built it ourselves.  

And then   let's see, at the end of twenty twenty, we were relatively   finished building everything out,   started to do, like, some of the culture work on the back end to get things moving.   And then   beginning of twenty twenty one, started growing mushrooms,   got our   inspection to sell wholesale, I think, in March of twenty twenty one and kinda hit the ground running,   yeah, that spring and yeah.  

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So   I have a feeling that not many people understand   how mushrooms are actually produced.   Can you just walk through the whole cycle?  

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Yeah. So,   basically, everything that we grow is known as   a saprophytic or sapro trophic acidomycete.   That basically means it just it feeds on dead or dying plant material. Right. So everything we grow grows on an oak sawdust based substrate that we amend with different things   depending on the species we're growing.   Pretty much everything that we grow right now grows on a the oak sawdust supplemented with   soybean hulls, like byproduct of pressing soybeans for oil,   for a lot of soybeans in Ohio. So it's the Probably readily available.   Yeah. And that's basically a carbon source. It's a sawdust. The nitrogen source is the soy hulls.  

And   that's basically the food, the growing medium for the mushrooms that we're cultivating.   In order to   wipe the slate clean, reduce the competition for the fungi that we're trying to grow, we pasteurize that growing medium.   We use steam to heat it up to 200 degrees,   and   it's not gonna totally sterilize the substrate that requires pressure,   but it's good enough for everything that we're trying to grow.   Then we take that growing medium while it's still hot,   roll it into our lab,   and that's a clean environment. There's HEPA air filtration,   and that's where we're introducing the mushroom culture into that growing medium.  

And   then we   seal that up and put a batch code on it so that we can trace it through its entire growth,   track things back if we have any issues,   and then it goes into our incubation room. And that's basically where the fungi   is breaking down the growing medium,   building up energy,   and   just kind of going through its vegetative process and how you can think of it.   So fungi, the whole kingdom of fungi have, you know, several unique characteristics, but one of them is that they digest their food externally. So they're secreting enzymes out into that growing medium, kind of traveling through there,   breaking it down, and then absorbing those nutrients through their cell wall.  

So that's all that's going on in, like, the incubation process.   Then when they're ready, there's different triggers depending on the exact species to know when they're ready to go into fruiting.   But we are basically mimicking the things that naturally cause mushrooms to fruit in the wild,   temperature change, humidity,   disturbing the mycelium a little bit.   And all of those things are gonna cause the mushroom to go for that the mycelium to go from a vegetative state into its reproductive state. The mushroom is just the reproductive body of the fungus. So I think a lot of people don't realize that that when you see a mushroom,  

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that's   not the animal. Like, the animal is the mycelium,  

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and it can be a vast network under the ground. Yeah. It's, it's pretty wild. I mean, I think that's why they're so underappreciated as as they you know, most of the time, they're out of view, and then they pop up for a few days, maybe a week, and then they're gone again. Yeah. And so, yeah, you're kinda taught to fear those kind of things because they're unknown,   relatively unstudied.  

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So, yeah, it's, pretty cool to get to work with them every year. I I'd I'll be honest. I am jealous. I am jealous of your mushroom, grow room here. So you talked a little bit about sanitation and cleaning. I don't I don't think a lot of people would suspect how much sanitation goes into this. Can you just talk about   what you have to do to keep things clean around here   and why? Yeah.  

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We often joke that we are janitors at a mushroom farm.   We kind   of move the fungi around as they need and give it the right environment, but then most of the time, it's just cleaning.   So, yeah, like, we are pasteurizing our substrate.   That's gonna wipe the slate clean of any competition in that growing medium,   and it's just gonna make it that much easier for the fungi that we're trying to grow to   take hold and   do what we want them to do. So that's kind of where it all starts.   But then when we   got a little fuzz on this. I do too.   But then, you know, in our lab, we've got the HEPA air filtration   so that that pasteurized growing medium   staying clean   as we're opening it up and introducing that mushroom culture.  

We're not introducing any   bacteria, fungi,   additional competition.   Possible and maintain the production and yields that we need to to remain commercially   viable.   But, yeah, there's air filtration in our lab. There's actually two HEPA filters we inoculate.   That's inoculation is like introducing the mushroom culture into the growing medium.   We do that in front of a HEPA air filter   and just to ensure cleanliness the whole time.   Even, you know, as   the people that are entering and exiting the building, we are the biggest contamination vectors. So when we go into our lab, we   shower beforehand. We wear freshly cleaned clothes.  

No dogs, I imagine. No dogs. No. The the dogs will look at us across the room.   Oh, can't touch you. I'm sorry.   Get down here as fast as possible.   Get into the lab and, yeah, try to maintain cleanliness the whole time.   And then   our incubation room,   it stays clean as a result of being adjacent to the lab and having that clean air blow through the whole time. There's also not a lot going on as far as,   the fungi outside of their sealed bags.   But then when they go into fruiting, that's arguably the dirtiest part of the whole process where, you know, humidifying the room.   So it's creating an environment that's also conducive to all sorts of things that we don't want growing.  

And in some regards, they are, like, potentially,   like, foodborne   illness causing   things. So it's critical to maintain a clean environment in there, not only for the fungi to grow the way that we want them to, but also from a food safety standpoint.   We're inspected by the Ohio Department of Agriculture,   as a result of selling wholesale. But because mushrooms are grown indoors, they're kind of under a stricter set of guidelines   because the same conditions they grow in, all of these other harmful things grow. So it's critical that we maintain cleanliness in there,   you know, sweeping up after we harvest   to just reduce the load on the floors.  

But, yeah, just maintain a clean environment is critical for the fungi growth. Yeah. And I imagine it's  

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just a never ending job.  

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Yes. It's, you know, we I like that we're just janitors at a mushroom point. Yeah. I mean, it's it might be a bleak way to look at life. There's   I I only feel that way sometimes.  

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Most of the time, I feel very fortunate. On hour ten of of scrubbing the floors is   scrubbing your arms down and making sure you have nothing on you. Yes. It's,  

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yeah, can be a little feel a little OCD at times, but, yeah, it's definitely better to be preventative than, reactive. So Because, I mean, even just a little bit of contamination  

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could spoil   your entire   crop. Yeah. And it's, like, you know, exponential as we're And contamination, it's just like stuff in the air. Yep. You know, it's it's not Yeah. We talk about cycle error and yeah. Stuff's everywhere. Exactly. You know? Yeah. And a lot of these things are,  

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like, beneficial soil microbes   that to us are competition for the fungi. So the things that are all around us at all times, but, yeah, those are real threat too. I'm gonna take a real quick pause and check this.  

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Hang on a second.   So, anyway, I'm sorry. I didn't, I didn't mean to interrupt.   We were talking about contamination.   I'd I'd, obviously, would wanna know what kind of mushrooms you grow here. Yeah. So you grow   a variety of oyster mushrooms. That's,   probably this time of year,  

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two or no. Probably a a third to maybe a half of our production is just various oyster varieties. A lot of blue oyster mushrooms.   The blue oysters in particular are just really mild and versatile,   so they're   great   with   really any kind of cooking. If I'm grabbing mushrooms for dinner, I'm probably gonna grab some blue oysters if I don't know what we're gonna have for dinner because they'll go great with anything.   But then there's also a lot of, seasonality. The oyster mushrooms, they've basically adapted to live in every non permanently frozen environment on Earth. So there's tropical varieties that will grow in the summer. There's cold weather varieties that will grow in the winter. I didn't know there was that much variety with oysters. Yeah. And, you know, like, despite the fact that we're inside,   it's   there's still a lot of seasonality. We can't take the   90 degree, 90% humidity air down to the same temperature we can in the wintertime. So it's,   nice to play to the seasons. It helps us out a little bit. But, yeah, there's tropical varieties of oyster mushrooms like pink oysters,   and   then there's cold weather varieties like king oysters or like the nebradini oyster.  

Yeah. Pink oysters are really cool, but I will say they have an incredibly short shelf life. Yeah. They also really don't take the refrigeration well,   probably as a result of being in a place that is always nice and warm. Yeah. So,   as beautiful as they are, they're not one we enjoy growing because you really have to time them perfectly to be sold the day they are harvested.   Is that for all oysters?   No. The pinks in particular because they have, like, a two or three day shelf life. Whereas, like, the blue oysters,   you can easily get a week to ten days, if not two weeks in proper refrigeration.  

But, you know, we always wanna make sure that our customers have   optimal time to work with the product.   So, you know, we're always trying to sell things as fresh as   So what others and I saw some piopinos back there. Yeah. So then there's a a few, like, specialty varieties we grow. Piopino mushrooms. It's an Italian variety.   Really rich flavor to them, kinda reminiscent of, like, the tannins in red wine. They've got a neat, like there's got a really nice long stem on them. You can eat that whole thing. It's got similar texture to asparagus, so it has a nice crunch to it.   We grow a chestnut mushrooms.  

They've,   got a nice nutty flavor. They've got a similarly crunchy stem as the piopino,   and they've got a slightly sticky cap. And it works great as, like, a natural thickener for sauces, souk, things like that.   We grow a few varieties of hericium.   So lion's mane,   one that's being studied a lot right now for its neuro regenerative   properties.   And then in the same genus as lion's mane, we grow comb tooth.   All the same medicinal properties of the lion's mane, but I think it's much easier to cook with. Okay. It's got a lot more surface area, a little bit lower moisture content, so it's really easy to just, like, saute, roast in the oven. Is the taste roughly the same? So I think the lion's mane's kinda subtly sweet. Yep. We always make, like, a a mock crab cake with the lion's mane. Yeah. Yeah. It's got, like you know, it shreds apart nicely, but then it has that, like, little bit of sweetness to it. It's also got a nice bite. Yeah. Definitely.   The comb tooth, I think, is a little more, like, on the   savory umami side of things, but still a relatively   mild mushroom. How would you cook with the comb tooth? Because it is kind of a weird looking mushroom. Definitely. So I think it cooks more similarly to an oyster. So we'll take it, and I'll just shred it apart and either roast it or saute it. My wife really likes to do, like, a course chop on it and use it as, like, a ground meat substitute or filler.  

So make, like,   ground meat taco with it, but nothing that comb tooth mushroom for it. Or we have some customers at farmer's markets that will, like, cut their ground beef with it and use it to make meatballs and things like that. So it just has, like, a really nice chew to it. Yeah. And,   yeah, lends itself well to, you know, being Do you find yourself eating a lot of mushrooms? So when we first started off, we had a rule. It was like, no more than four meals a week can we eat mushrooms. You don't wanna get high on your own supply. Right? That and just don't wanna burn yourself out. But I will say,   we're getting better, but there was a time where that rule never   was an issue. Like, we would be lucky if we would eat mushrooms once a week, and sometimes that was because we were selling all mushrooms we grew Yeah. And we were selling out everywhere.  

Other times, it's just because  

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you get kinda burned out on mushrooms when you are seeing them. Well, I imagine after your twelfth hour of cleaning this place Yes. You don't necessarily wanna see a mushroom Yeah. Or spend a whole lot of time to cook dinner. Definitely.  

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So we're getting better at it and just, like, finding easy recipes to incorporate with the mushrooms.   Especially now that it's summertime,   I really like grilled mushrooms.   So, yeah, just trying to keep enough energy to wanna cook dinner at the end of the day. And, yeah. I think that's a problem no matter what you're doing. It just applies the energy. It's end of the day to do anything. Yeah. Definitely. Doesn't get easier as you get older either. Yeah. And then when you have   ingredients and not food ready to eat Yeah. It's, yeah, It's a challenge to get creative and figure things out. So Definitely is. Yes. So you've got,  

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lion's mane I'm sorry. Was it comb to comb tooth,   piopinos, chestnuts. You got I saw some Shiitake's back there. Shakis. Yes.  

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So for   last few years, we've done all of our Shiitake production in house,   but they take considerably longer than every other variety that we grow. And Have you ever done them on logs? We actually do have some logs going up in the woods. Okay. But they just produce such a small amount for the effort. I mean Can you explain to people the difference between So okay. So we grow on an oak sawdust based substrate. You can kinda throw it out like a bag of sawdust. Yeah. So I think of it as a mechanically digestive log. Yep. So it's got all that surface area, same nutritional,   content and things like that. But all that additional surface area just makes it that much easier for the fungi to break it down.  

So what would take   a year to eighteen months   outside on a log,   we're able to do in   three to   twelve weeks indoors on the sawdust based substrate.   So it's much faster turnaround.   Log cultivation is typically, like, much lower tech, typically outdoors or in, like, a minimally controlled environment.   It's popular in Japan. Right? That's LA. I mean, that's I believe shiitakes were the first mushroom ever documented as being cultivated. Oh, I didn't know that. And,   there's, like, some really old illustrations   of like, there's a lot of lore around throwing shiitake mushrooms on logs, but they, were basically taking logs that had   rooted shiitakes on them,   banging them on other logs because they knew that that was somehow they They're reducing. But   I don't know if they had a concept of spores and Yeah. Mushroom reproduction.  

So it's all kind of, you know, boggy as to what they actually knew. But, yeah, Shiitakes were,   I guess, supposed to be the first mushroom ever cultivated.   But, yeah, in Japan, there's a lot more,   I   think,   value in   Shiitake mushrooms than there is in The US. So there's,  

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like, 20 or 30 different So they're actually gonna be more expensive in Japan?  

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I would say there's a wider range of prices because there is more Japan also those, like, $600 watermelon. Exactly. So you have, like, that upper echelon, like, the highest quality shiitakes out there, but then you also have, like, you know, mass produced   farmed Right.   Shiitakes as well. So just like the appreciation, there's so many more grades   of Shiitakes   and just, like, based on quality, appearance, size, all those things,   whereas in The US,   we Is it a Shiitake? Yeah. That is the quest. We don't create our Shiitakes, and I don't think there's enough   demand for us to to even justify it. Well, it's I think it's a lot of a cultural thing too. Exactly. Why it's yeah. In The US, we You go to somebody and tell them this is the highest grade shiitake. There's, well, does it taste like a shiitake? Exactly. Yeah. I'm not gonna be able to use $500 for that. Yeah. We consume, like, 1% of the world's mushrooms. As of maybe five years ago now, it might have gone up a little bit. But, Who consumes who's the lawyer? Is it Japan? Who I would say   Asia or Eastern Europe. I'm not sure if maybe I would say China or Japan as far as, like, total. But, yeah, there are cultures that have appreciated and consumed mushrooms historically,   typically, like, Eastern Europe or Asia. And then,   like, Western Europe seem to have a, like, big fear of mushrooms, you know, and toadstools, things like that. I mean, they are  

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you know, you talk about things like destroying angels and, like, there are mushrooms out there as it'll, like, kill you in three days. To be cautious. Yeah. Definitely.  

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But, yeah, sometimes it turned into a little bit of an irrational fear, I suppose. Yeah. So, you know, people in The US, I think, kind of got that more Western European   view of mushrooms and fungi and,   yeah. Also, it's kinda hard to like mushrooms when you're only,   offered, like, white button mushrooms at the grocery store. So Right. Yeah. I know white buttons.  

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I mean, I guess they're necessary, but there's just   there's a whole world of mushrooms out there outside of white buttons. And I feel like people who say I don't like mushrooms. It's like, well, you don't like white button mushrooms. Yeah. You should really try  

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some other mushrooms because they're all different. They all taste different. Exactly. And I think people are, yep, feeling more adventurous, and I think mushrooms are much more they're saying, hey. I'm not as dull as sure that they do add any. So, yeah, people are much more interested and willing to kinda check things out.   But, yeah, getting back to other varieties with oh, I'm sorry. No. You're good. I kind of took that on a tangent.   Let's see. In the wintertime, we actually grow. We're kinda phasing it out as it warms up and gets into summer, but golden enoki,   you're familiar with, like, ramen. There's, you know, white enoki served on those. Those are the long Yep. Kind of thin Yes. Very thin stem. Several has what do those taste like? So they have, actually, I believe, like, the highest concentrations of glutamate. So, like, the g of MSG   Oh, okay. Like, in a natural form. They have a really savory umami flavor to them.  



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Umami is just like that safe or unique. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah  

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Oh, really? Yeah. And, we've actually got a few stumps that fruit them on our property.   So it's cool to be able to have something that, you know, grows so close,   but be able to bring it into cultivation.   And,   like, the long white there, the long stems on those are caused by, like, elevated c o two levels in their growing environment.   So   fungi like humans inhale oxygen and exhale c o two.  

[00:32:37] Unknown:

So That is important to note. They're not plants. Like, it's photosynthesis.   They   or not expire.  

[00:32:44] Unknown:

What's respirate? Is that the right word you want? They breathe. Yeah. They breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Yeah. A lot of times we're kind of left trying to draw these parallels between fungi and plants, but fungi are actually more closely related to animals. Yeah.   They're all kind of thing. Yeah. It's a very strange thing. So you kinda have to find these analogies and things to make them relatable to people. But when they grow in a high c o two environment, they basically grow really long stems and small caps, kind of stretching out in search of fresh air. Yep. So you can Kinda like a plant would if its sunlight wasn't enough. Exactly. Yeah. They get real leggy. Mhmm.   So we're able to, like, take something that naturally would form, like, a really tight cluster, but try to coax out some of those cultivated forms from it. Yeah. Try to keep things interesting and fun on the farm. So how many things do you have just growing out in the wild out here? I'm assuming it's all for personal usage. You're not So as far as, like, cultivating outdoors Yeah. We have   some shiitake logs outdoors. We do grow some reishi outside.  

Okay.   Reishi is not technically like an edible mushroom. It's well, like,   Yeah. Yeah. But it's known as, like, the mushroom of immortality   in Chinese medicine.   It's got got a lot of really good medicinal compounds in it, but it takes a really long time to grow. So it's just not something we can dedicate the space to in here, so we cultivate that outdoors.   It really likes the, like, hot humid summers we have here in Cincinnati.   So we will   inoculate it the same way we do the rest of our varieties,   but then   come, like, June or July, we'll take that and actually plant them in the ground outside,   dig a hole, put the block in. So that it Just straight in the ground. Yep. And So the are kind of a shelf like looking mushroom, aren't they? So those are another one that can be,   kind of,   their form changes based on the   c o two concentration. So they'll have a really long antlers in high c o two, and then once they get fresh air, they'll grow nice conks or Leah.  

Yeah. Conk, a good word.   But, yeah, they're Kinda like those mushrooms you see on trees. Yeah. Like, the shelf of that are sure like a shelf of mushroom.   Yeah. So,   they we leave those outside to grow until usually about September,   and we harvest those, and we make a tincture with those   because they are not edible. You   physically cannot chew the things. Yeah.   We do a dual extract tincture, so it's an alcohol and water extract. Okay. Nice. Pulling out those medicinal compounds from the mushroom,   and then those two get combined. So it's like a shelf stable mixture,   And it's an easy way to just get all those medicinal properties from the mushroom   without having to   process it on a daily basis. Or try to eat our Yes. It's a woody mushroom. Yeah.  

Not an easy   No.  

[00:35:35] Unknown:

So you've you've been talking a little bit about medicinal properties, and lion's mane, I think,   thanks to stamets,   has become very, very popular. Do you use any,  

[00:35:46] Unknown:

any, like, medicinal mushrooms or anything like that? So we also make a lion's mane tincture that I could take every day. Do you like it? Or do you find that it it I find it to be very beneficial. I think it helps me. I keep it next to our coffee maker. So that way, it's just easy to incorporate into my daily routine. I just add, like, the dosage. I think it's ten drops to my coffee every day.   And  

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I will say, like, I don't notice it the days I take it, but the days I don't take it, I don't know, so to say. Yeah. And  

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I think it's been really beneficial. I feel like it helps me get my day started a little more clear headed,   maybe be a little bit less dependent on the coffee. Yeah.   But there's a lot of mushroom coffees coming out right now. Yeah. But at the end of the day, I still need my caffeines. Yeah. I like to just add that tincture to my coffee. And for people, I guess, don't know. I think Lion's Mane is  

[00:36:37] Unknown:

I think there's been a a fair bit of actual scientific study. Yeah. But I think it goes to improve cog cognitive activity. Neuro regenerative.  

[00:36:45] Unknown:

So every I think it's being, studied for treatment of dementia,   but also, like, general nerve damage, but really shown to, like, strengthen the synapses and connections in your brain.   Yeah. There's a really a lot of really cool studies. I think they're in   phase,   I don't know, some phase of human clinical trials. So definitely a lot of good research out there to back up the, yeah, claims of it being beneficial.  

[00:37:11] Unknown:

And I because I took a I don't anymore. I   take other things now. But,   I did take Lion's Mane. Just I think it was Stamets. Yeah. Which I don't I've heard mixed reviews on on his stuff.  

[00:37:24] Unknown:

People always ask it's like, you know, the mycelium first fruiting body debate. Yeah. And I Well, I think he puts a lot of brown rice flour in there too. Yes. Well, they're growing the mycelium on brown rice. Sorry. So   I think mycelium and fruiting bodies probably both have their own unique compounds.   But at the end of the day, the mushroom is also made of mycelium.   Yeah.   I haven't seen any   empirical testing to Right. See any substantial differences or,   I don't know, contents between the two various   forms of the fungus. But, yeah, I think probably something that's a full spectrum. So I think that's a mix of mycelium and fruiting bodies way into  

[00:38:03] Unknown:

full spectrum extraction too Yeah. Water and alcohol. Yes. Definitely. Because there's gonna be compounds that the water pulls out that the alcohol won't Yeah. Vice versa. Yep. Yeah. It's no water soluble compounds versus, like, oil soluble compounds. Yeah. So yeah. Definitely something that's full spectrum. But  

[00:38:19] Unknown:

we always tell people when it comes to mushroom supplements, just like do some research on the company, see where they're getting their mushrooms from. Yeah. A lot of people are importing them. Well, it's not really regulated much either. So they could say that there's stuff in there, and  

[00:38:32] Unknown:

you could essentially be getting sold a bad bill of goods. Yeah. It's,  

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it's tough because I feel like there is a lot of snake oil out there, but and there's also a lot of people making really good products that they care about. And, you know, not only us, but lots of other farms   and people with these supplement companies. So, yeah, do some research. There are a lot of very reputable people doing this. So Yeah. And a quick and, honestly, I  

[00:38:56] Unknown:

don't know if I'd recommend Reddit for a lot of things, but when it comes to, like,   what supplement should I use,   typically, the people on Reddit will at least point you in the right direction. Yeah. Get enough people responding. You can kinda draw your Or message boards. Yeah. Message boards are good. I, well, I would steer clear just because I'm in marketing. I would steer clear of, like, blog posts because they're probably trying to sell you something. Yes. Definitely. Find the sources where they're not trying to sell you something.  

[00:39:21] Unknown:

So reishi's. Do you do you use reishi too? Yes. That's another one that I keep next to our coffee maker.   It's been shown to, like, help with your circadian rhythm,   but also, like I mean, it's mainly known for its, like, immune   support,   but also, like, sleep support, things like that.   So, yeah, I mean, that's one that I just really enjoy growing because you see so such beautiful forms coming out of it from Yeah. Clunks to amp It's a pretty cool color too. Like, it's, like, a red and The orange red. Yeah. Yeah. And then, like, at the margin where it's growing, it's like a bright white. So Can you grow that indoors, or is it just outdoors? You can. I mean, it's grown on the same growing medium we use. We just take it outside because it takes so long that we can't justify   it taking up space in here. Yeah.  

But, yeah, it's definitely   possible and easy to grow indoors. And yeah.  

[00:40:14] Unknown:

So you've got these are 10 pound bags here. Yes. And I guess we'll try to describe it a little bit. It's like a a block.   It is a block with 10 pounds of your substrate   and water mixed together. Yep.   How what what is your typical yield?   I guess it'd be it would probably depend on the species, but, like, what what kind of yields do you get out of a 10 pound bag? Because I think that's the other thing that's interesting is these things grow and grow and grow and grow. Yes. So  

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you can't I mean, on the first flush of mushrooms  

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and a flush is just like a Deep.  

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I guess, called a sprouting. Harvest. Yeah.   So the first   batch of mushrooms that fruits out of one of these blocks   typically will yield between   two to   four on the high end pounds of fresh mushrooms.   Water is the limiting factor in that substrate. You know, mushrooms are 90% water.   So as they're fruiting out, they're   losing water to just general, you know, drying out from the air.   But they're also taking up some of that water out. So each they will continue to fruit mushrooms out, but each successive flush is gonna decrease in volume.   So much so to where a lot of varieties, we don't even second fruit. Really? Yeah. We're just so limited on space that it makes more sense. Which one don't you second fruit?  

Chestnuts.   I would I mean, I'd I'd say chestnuts, but we actually have some second fruit in chestnuts in there now. Things that just take a long time to even, like, begin the second fruit after the fact. We've messed around with each variety trying to see what exactly it takes, but the yields just don't justify it. So we'll second fruit, like, oyster mushrooms. The golden enoki will second fruit.   But it's usually   for an oyster mushroom, it's probably a week after you harvest until they even start to produce mushrooms again, and then another   four to five days until they're ready to harvest. So you're looking at two plus weeks for your fastest thing. And that's valuable shelf space. Exactly. So, yeah, being you know, we operate in about 2,000 square feet,   and I would say we are   overcapacity   right now.  

Just trying to, I don't know, hold on and do what we can. But Well, it's a good problem to have. It is. But it's still a problem. It would be nice to a problem. Yeah. It'd be nice to operate at, like, 90% capacity. Have some some room to,   yeah, adjust and correct as we need to. But So weekly, how many pounds of mushrooms would you say come out of here? Right now, we probably grow   I would say, on average throughout the year, it's probably between five and seven hundred pounds of fresh mushrooms a week.   A lot of mushrooms. This time of year, we're probably haven't looked at, like, our we try to do, like, a three week running average to actually make sense of harvest data, but,   probably about 600 pounds of fresh mushrooms right now.  

Most of that They're all getting sold out the door? Yep. Nice. Yeah. Most of our business is wholesale to restaurants around the Greater Cincinnati area.   We also do a few farmers markets, and, farmers markets definitely pick up during the summer months. So we do a little bit less wholesale then, try to do more retail just because we,   you know, make more money off our retail sales than we do wholesale. So works out for us. But then, in the wintertime when there's less fresh local produce available,   it's nice because then these restaurants we work with wanna bring on more mushrooms or people wanna add on special dishes.  

So it kinda works out well that,   yeah, we're able to grow year round.  

[00:43:48] Unknown:

That is probably one of the big advantages of a mushroom farm compared to Definitely. Traditional farming. Yeah. I mean, even we were talking the other day about just, like, from a cash flow perspective, like, not having all of your income come during a very Sorry. Small segment of the year. It's I imagine that would be incredibly stressful. Well, it's also a lot more predictable. Yeah. I guess you're farming a field. You've got your weather. Yeah. Soil quality. You've got all these things to worry about. Yep.   Everything in here is temperature controlled,   humidity controlled. Effo. You're controlling for contamination. So you've got a lot of control over the Yes. Yeah. I,  

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I could not imagine the stress of No. Growing food outdoors. That   that sounds pretty rough. Yeah. But, yeah, it's, it's nice. I mean, we basically   succession plant. That's, like, the easiest analogy to traditional farming,   twice a week. So, you know, we're just putting consistency in and getting consistency   out. And, yeah, it makes things a little more predict.  

[00:44:47] Unknown:

I just forgot it. Oh, no. So you've you've talked a little bit about this, about how you mess around and you test things. Can you talk about that process, like what you're doing, how you're constantly testing different?  

[00:44:57] Unknown:

Yeah. So, I mean, we're always trying to refine the operation. We've   been operating in this space now for,   I guess, this is our fifth season or fifth year now.   But, yeah, always trying to refine the process, improve things,   and that's everything from using a   like, changing the moisture content of our growing medium.   Like I was saying, the limiting factor in that limiting factor in our growing medium is moisture content. So trying to figure out what the maximum amount we can put in there without it   being over field capacity   being, you know, too wet. The danger of it being so field capacity is the amount of water your substrate can actually Yeah. Like, an easy measure is to, like, squeeze,   you know, whatever you have in your hand if it's, like, soil has a field capacity, all these different things.  

But it's like its ability to hold water and field capacity is, like,   you can squeeze it in your hand and it, like, kind of rips. Yeah. They're all very, like, subjective  

[00:45:57] Unknown:

measurements. There's That was one of the things when I started growing them. I was like, I was feeling like, is this enough? Is this enough? I have no idea. Yes. And,  

[00:46:05] Unknown:

I mean, you'll see when you've put too much in because the water will settle to the bottom of your bag, whatever vessel you have it in, And the mycelium is just not gonna grow there. It's too wet. It can't get through that.   That'll cause it to basically go anaerobic.   You can get funky stuff growing in there.   And   yeah, so trying to find that   push it all the way up to that line without going over.   And it's tough because we do grow indoors, so we're running air conditioners, so it's drying the air.   The fungi   are in this bag there, and there's a filter patch that allows for gas exchange   because the fungi are inhaling oxygen and exhaling c o two. So there's some air exchange there, but it also   when it's really dry from running heat or air conditioning,   can dry out that substrate.  

So, yeah, trying to kind of figure out how to maximize those things to maximize our yields.   But then we're also tinkering.   We were doing, like,   everything we grow now is in, like, a clear plastic bag.   We   experimented with, like, a black plastic.   And the idea,   at least   in my head, is that   you are so mushrooms are phototropic.   They're, like, triggered by light to fruit.   They get their pigment from light,   but they they're not photosynthetic. They're not creating energy   from that light.   So the idea of the black bag was that they would be able to   basically sit in our incubation room longer,   break down that growing medium more,   save up more nutrients, more energy,   and then produce   a greater yield when we went to fruit them.  

We didn't really see any   benefits to that. We   we track all of our,   production from a time it's inoculated   until it's harvested.   And so we're always looking at that data to see how these little changes affect things. And,   you know, when we when they do, it's great. And when we see benefit, that's wonderful that we're able to increase production or make a process easier or something like that. But there's a lot of times we're trying things that have   no effect on anything whatsoever. Yeah. And yeah. I imagine  

[00:48:24] Unknown:

because I would imagine that a lot of people don't realize   how much you're tweaking   all the time.   And and even something that might seem like it can only have an effect on the margins.   And if you can get a half a pound more yield out of your bags,   like a half a pound times a 100 Mhmm. I mean, that's significant. Yeah. Or if it's saving  

[00:48:45] Unknown:

somebody thirty seconds per bag in this process that we've refined somehow,   if it doesn't affect our yields at all, then thirty   seconds times,   you know, we do   two hundred and eighty ten pound bags a week.   So that adds up. And, you know, if we can save labor,   not only from, like, a financial aspect, but from, like, a   physically   doing the job and wearing down your body aspect, like, that's huge. And, because it is physical. I mean, you're you're just filling things up with 10 pounds of stuff. You're messing around. You're moving these things everywhere. Yeah. And then we're when we're inoculating them, we have to break that substrate up. We're shaking it to mix the spawn in.   So, like, doing it with one ten pound bag is it doesn't sound bad. It's 10 pounds. But then And it's not bad. But you but you already do it a 140 times twice a week. And, you know, yeah, it it can take its toll. And,   so, yeah, just trying to minimize the amount that we're actually moving these things.  

We we have everything basically on rolling carts. In that way, we're not   lifting things up and handling them because that's,   yeah, extra labor, extra wear and tear on your body, but also you're disturbing the fungus. Yeah.   And it's just so much nicer to be able to roll a cart of 700 pounds of substrate rather than handling that by hand and moving it. So,   yeah, it's nice to have some systems in place that make it a little easier   because,   it could always be harder. Yeah.  

[00:50:13] Unknown:

We don't need that. We've been there. We've been there. Been there. We're trying to make it easy. I think you were saying when you first started out, you were filling your substrate bags, 10 pound substrate bags by hand. Yes. And I don't know how many I can't remember how many bags you'd say you do in a day or something. But I think it was, like, 70 per batch back then, but three times a week or so. Yeah. That's   and now you've got that hopper over there Yes. Settle filling up for you and water in for you. The, there's not a lot of, like, purpose built  

[00:50:40] Unknown:

small scale mushroom cultivation equipment. So   there's been, you know, a lot of basically mushroom farms coming up with this technology.  

[00:50:48] Unknown:

Build this on a lot where they'll we're, like, we repurposed this. It it does it that does seem to be another common thread with mushroom farmers is they're very   resourceful people. Yeah. Like, I need a thing to do this. I'll just build it. Yeah. And I I think out of necessity, there's  

[00:51:04] Unknown:

in, like, Asia, there's a lot of equipment, but it's very purpose built for a certain style of cultivation.   And in The US, we just do things differently, so   there's not a lot of readily available things.   So, yeah, just trying to find   other things in agriculture   or other industry that can be used. Like, I was talking about our,   our pasteurizing   vessel, basically, that we roll our cart of substrate into to, wipe the slate clean of any competition.   It was a old bakery proofer. Yeah. Like, for proofing bread, I guess. And we just ripped all the internals out of it, and now we just pump steam in there. It's an insulated stainless steel box, basically. Yeah. So Oh, proofing box is perfect for you. Yeah. Yeah. And,   yeah,  

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it's all out there. It's just a matter of getting fine. And then, yeah, I mean, I think you have to be pretty creative Yes. When you're I mean, I imagine if you were,   you know, a national mushroom growing button mushrooms or something. So You've got tons of equipment. Yeah. The, you know, the automation for button mushroom cultivation  

[00:52:05] Unknown:

has it's   there's so much of it, and it's so cool to see that process  

[00:52:10] Unknown:

and how little human interaction there is until you're harvesting them. Now are there any, like, large scale oyster producers or Yeah. I So, like, most of the Or can they automate those processes?   You can.  

[00:52:24] Unknown:

But most of, like, the big   so most mushrooms in The US are grown   either, like,   I guess, like, the Central Coast Of California maybe or, like, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.   And it's a lot of, like, white button mushrooms, but then they have gotten into, like, specialty   mushrooms probably back in, like, the seventies or eighties. They started growing, like, different oyster varieties,   and then eventually, like, lion's mane and things like that.   I think a lot of them are using fairly similar processes to what we're doing here. But then in Asia, there's a whole lot of automation as far as specialty mushrooms. They do a lot of bottle culture. So, like, what we do in bags, they're using   almost like a Nalgene bottle or, like, a Mason jar. Really? Why do they do that?  

There's just the equipment to automate it. It's just k. It   it's there and that's it's it's easily I guess, they're consistent sizes.   You can, like, pack them easily and,   yeah, just automate the process much more easily with something that's consistent size.   And the yields are definitely less because there's that much less substrate. It's like a one pound thing rather than a 10 pound block. Yeah. But the lack of human   involvement in it just makes it really scalable. Yeah.   So, yeah, they're growing oysters, lion's mane.   Anything that we're able to grow, they're growing at On, like, an almost industrial scale. Yes. Definitely. And,   yeah, especially in Asia. I mean, like, there are towns in Japan that grow   a single   variety of mushrooms. There's, like, an Enoki town and Yeah. An oyster town. And,   yeah, we just   don't have that. I suppose it starts with the demand. Yeah. But, yeah, there's just nothing like that in The US. So we never really had the equipment to do these things. So it's starting to kinda come around. People are figuring out pulling equipment from adjacent industries and modifying it to,  

[00:54:19] Unknown:

yeah, fill needs. Yeah. And if there's somebody industrious out there, I'm sure you could come up with a product that small mushroom farmers need. Yeah. Definitely. There's,  

[00:54:29] Unknown:

yeah, there there are a lot of small mushroom farms that kind of have How many are in the Cincinnati area? I imagine you have some competition.   Definitely.   It's hard to say. It seems like there's a new one popping up every few weeks or so, but then it seems like there's another one kinda fading out at the same time.   I'd say there's probably   four or five maybe operating in the You guys get along or Do   Do you know that? I have no qualms with anybody in the mushroom industry.  

[00:54:58] Unknown:

I didn't know how cutthroat it was. I think people make it out to be a lot more cutthroat than it used to be. I mean,  

[00:55:04] Unknown:

we're all just trying to grow the market. We're trying to like, we don't need to be competing with each other. We need to be winning over more mushroom   customers. Like,   the The US eats 1% of the world's mushrooms. There's a whole lot of growth there. Yeah. And there's so many people that we meet that are like, I've   I've never liked mushrooms, but I've never seen any of these varieties. Yeah. And you can win them over. So I think we we have a lot to   we have a lot in common. Like, we're all going through the same thing. We're doing basically the same thing.   I don't see a reason that anybody should have animosity towards anybody. But like you were saying earlier, it's hard to get mushroom farmers to open up about their process. And Yeah. I imagine it is. Yeah. And so it's,   yeah. I hope I wasn't persuading you to give away trade secrets or something. No. We're all doing the submitting the same thing. Yeah. You can go on YouTube and Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of ad in information out there, but there's a lot of good lot of. And, yeah, it's just a matter of sifting through it, but we're all doing the same thing. So I don't see any reason to be secretive. It's not   there's nobody has trade secrets. I mean Especially not anymore.  

I mean, it'd be at one point in time. And if you're growing some   new unique variety   that you   that was previously uncultivatable   or something, I can see a reason to   not wanna share the Like, if you figured out how to make morels Yes. Like all their pesos then, like Yeah. Like, you probably put in a lot of time and money and effort into them understanding that and us, like, yeah, more power to you. You know, have that information. But,   yeah, I don't know. It's seems silly to  

[00:56:37] Unknown:

all do the same thing and still Well, I think people, at least in business, and this isn't just with mushrooms.   It's universal. People will be like, well, we can't tell them, like, our pricing or we can't tell them our well, how we get our product. It's a secret. I'm like, no. It's not. Yeah. I could Google anything in five minutes and figure out all these things that you're trying to keep secret. Yeah. So what are we really doing here? Mhmm. You know? Yeah. It's just a matter of, like, verifying that that information that you found online is actually That's the important.   And, yeah, it can actually be used. But   yeah.  

Well, that actually is a good segue into my next question because   I'm living proof of this. You can cultivate mushrooms   at home. Yeah. And it's not I mean, there are   I probably went   the hard route with a still air box and tried to do agar plates and things like that.   If somebody wanted to just grow a little crop of mushrooms, how would you   what would you advise them to do?  

[00:57:34] Unknown:

I'd say first, take a look at your space. Do you have   space where you can kind of control the environment a little bit, whether it be, like, you know, in your house or a basement or something like that to   go that route, or do you wanna do something low tech,   outdoors?   But, yeah, there's a lot of really easy stuff to do at home. Do you have just an outdoor space? Like, growing mushrooms on logs is great, but we also,   in our garden, we grow king stropharia   or wine cap I was about to say wine caps. Yeah. I hear you put you inoculate your molds with that, and you're gonna have wine caps Yeah. Forever. Yeah. Pretty much whenever it rains, we have a huge flush of wine cap mushrooms. Now those those are pretty tasty, aren't they? Yeah. Definitely. You gotta get them when they're early, like, before they really open up just because, I mean, any mushroom outside is gonna get their cracked bugs very quickly. That's how they spread their spores.   So they are,   yeah, the bugs are gonna be right in there. So getting mushrooms, especially any mushroom outdoors, getting it early is always better than getting it late. I've heard with Kingstrophe areas, though, you probably wouldn't have a problem with that. They're so prolific. Yes. Definitely. Yeah. I mean,   we will after, like, a big rain, they'll be popping up everywhere, like, in clusters of, like, five or six Why don't you just inoculate one area, and then your entire yard is gonna have canes with areas. Definitely. They have escaped where we have, you know, actually inoculated   wood chips for them, and they just grow out of the soil now. And yeah. And then whenever we have new fresh wood chips that we're gonna add to our garden or, like, mulch paths with, I just take a handful of the old stuff, throw it in there, and it and there's it reds right through. So, yeah, those are definitely some of the easier ones. Like, if you you could literally with your  

[00:59:12] Unknown:

how how did you inoculate? Did you have a liquid culture? So we had a  

[00:59:18] Unknown:

chip truck, like an arborist chip truck deliver a load of wood chips one day,   and I took a bag of sawdust spawn. So it was like the liquid culture of the   fungus.   So basically just the mycelium growing on, like, a liquid nutrient solution.   Pretty much just sugar water. Yeah.   And,   then that is put onto a sawdust substrate. It's similar to what we grow on. And then I took that, and I broke it up and just spread it throughout the giant pile of wood chips and then took No need to have seen or anything like that. Just at all. I mean, it's outside. It's like Johnny Appleseed from Yeah.   And then I just inoculated the whole pile and then used the front end loader on the tractor to move them around where I wanted and,   yeah, it all worked well. Yeah. And you also, like, if you already have mulch pathways,   spread it in there. Maybe take a rate to your soil too, isn't it? Yeah. It'll   break down those wood chips and just turn them into soil Yeah. Incredibly fast. So That's the other thing about the mycelium, especially when you get to,  

[01:00:16] Unknown:

mycorrhizal stuff. Yeah. That that gets wild the way they Yes.   I guess, what's the right word for it?  

[01:00:26] Unknown:

Probably partner with tree, I guess. Yeah. Just like, yeah, connect and, Symbiotic. That's Yes. Symbiotic. That's agent machine. Okay. Yeah. It's, like, the diversity of fungi and all the roles they play, and   it's really cool. And then, yeah, like, they're spending their life interacting with trees and plants in the forest. Which is why you can't really grow a morel  

[01:00:46] Unknown:

Yeah. Because they're mycorrhizal with I think they say apple trees or something. There's a lot of different species, and  

[01:00:53] Unknown:

I would have said Well, the immediate there, I think, are a 100.   That's why you can't grow them, but then people have figured out how to cultivate them No. In in mold environments.   I haven't looked at the  

[01:01:05] Unknown:

patents on that, but it seems like I've looked at it a little bit,   and   I don't know. It's It's not that I'm a mushroom expert, but It doesn't seem like the  

[01:01:16] Unknown:

tree the relationships are critical, and there's other more critical steps that the problem temperature was a big it's like you need a fall and then a freeze and then a fall. I mean, that's big with a lot of the mushrooms. Yeah. Even stuff we grow, we will cold shock in our walking cooler. Oh, will you? Yeah. Like, triggering those   natural,   occurrences outside, they are all mushrooms to freeze. So, like, the change in temperature.   Yeah. All those things that I wish I could remember because what I actually, I got the patent,  

[01:01:46] Unknown:

and I threw it into chat GPT.   And I was like, tell me about this.   And it did an okay job, but it seems very involved because it's Yeah. Very temperamental.  

[01:01:57] Unknown:

Mhmm. And it seems like the ones that are cultivated in a controlled environment,   from what I've heard, don't have the same flavor Yeah. And, thus,   there's not as much demand for them. Yeah. I mean, like, in Asia, they figured out how to grow morels, like, especially black morels outside, like, in shade houses. Yeah. But I've seen those YouTube. Yeah. I mean, they look fake based on how many morels are I don't know. Now that's rare. But,   yeah. So people have figured it out, but, apparently, they're just not as quality as a a wild forage. Yeah. So, yeah, that won't ever be replaced, I suppose.  

[01:02:30] Unknown:

Yeah. And if it if you can do it, then you'll probably be a kajillionaire. Yes. Or you'll   Go into debt  

[01:02:37] Unknown:

and bankruptcy trying. So   yes. So probably best not to try. Yeah. I mean, when we first started,   especially in this space, there were a lot of, like,   previously uncultivatable   mushrooms that we wanted to try to grow.   Like what?   I mean, the big one we were trying to grow was the beefsteak polypore.   It's   just really beautiful   red mushroom. When you slice into it, it's almost looks like what genus is new?   Let's see.   Dysgellina   hepatica.   Okay. It might be this might be reversed. I might have messed that up.  

[01:03:12] Unknown:

Oh, no. There won't be a test turn. So  

[01:03:15] Unknown:

thank you. I appreciate it.  

[01:03:17] Unknown:

Nobody nobody will rake you over the coals for not knowing the Latin name of  

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But it's a   I mean, it's a saprophytic   fungus,   and it just has this, like,   beautiful red color to it.   Heard   it said that it has almost like a citrusy taste.   And,   we had some, like, primordia, like, baby mushrooms forming. We got some cultures,   from a gentleman that had been doing some research on it for a while.   Seems like some other people had relative luck getting it to successfully fruit, but nobody's really doing it at commercial scale.   But I think we really quickly realized that, like, the business actually had to function and make money in order to, like, do those fun exciting reasons. Gotta you gotta you gotta have your money backbone, and maybe you could go play. So down the line, we'd like to get into that again. But Are there any other ones you have your eye on?   It'd be cool to it'd be really cool to be able to cultivate chicken of the woods.  

We've had some success with Maitake or hen of the woods, but it'd be nice   to expand that and be able to offer it more.   It just   it's very finicky   and   inconsistent   yield, so it was tough to dedicate the space to it when we have things that we know are going to fruit consistently   and make money. Yes. Exactly. Pay the bills. So,   yeah, with some more space, we'd like to experiment more. But I think, like beefsteak polypore,   chicken of the woods would be really cool to, yeah, bring into cultivation.   Especially, like, there's two varieties of chicken of the woods. One of them is laid up porous   sulfurous. It's like the bright yellow one. Like, it's Yeah. In this art here. And then there's the laid up porous Cincinnatus.  



[01:04:58] Unknown:

So Oh, nice. Yeah. It's like the more white one and Oh, I feel like there's a good marketing out there with Cincinnati. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.  

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So, yeah, maybe one day we'll be able to,  

[01:05:08] Unknown:

get back into that experimentation a little more. So what are some other ways that people you've got outside cultivation Yeah. Area, you can just plug. Yeah. So,  

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like, plugs or Some dead wood lying around. Yeah. Definitely. Well, you wanna use freshly cut living wood. Because if it's dead, then you've got or, you know, if it's been dead, then you've got the opportunity for other fungi, things like that to get in there.   Basically, be competition to what you're trying to grow. So fresh   hardwoods.  

[01:05:37] Unknown:

And Lion's Mane does work with plugs. Yeah. Definitely. So I guess we should explain what a plug is. It's, like, literally, like a dowel Yep. With it's been inoculated with whatever kind of mushroom you're growing Yep. And you just take a hammer and bang it into the log. Yeah. And they're, like, drill a hole in the log and then, you know, about the same size as this plug, hammer it in there, and then you seal it up with wax.  

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And that's inoculating that log. It's introducing that culture in there.   And   it's just like a really great low tech way to do it. On our property, we have a lot of, like, red maple saplings, and it's kind of a a weed tree. It's not something we really   would love our forest to be filled with. So we cut down a lot of those. They're just, like, between,   you know, anywhere from, like,   five to 10 inches in diameter, and then   whatever length that you can   easily handle.   Cut the logs down and   definitely takes a while to inoculate them, and then it takes a while for them to start producing mushrooms once they've been inoculated. It's usually about a year or so, but it's a great way to,   yeah, take something that would otherwise be a waste product and, yeah, get some food out of it. And logs will produce  

[01:06:48] Unknown:

For years. For years. Yeah. I mean, if you take if you've got an old tree that you've cut down and then you drill it and you   inoculate it, let's say, with lion's mane, I mean, you'll have lion's mane coming out of that log for every time it rains or something. Yeah. And, you know, once they've once they've, like, successfully  

[01:07:04] Unknown:

fruited the first time,   then you can shock those logs into fruiting again.   You know, like, water is limited of factors, so soaking them in water will trigger them to fruit.   But, yeah, then, like, the rain or temperature changes,   and they'll continue doing that for five   to ten years until the log is totally rotten and gone back to the earth if you'll, yeah, maintain them well. But I guess that is something else. If you're planning on cultivating mushrooms outside,  

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I hope you like mushrooms because you're gonna have them everywhere.   Yes. Definitely. It's I mean, they're very good at reproducing.  

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Yes. And,   yeah, you will get far more than you can use. Yeah. You'll have to either find And then you'll have more competition.   Hey. Bring it on. You need more people growing mushrooms.  

[01:07:48] Unknown:

Yeah. I'm all about it. So you and you can also if you if somebody was inclined, you can buy fully colonized  

[01:07:55] Unknown:

bags Yeah. And just, like, put slits in them and Yep. And they'll grow your mushrooms. Yeah. Like, You you guys don't sell bags. We don't just because there's so much customer service involved. Yeah. Yeah.   Just from what we've heard other farms talk about, like, no matter how explicit of instructions you give There's somebody's always getting a call that's gonna yeah. That's why land, not landscapers,  

[01:08:15] Unknown:

a lot of nurseries,   don't like selling to the public. Oh, okay. I'm always wondering that. It's like that. I I can't remember what   nursery that is off of, I wanna say, 50. It's got that big sign, like, no   public sales. K. If it's the only seller contractors.   The reason for that is   is if you sell to a person, it kinda comes with a warranty. Yeah. And so then you have this person coming back like my tree's dead. Mhmm. What? Did you water it? Yeah. Is there a way to No. Yeah. So back to that one. Yeah. So I imagine it's probably allowed the same with mushrooms as you'll get, like, 10 calls a day. Yeah. My mushrooms didn't grow. I want my money back. Yeah. Well, did you do everything right? And there's no way to ever know. Yeah. But then also, like, we're just limited on space, and there's demand for fresh mushrooms. So we want  

[01:09:00] Unknown:

to brew all of the substrate we make to grow fresh mushrooms and have for our customers. So yeah. Yeah. We,   we occasionally teach,   some classes around the area. We've taught up with,   Cincinnati Nature Center,   Civic Garden Center in Cincinnati,   a few other places teaching, like, some low tech cultivation   classes   just to   make it easier for people to get their hands on and actually   take what they may have seen in a video or something   and get practical experience so that they can, yeah, reproduce that. Yeah. Yeah. Understand how to grow mushrooms. And the great thing about  

[01:09:37] Unknown:

I mean, it's a little more involved than just getting a bag and cutting the slit in it. But if you get grain spawn,   like, I was telling you I grew up little oysters. I literally just took buckets from Lowe's, drilled a bunch of holes in them, stuffed them full of pasteurized straw with the spawn in it. And I had oyster mushrooms, you know, for days. Yeah. I mean, it's   that's a little bit more work, but  

[01:10:00] Unknown:

not much more. Yeah. It's it's still very achievable thing to have somebody to do on a, yeah, a weeknight after work, and it could be hours or, you know, spend an afternoon,   the weekend doing it with friends. You don't really even need to be that sterile or that you know, if you're already getting colonized back. Yeah. And for, like, low tech cultivation and things, the the cleanliness goes   down pretty considerably. Like, there's   you're kind of,   limited with how clean you can get it in the first place, so it's becomes kind of less important.  

[01:10:29] Unknown:

Yeah. Yeah.   So do you do you do any wild forging?  

[01:10:34] Unknown:

I will do a little bit. I enjoy finding mushrooms in the woods and, like, identifying them.   I can't say I love eating foraged mushrooms just because they're always gonna be filled with bugs. Yeah. No matter how early you get to them.   The one thing I do enjoy foraging and eating are chanterelles.   Notice that. Because they are   Those are beautiful mushrooms. And they're so easy to find, like Yeah. On a landscape, like, you could just Yeah. For the orange. A hillside covered. And then I can be confused with what is the jack o'-lanterns? Or Yeah. With some   little bit of knowledge, it's yeah. That's something that most people can figure. I I mean, I don't do any wild for it. You know? Because quite frankly, it scares me, and I Yeah. Have the time to Yeah. And it seems like the more and more people get into it, the more and more news stories there are of people accidentally poisoning themselves with the mushrooms. So There's also but there's also I think in Cincinnati, there's a good Facebook group where if you're curious what mushroom this is, you boost it there. Yeah. There's, like, an Ohio mushroom identification group. There are, yeah,   national ones, local ones. So there's definitely a lot of good resources out there. Yeah.  

But definitely know what you're doing before you eat any mushroom. Yes. And, I mean, you can go into the woods. You can pick any mushroom. You can touch it. You can look at it.   I think all those are really important things. I would definitely wash your hands after Takes you. Or prints. Or prints. Or prints are a great way to learn how to identify and just, like, see those characteristics   that   help you differentiate   what would be a, you know, potentially deadly species from an edible species. So And so for, again, for people who don't know what a spore print is,  

[01:12:07] Unknown:

if it's got a cap, I mean, you know, there's lots of it kind of mushrooms. You pretty much just put it on I use tinfoil. Yeah. And you just let it release its spores, and then you take it off, and you can look at the the spores often   are very specific between species. So, yeah, identify them that way. Yeah. So, like, the spores are basically, like, the unbread genetic material of the mushroom. Yeah. Those are weird, aren't they? Like, the way the hyphae grow and there's, like, a positive and a negative and then Yes. It's always so strange. Fun to, like, try to teach people about the  

[01:12:38] Unknown:

mushroom producing fungi life cycle   and, like, go into the nuance of all that. Because, yeah, a spore is gonna germinate,   and it's gonna grow out hyphae in all directions looking for a compatible spore to reproduce with.   And one of those hyphae might find a compatible spore in one place, but then it's also going in the opposite direction so that Yeah.   One   half of an individual can reproduce   with all of these other Yeah. Individuals to be It's not necessarily male, female. It's like a And some of them seem to have, like,   many, many different   breeding and compatibility types. I don't   I'm not a stranger with It's one of the things I love about it. It's just so weird. Yes. And it's so unlike   every other organism that we're familiar with and thought about. And, you know,   I think we're only beginning to, like, uncover all of this mystery of fungi. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think, again, I think probably thanks to Stamets,  

[01:13:31] Unknown:

more and more people are seriously looking up mushrooms. Definitely. All kinds of mushrooms. Yeah. So For medicinal reasons, for hook area eating. Spokesperson for fungi. He is. Is there any little mushroom pat? Yes. Of course. Yeah. I mean, I will say that it's  

[01:13:46] Unknown:

easy to make very bold claims when you are funding your own research. Yeah. Yeah.  

[01:13:52] Unknown:

Deep. Are you skeptical of some of, Stamets' claims?  

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Yes.  

[01:14:01] Unknown:

You said that so.   I don't want them. You don't you don't want the Stamets mafia Yeah. To get you? I mean, have you seen the the interview with him where he's I wanted to add or about that, but I wasn't sure if I should.   Do you know why he got all weird? So, again, I guess for people who haven't listened to this, Paul Stamets is a a mushroom  

[01:14:23] Unknown:

Some like psychologist. Psychologist. I don't think he's got a doctorate, but it doesn't really matter because he knows everything. Yeah. I'm trying to be knowledgeable.   He was on a podcast, Joe Rogan. Where he's asked about, like, portobello mushrooms, and he gets very he gets quiet, doesn't wanna talk. Yeah. Like, he dead serious. Yeah. Like, he does not wanna talk about this because he said his life would be in danger.  

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And if you're if you know why and don't put our lives in danger, if that's I don't think anybody's gonna come after us. Okay.  

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From what I've heard, I think there's a   compound   in   portobello mushrooms, which are the same species as, like, a white button or a cremini mushroom   that   can be synthesized or is not too terribly far off.  

[01:15:15] Unknown:

Hydrazine, maybe? I might just be totally Oh, hydrazine? Like, it is that an explosive? Yes. Or, like,  

[01:15:21] Unknown:

a jet fuel related   Really? Pound, something like that. But   I think it's, like, slightly carcinogenic.   But in lab tests, I don't think anybody's actually   eating   lab mice   mushrooms to the point where they're having any ill of fatters.  

[01:15:38] Unknown:

I imagine if he ate, like, a thousand pounds of mushrooms. Yeah. The answer's probably not your problem. But then I think it's also just him trying not to  

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step out against, like, these industry giants that control a Yeah.  

[01:15:51] Unknown:

Billion dollar a year mushroom industry in The US. I mean, he he literally was like, my life would be in danger Yeah. If I told you about this. That's what I have heard.  

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And I didn't know how much he's explaining that. But Like and I'm sure a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he seems to play everything else up. So Yeah. Yeah. You can't blame him. I mean, it's See, it only created more I feel like Stanitz is a bit of a controversial figure in the mycology world. Well, a lot of it comes back to that, like, myceliated   brain Yeah. Body argument.   So, yeah, he's, you know,   he's a researcher.   He created a company   selling mushroom supplements   mainly   along with some other things,   that funds his research,   and   I think he's published a lot of really important things.  

Oh, there's just a lot of mushrooms. Yeah. There's a lot of really bold claims.   So,   yeah, I don't know how well it could be substantiated.   Yeah. But then also, like,   you know, the gold standard in science now is double blind placebo controlled, and there's a lot of things that don't stand up to that that anecdotally  

[01:16:59] Unknown:

have, yeah, benefits. So I was talking with,   Crystal Judge   at Gracious Farms. She does a lot of herbs and herbalists and stuff like that. It's kinda the same thing. It's Yeah. You know?   I don't   know how effective some things like herbs or even lions may. Like, I I don't know.   Anecdotally, though, it seems like these things really do have Yeah.   Benefits. And, you know, the other thing is   the placebo effect is real. Yeah. And if whatever in your brain is telling you that this is working and then it's working Yeah. Like, alright. So I spent $20 on a mushroom.  

[01:17:38] Unknown:

That's not cement that doesn't may not work, but it's working for me because of whatever reason. Yeah. To me, that sounds better than the pill working in the first place. Like Right. If your body can naturally  

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if you do that for your body and the yeah. Like, that's incredible, and I feel like we should be doing more research into that and not discounting I do not understand why there's not more research into that, like, how   to replicate the placebo effect. Yeah. It's like people just do like, oh, that's just a placebo effect. I'm like, yeah. But he healed himself Yeah. Because he thought he was healing himself.   That's insane. Yes. We should study the heck. Yes. Yeah. We should try to replicate this. Yes. Scale it and, yeah, figure out how it can be applied to,  

[01:18:19] Unknown:

yeah, heal people. Yeah.  

[01:18:21] Unknown:

But, no, it's just an annoying thing that you have to control for. Yeah. It doesn't generate income for   Well, that is true. Yeah.   So   can  

[01:18:39] Unknown:

not the best cook. My wife family does most of our cooking. So if I'm cooking mushrooms, I like to keep it simple. My favorite thing to do is roast mushrooms in the oven. So I'll take, like, the blue oysters or even the comb tooth, for example,   shred it apart on a sheet pan,   put some olive oil, salt, and pepper on them, roast them in the oven at 400 degrees.   You can, like, you know, get them a little golden brown,   still have, like, some nice chew to them, but I typically forget that I put mushrooms in the oven until the house smells like roasted mushrooms. And then I come back and they're, like, nice crispy mushroom chips. Yeah. And, like, I'll throw that on a salad or on top of pasta, things like that.   And that's a great way for people that   don't like the texture of mushrooms.  

So, like, whenever somebody comes to us and they're like, I don't like mushrooms. It's like, is it the flavor or is it the texture? And   it's both. I can't do anything. But if it's a texture, then, like, that's the easy one to solve. A lot of times mushrooms will get kind of, like, wet and spongy when you cook them.   And that's because mushrooms are mainly watered. So when you throw them in a pan with olive oil or butter, it just kind of, like, oil and water don't mix. All that water stays inside mushroom.   So   roasting them in an oven kinda dries them out a little bit, allows them to get crispy.  

But if you're just sauteing them, you can throw them in a dry skillet.   Maybe even, like, add some water or broth to, like, really cook them.   I like my mushrooms   well done, I would say, for the most part, and not, like, burnt or anything. Yeah. It's just, like, thoroughly cooked.   I guess I'll preface this by saying the cell walls of fungi are made of chitin   and   Which is kinda like what your hair figuring out was a bit of. Yeah. And, like, insect   people   off.   So, basically, they're undigestible   to most people without breaking that chitin down with either heat or acid. So we never recommend eating any mushroom raw.   Some people will swear by it, and that's fine. You can do whatever you wanna do. But it can cause, like, upset stomach,   but at the same time, you're not digesting it, so you're not getting any of those medicinal or nutritive compounds from it. Yeah. So you're just kinda selling yourself short.  

So thoroughly cooking the mushrooms to break that cell wall down. So in, like, I'll put some water or broth in a skillet with my mushrooms.   If you don't put any liquid in there, you'll fist like, you'll see the mushrooms start to sweat,   and, like, they'll work some of that moisture out.   And if you added any water or anything, just kinda wait until that's cooked its way out. Wait until the skillet dries out a bit, then add your fat,   and it'll give you just, like, a much better texture. They don't get I imagine it would absorb the flavor because that's the end of it's about a lot of mushrooms. Yeah. They draw it right in. The flavor will just go right into the mushroom. They're like little flavor sponges. Exactly. Yeah. So it's, like, a good way to break that down, but then get all that flavor, get them get them a little crispy and, yeah, helps out with the texture a lot.   This time of year, especially, like, with the shiitake mushrooms, we're grilling them a lot. So we'll take,   do, like, a it's, like, a 2%   brine on them. So, like, 2% solution. Like, you almost do a turkey or something. Yeah. But, like, a really quick one. We'll do it for, like, thirty minutes tops just to, like, keep them nice and moist when they're grilling. Throw them on. I mean, we've got a charcoal grill. If they're small mushrooms, you can, like, skewer them,   but sometimes, like, the bigger shiitake caps, we'll just throw them on their hole   and, get them, like, nice and charred. And then, yeah, really nice delicious smoky mushroomy flavor.  

The lion's mane, we like to do a mock crab cake with it, substituting   the lion's mane mushroom for the crab meat.  

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Because that is what people say. It's a, like, a a lobster y crab. Yeah. And then I shred to it. Then you pull it apart. It's almost like Yeah. Crab or even pulled pork. I've seen people do, like, a pulled pulled. Yeah. Yeah. The lion's mane's one that a lot of people   seem to get really creative with and, use it as, like, a meat substitute. And it doesn't look like your normal mushroom. I guess No. It's very familiar with what that is. It's like a I don't know what like a puffball one. Yeah. Not a puffball mushroom, but like a Yeah. Like  

[01:22:50] Unknown:

fuzzy ball. Yeah. Like a pom pom. Yep. Exactly. Yeah. And,   yeah, very unmushroom looking mushroom.   But then I've seen people, like, slice it into steaks and, like, marinate it and sear it.   Got some customers that'll make, like,   chicken nuggets with it for their good eggs. Yeah. That's wild. And,   yeah. So lots of really I got older lines, man again. Yeah. It's a it's a good one, but we always, like, tell people, like, find a recipe because it hold it's got a lot of high moisture content. Yeah. So it's definitely one that   definitely one that can end up just being kinda wet and That's what happened when we did crab cakes. I think it just was wet and soggy and fell together. Yeah. Yeah. So with the crab cakes, you we, like, saute it first, but then we'll take it and just squeeze it to get the rest of that moisture out. Okay. And,   yeah, then add, you know, bread crumbs.  

You know, we add egg to ours and whatever else, and that really helps kind of, like, hold it on together. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.   And then for the crab cake recipe, I like to pack it into, like, a   I use, like, a Mason jar ring. Oh, sure. Like a, I don't know, like a cookie cutter or something. Just something to kinda give it some shape. Yeah. Pack it in there nice and tight, and then it, seems to hold up well.  

[01:23:58] Unknown:

Yeah. Do you have any tips if somebody doesn't wanna grow their own mushrooms? They just go to the grocery store. Like, let's say they go to Meijer or Jungle Jim's.   How do you how would you pick out mushrooms from a grocery store?   What what would you look for in, like, this is gonna be a good mushroom?  

[01:24:16] Unknown:

It's tough because   especially, like,   not to, like, speak negatively about any, like, large grocery stores, but mushrooms are hyper perishable. So Yeah. By the time they're traveling from a farm to a warehouse, to a distributor, to a grocery store,  

[01:24:31] Unknown:

Looks like eggs. Right? It's you do you have your chickens out there. Yeah. And I tell people all the time, ever since I started eating farm raised eggs, I can't   I can't do the supermarket at once. Yeah. They they the weirdest of land and Yeah. Not having taste. But yeah. So, you know,  

[01:24:48] Unknown:

finding the freshest ones possible is definitely gonna be the best way to go.   You as the mushroom ages, it will   basically like, a a harvested mushroom is still alive.   And   as if the environment's right, it's gonna go back. That mycelium is still living. It's gonna revert back to, like, a vegetative state, and it will start to basically eat itself to prolong its life. So if you see, like, white fuzzy stuff growing on a mushroom, that's usually just mycelium.   Definitely not harmful or anything.   I would say be aware of, like, discolorations   and things like that. But,   looking at the gills of a mushroom is a good indication of, like, freshness and quality, making sure they're not damaged, things like that.  

Typically, mush or gills on a mushroom will grow parallel to each other,   and they're just really delicate, so they show damage easily. You'll be able to tell how they were handled that way.   But, fortunately,   with all these small mushroom farms popping up all over the place, fresh local mushrooms are, like, more readily available than ever.   Like Jungle Jims definitely gets good quality to help with mushrooms. We don't sell there, but,   then, you know, like, a lot of the smaller markets around the city, we sell to a few specialty grocery stores.   So, yeah, venture Yeah. Our room where that's too. Yeah. Farmers' targets are great.  

We are venturing out from, like, traditional   large grocery stores, I'd say, is the best way to find a good fresh product.  

[01:26:19] Unknown:

So I think   let me check the time.   Oh, yes. We've been at this for quite some time.   So you talk about mushroom. I I know. I'd   we were talking earlier before I got here. I was like, I can't find anybody   that likes talking about this stuff. That's me. Every time I start talking about mushrooms, they just their eyes blaze over. Yeah. Why don't you find this interesting? Yeah.   I don't know. The mycelium. Yeah. Mycelium.   Well, get interested in this.   I think the last question I wanna ask you,   do you have any just   really fun contamination   horror stories   from from when you started growing mushrooms up until now?  

Like, you just walk in and everything's just green with Trichoderma or something? Nothing like that. Probably the  

[01:27:08] Unknown:

there was one day I think it was, like, two years ago. I walked into here, and,   our air conditioner was out. So, like, everything we grow wants to really grow at, like,   between fifty five and sixty five degrees Fahrenheit.   Since the   fungi are respiring, inhaling oxygen, we have to bring in fresh air into our barn at all times to keep them happy. So we're, like,   cooling down this in the summertime 90 degree air.   And   there was one day I walked in, and our AC unit wasn't working. And I think it was, like, 85 degrees in the room we're in now. Yeah. The fruiting rooms were probably   close to 90 degrees because the as the fungi is breaking down that growing medium, it's releasing heat. Mhmm. So they're just   franking out heat. And,   then, like, as the temperature increases, their metabolic rate increases,   so they're growing more quickly.  

And   so   when it gets that hot, all the mushrooms are growing that much faster.   So I walked in. All the mushrooms were, like, over mature.   It was incredibly hot in here. And I think it was, like, 08:00 at night, and I had to fix this issue   by the time I went to bed. So,   it was a fun evening,   but   mushroom farming, not for the faint of heart. Definitely not. And as a result of everything there of there being, like, no purpose built mushroom cultivation equipment,   a lot of this stuff, like, I'm the only one that knows how to fix. So   leaves me in a bit of a jam sometimes, but,   between my wife and our wonderful team member, I've feel like I've got the support to, yeah, keep everything running smoothly. But  

[01:28:48] Unknown:

I'll tell you,   a a good partner, like, a a good wife is  

[01:28:53] Unknown:

key for anything that you're trying to do. Definitely. I mean, there was a time when this was a hobby, and I was trying to approach restaurants on my own.   And   there was a reason that it was not a successful business then. And   then once my wife was in full time,   yeah, that's when we were actually successful, and this   business   took shape and,  

[01:29:16] Unknown:

yeah, made sense. I've always heard that, any good business needs   a good CEO and a good COO.   Like, you need that person who can just go out, charm people, sell the product. But if you don't have that person that  

[01:29:29] Unknown:

knows how to get it actually done Yeah. Then and it's two different personality types. Yes. It's just that's the way it is. Yeah. And we kind of have a division of labor. Like, I mean, I'm the one that's excited to grow mushrooms. So Yeah. I can't say the same for my wife, although it's kind of grown on her over the years. She handles much more of the business side of things,   like interacting with our wholesale customers, managing orders.   Cussing relationships  

[01:29:53] Unknown:

are I mean, that's huge. Exactly. Especially for a small business. We have to have good personal relationships with people that you'd supply. Yeah. And, you know, we've been very fortunate. Like, we're still like, we still make all of our own wholesale deliveries.  

[01:30:06] Unknown:

So every week, I'm talking to the chefs that we work with. They're emailing with my wife regarding availability   and,   things like that. But then at the farmer's markets, we're interacting face to face with people. And   as hard as it can be sometimes, like, to walk into the barn when it's 90 degrees and everything's going wrong,   to get to interact with, like, the end user, whether it be a chef at a restaurant or somebody at the farmer's market   just makes it all worth it. Like, no matter how hard it's been all week to have people   come up and compliment your products and tell you about what they're doing with them and how they're   feeding their family,   it's so rewarding and makes it all worth it. So Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. So, really, I feel very fortunate to be able to   live my life and make a living this way. So Yeah. I  

[01:30:56] Unknown:

mean,   I I couldn't imagine   doing something more fun. Well, I could I probably could. But it's on my top, like, top five things   that if I could just have all the money in the world and do, like, you know, just grow mushrooms for Yeah. The rest of my life. Yeah.   Alright. So I do wanna give you an opportunity   to tell everybody again who you are, what you do, where they can find you, how they can get involved or, you know, plug away. Yeah. So  

[01:31:23] Unknown:

I'm Pete Richman. My wife, Emily Richman, and I own Rich Life Farm and Fungi in New Richmond, Ohio.   Our website is richlifefarm.com.   We're on Instagram and Facebook at Rich Life Farm.   We are at the,   see, Montgomery Farmers Market on Saturday   mornings from nine to 12:30.   The Hyde Park Farmers Market   for on Sunday from 09:30 until 01:00.   The Northside Farmers Market   on Wednesday evening   from   four to 7PM.   And then you can find, on our website a list of all the   restaurants and specialty grocery stores that we work with in the area.   And,   actually,   coming, hopefully,   spring twenty twenty six, we're opening a   retail store out here adjacent to our farm. You're gonna have a brick and mortar. Yes. We are. We Congratulations. Yeah. We actually we bought the property a couple years ago. It's,   two doors down from us. It's a historic general store from the 1800. Oh, that's really cool. It's,   in total   disrepair and hasn't been used as a store in   sixty plus years now probably. But, yeah, working with an architect now and working with the township to figure out what we all have to do there to, yeah, make it a place where we can sell not only our products, but all the other cool farmers in the area. Yeah. You talk to Sarah. Yeah. And There's tons of them. Yeah. She's, you know, raises incredible beef and pork chops. I had  

[01:32:54] Unknown:

one of those pork chops.  

[01:32:56] Unknown:

Wow. Have you had one of her pork chops? Yes. They're so beautiful. Like, the color of it is is unlike anything. The taste was Yeah. I  

[01:33:03] Unknown:

I I've I worry people think somebody's paying me to say this because I had a a I don't know if you listen to the episode. I had a pork chop update, and I was just raving about this pork chop with Sarah. I guess that part that's awesome. Oh, man. It was so good. Yeah. I mean, we we met Sarah at, Findlay Market years ago when we were doing that. And,   I'll tell you her name comes up a lot when I when I met her out here. I was talking with somebody from soil and water.   John McMahon. Oh,   I've forgotten his last name. I'm sorry, John, if if you're listening.   But her name came up there.  



[01:33:38] Unknown:

She's, she seems to be pretty Yeah. She should've been involved. In farming and,   And loves it. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And, that's where we get all of our beef from, and, yeah, they're awesome out there. I'm worried this is turning into the  

[01:33:51] Unknown:

fanboy podcast if I'm not if I'm not too careful of that. To be, that's what it has to be.  

[01:33:56] Unknown:

But, yeah. And then there's, you know, all the farmers markets that we do are in Hamilton County, and I love Hamilton County and nothing against people there. But it would be really great to be able to sell the food that we're producing within our community. So,   yeah, we're hoping to open this store and have this place for local farmers   as an outlet for them to sell their products and,   a convenient location for people to purchase   farm fresh food on a daily basis.   Awesome.  

[01:34:28] Unknown:

Yeah. Alright. Well, with that, I think I'm gonna call it a successful podcast, and thank you so much for doing this. Thank you so much for having me and talking mushrooms all afternoon. I enjoyed it. I'd say this to everybody. I'll I'll probably be bugging you in the future to to to do this again. Maybe when you get that general story, the up and running, we'll do it again. I look forward to it. Alright. Thank you so much. Of course. Thank you.  

[01:34:54] Unknown:

Thank you again to Pete for sitting down with me and for having me out, to his to his farm. It's a really it was just really cool farm. It's really cool to see how, mushrooms are are actually grown. And we'll, we'll have to have him back on, like most of these guests, just to talk more about mushrooms and how his business is doing. I also, need to make a correction from the intro. It was not a bear's tooth. It was a comb tooth mushroom,   which I believe is related to lion's mane.   But, again, it was delicious. So,   they also definitely go to Farmer's Market. So if you wanna pick up some of his mushrooms, you can go to his website   and, see see what farmer's markets, they'll be at.  

So let's get to the events going on. We have creek days at the park. That's gonna be June 27   from 1PM to 3PM at Sycamore Park.   And it's just a family friendly creek exploration.   There'll be a naturalist there,   to talk about, I imagine, you know, different animals and creeks and fossils and stuff like that. They also tell you to wear closed toed shoes because you'll be in a creek and you don't wanna get,   your feet all wet.   There's gotta catch them all. That'll be June 28 from 1PM to 4PM at Pattison Lodge.   It's a Pokemon Go route. There will also be some indoor games and a live animal presentation.  

So if you're a fan of Pokemon and wanna go, you know, explore,   Pattison Park,   I would go check that out.   The twenty twenty five river sweep at Shiloh, that's gonna be June 28 from 9AM to 12PM   at, the Shiloh Park.   And it's, just a river cleanup. It's a volunteer river cleanup, and, it's for adults and teens.   And it's honestly, it seems like a great way to volunteer your time to keep,   to keep all the the Ohio River,   clean. But all these rivers, they're such they're honestly such great assets to the county that, you know, it's it's a good thing to keep them clean.   We have Shaw Farms opening day on June 28, 9AM to 5PM at Shaw Farms in Milford.  

And it's a kickoff for the strawberry season. So you can go pick some strawberries. There'll be a farm stand, some family activities.   So if you're you're in the mood for some fresh picked strawberries, I would head out there.   There's a concert in the park with Blake Tyler on June 28 from six to 9PM.   This could be at Miami Township Community Park.   It's a free country music show.   There'll be food trucks on-site, and they also say to bring chairs.   Unless you like standing for some reason, then,   you know, don't bring a chair.   Knee high naturalist. I I love these. It's knee high naturalist nests,   and this is gonna be on July 5,   from 10AM to 11AM at Clingman Park.  

And like most of these, it's it's for preschoolers.   It'll be,   nature hour. There'll be stories,   crafts, and there's gonna be a mini adventure focused on how birds build nests.   And the last one we have is open cockpit day.   It's gonna be July 5 from 11AM   to 12:30PM   at the Tri State Warbird Museum. That's in Batavia.   And you get to climb into World War two aircraft cockpits,   and get a pilot's eye view of history,   which is really cool.   And this is included in the museum, admission. So it's not free, but you go to the museum, you pay for admission, and then they'll let you, on the fifth, they'll let you climb into   some World War two aircrafts, which is   pretty cool if you ask me.  

And that's all we have for events, probably because the July 4 is coming up. And there's,   obviously, many of the communities in Claremont have their own fourth of July things.   I didn't wanna read through all of those, but,   if you're looking to do something on the fourth, I'm sure you'll be able to find something in your town.   Alright. Well, like I said in the intro, we are a value for value podcast. And what that means is is that if you find value in what we're doing,   we just ask that you send some value back, and that can be in the form of time, talent, or treasure.   You can also follow us on Facebook at Let's Talk Claremont podcast. We're on Instagram at Let's Talk Claremont,   and, you can email us at info@let'stalkClaremont.com.  

And And like I said in the intro, we wanna hear from you. We wanna know what's going on in your community. You know, send us a note. It doesn't even need to be, what's going on. You can send us something funny or just news about what's going on with you. And if it's interesting,   I'll read it out on on air.   So so please, get in touch if you've got something to say.   Alright. So, we've I've been closing these things out, with what I've been calling Olivisms. Olivisms is my five year old daughter, and,   pretty regularly, she says some some very funny wild things.  

And I this is actually one of my favorites so far.   We recently were on vacation down in Florida,   and, she wanted to get one of those, hair braids where they put kinda, like, colored,   thread in your hair and it, you know, it looks pretty.   So she was getting that done and then, you know, pulling her hair, and she was uncomfortable.   And she looks at the lady doing it,   and she says,   are you a professional?   And the lady,   quite shocked, looked back at her and   kind of indignantly,   said, yeah. Yeah. I am,   which I thought was   a a pretty, bold thing to say to somebody doing that to your hair. And even better for the rest of vacation, if anybody asked her,   who did her hair, she would very proudly and confidently say, a professional.  

And perhaps my favorite part of this entire entire oliveism   is, after she got it and the day had gone on and she told everybody that a professional had done her hair,   we were lying in bed,   right before she went to bed. And   she looked at Katie, my wife, and goes,   mom, what is a professional?   So   she didn't even know what a professional was, but she was thrilled to have a professional do her hair.   So that's all we got. Thanks for tuning in, and we will see you next time.