Ancient Mushroom-Farming Gets New Life at Ellisville Market

Recently at the Ellisville Farmers Market, I finally met Bill Bachmann, the elusive Bourbeuse Creek Mushroom farmer. His wife, Maureen, has been marketing their shiitake mushrooms at the Market for most of the season.

I asked Bill how he got started growing mushrooms. He said that about 3 years ago, he was planning his retirement from UniGroup, a transportation company that owns United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit. Maureen let him know that if he was going to retire, he needed to find something to occupy his time (isn’t this a statement we’ve often heard from friends as their spouses approach retirement age?).

In searching for ideas, he discovered information on the Missouri Agricultural Extension Service web site about agroforestry. The University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry has a 12 page document, Agroforestry in Action: Growing Shiitake Mushrooms in an Agroforestry Practice which offers information on growing shiitake mushrooms as an agroforestry business. The idea was only logical, as Bill and Maureen own property in St. James with an abundance of oak trees, hence the idea of starting a business that used oak logs to produce mushrooms. He also got considerable inspiration from their eldest daughter, Rita, who is a successful organic farmer in Charleston, South Carolina.

In 2009, he inoculated 100 logs and tried a variety of gourmet mushroom types.  His best results were with the shiitake variety, and he has since focused his efforts on them. During the winter of that first year, he suffered a setback when about half his logs were stolen. Apparently someone thought they were cut just the right size to be firewood. In each of the next two years, he inoculated between 150 and 170 logs. This is a small number of logs in comparison with other producers. However, for Bill, it is a manageable number. Each log is about 40 inches long and 4 to 6 inches in diameter.

According to the agricultural extension, a log will produce mushrooms for 4 years.  The process involves spawn inoculation in winter, after which the logs are placed on pallets in a shaded laying yard where they are stacked on pallets. The following year, they start to produce regularly aided by forced fruiting. Forced fruiting involves soaking the logs in a stock tank filled with cool water for 24 hours. After about 3-4 days, the mushrooms begin to “pin out,” meaning they start to grow on the log.

In five to seven days, the mushroom is fully mature and ready for harvest. After harvesting the mushrooms, they are stored in a refrigerator until taken to the Market.

With the set up he has, he can harvest mushrooms every week, 4 to 5 months of the year, unlike a traditional vegetable crop that has a short growing season.  Throughout the season, he brings the soaked logs from St. James to his home in Eureka where they stand in the basement. The advantage of the basement setting is that it is a controlled environment. There is no concern about the weather (too much rain, wind, heat or cold), there are no pests and the mushrooms remain clean while they grow. Many commercial large scale operations grow mushrooms in beds of sawdust resulting in a dirtier mushroom with less nutritional value.

Bill plans to add about 150 logs a year with the goal of 600 logs in production. At that point, his harvest should be about 20 to 25 pounds a week. He is about 2 years from that goal.

For further information on shiitake mushrooms, visit this informative web site.  An important aspect of shittake mushrooms that is not widely known are its health benefits:

"In addition to their robust/pungent, woodsy flavor and meaty texture, shiitakes provide high levels of protein (18%), potassium, niacin and B vitamins, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. They have natural antiviral and immunity-boosting properties and are used nutritionally to fight viruses, lower cholesterol and regulate blood pressure. Lentinan, an immunostimulant derived from shiitakes, has been used to treat cancer, AIDS, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibrocystic breast disease, and other conditions with impressive results. Researchers S. Suzuki and Oshima found that a raw shiitake eaten daily for one week lowered serum cholesterol by 12%. "

Excerpts from a 2007 article in Entrepreneur offers some interesting facts about the history of shiitake mushrooms:

“Many centuries ago, a legendary figure known as Wu San Kang hunted and collected mushrooms for food in the wild forest of the mountainous Lung-Skyr village, in Longquan County in southwest Zhejiang Province bordering Fujian ... Wu San Kang noticed that Shiitake were found on fallen logs in the woods. When he cut the logs, the mushrooms grown on the logs were larger and better. However, at times to his disappointment, there were not any mushrooms despite his cuttings. One day, in a rage he beat the logs furiously.To his surprise, mushrooms sprang up profusely like flowers all over the logs after several days. This is said to be the origin of the "shocking method," the cutting and beating practice in Shiitake log cultivation.”

If you've only consumed commercially raised shiitake mushrooms which were most likely grown using the sawdust method, then you really ought to get by the Ellisville Farmers Market some Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. Check out the beautiful, clean and nutritious shiitakes grown on oak logs by Bourbeuse Creek Mushrooms. You will be amazed! They are picked the day of market and Maureen does a great job as the friendly and knowledgeable marketing representative for their burgeoning enterprise.