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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 19 J U LY 1 0 , 2 0 1 7 S top by the Brunswick Farmers' Market on a given Saturday and you're likely to see Emil Rivera, executive chef at the Sur Lie tapas- style restaurant in downtown Portland, "foraging" among the vendors for mushrooms, which he says have become a desired menu item. "I like to play with combinations like jalapeno and oyster mushrooms, which work well together because they are pungent, sweet and spicy," he says. "If I fi nd a [rare] hedgehog mushroom, I'll build a dish around that. In a competitive arena with chefs in Maine in general, we all challenge each other. Asian restaurants approach mushrooms diff erently, for example." Plus, the mushrooms are a real hit with his vegetarian customers. Rivera, along with other area chefs, farmers looking to diversify their crops and home growers all have been embracing unique mushrooms in recent years. at's lead to a local mushroom scene not unlike the early days of the craft beer industry, where small brewers helped each other sustain their businesses as consumers learned about it and began to home brew and to drink more local beers as brewers strived for unique tastes. " e industry still is in the discovery and exploratory phase," says Steve Campbell, founder and CEO of pro- voke, a Portland consultancy. "It is where artisan beer was 20 years ago. ere are so many diff erent channels these organizations focused on mushrooms can grow. It's about variety, so the companies need to fi nd their niche." e USDA said all mushroom sales were worth $1.19 billion in 2015-16, with the U.S. crop totaling 946 million pounds, up 2% from the previous season. Pennsylvania and California are the largest mushroom growers, with white button top mushrooms dominat- ing the market. No fi gures were available for Maine. Helping hands for the greater good Maine's specialty and cultivated mushroom market essentially began with Oyster Creek Mushroom Co. of Damariscotta in 1989. e company both grew its own mushrooms on logs to sell fresh seasonally, plus sold wild fresh mushrooms from as many as 60 foragers. e business got tight during the recent drought: In 2016 foragers were unable to fi nd mushrooms, which like a lot of water. "I'd normally get 300 pounds of mushrooms from foragers every other day, but last year I only got 30 pounds total for the season," says Oyster Creek owner Candice Haydon, 68. "We just came out of the drought a month ago. We were down 7-9 inches of rain." For a while Oyster Creek was the only large mushroom company in Maine, selling exotic mush- rooms like chanterelle, which can cost $24 for eight ounces, compared to less than $2 per pound for the white button mushrooms produced in bulk and sold in supermarkets everywhere. Now, she prefers to sell in bulk rather than through the farmers markets she had frequented in Brunswick, Camden and Damariscotta. A client in Boston, for example, will buy 100 pounds at a time. But she thinks the infl ux of newer growers, like North Spore of Westbrook, Maine Cap N' Stem of Gardiner and Farming Fungi (which sells under the Mousam Valley Mushrooms brand) of Springvale, is a good thing to keep the industry growing. ose three companies started out handling all parts of the mushroom process: the spawn (mushroom mycelium grown on a steam-sterilized P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Beyond mushroom soup Maine growers cultivate gourmet mushrooms B y L o r i V a l i g r a F O C U S C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry The [mushroom] industry still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and still is in the discovery and exploratory phase. It is where artisan beer was 20 years ago. — Steve Campbell Portland consultant Eliah Thanhauser, left, and Matt McInnis, co- founders of North Spore, harvest mushrooms at their facility at the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook.

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