Courtesy | Annette Williams
“Magic mushrooms” has a whole new meaning for Pittsford couple Brent and Annette Williams. They’re the owners of Mushroom Curiosity, a local business that sells select mushrooms.
The Williamses are newbies to the world of fungi. After looking for other avenues to make money, the couple found a way to utilize their 35-acre property. The two began learning how to grow various species of mushrooms from Youtube videos, internet gurus, and books. When they sold out of their stock one Saturday at the Hillsdale Farmers Market, they decided to take their fungi passion to the entrepreneur level, they said.
“When my first attempt at growing didn’t work, I wanted to know why,” Brent Williams said. “Why isn’t it growing? The curiosity part is what got me intrigued instead of the physical work. It’s like a release.”
When he’s not caught up in mushroom trial-and-error, he’s foraging. Every spring, Williams heads into the Michigan woods to hunt for the coveted morel mushrooms. Morels are prized mushrooms among fungi enthusiasts because they can’t be bought in a conventional grocery store.
“No one has been able to successfully and consistently grow morels on their own, so they pretty much only exist in the wild,” Assistant Professor of Biology Christopher Heckel said. “Mushrooms have a lot of different beneficial compounds. It seems like consumers are coming around to understanding them.”
What sets apart Mushroom Curiosity from Kroger or other vendors is the homegrown element. Not often do you imagine your dinner components being grown in temperature-controlled rooms.
“You don’t know how long the mushrooms have been sitting in the cellophane,” Brent Williams said. “The cellophane prevents them from spoiling, but you’re trapping them. They’ve got to breathe.”
And breathe they do in the Williams’ growth facility. This past winter, the Williams family built an addition to the back of their barn with a second grow room and an inoculation room. The mushroom “grow bags” are inoculated with grain spawn, which is mushroom mycelium grown into grain. The bags sit in the inoculation room for 15 – 20 days. They then are moved to the grow room where the growth cycle completes and the mushrooms reach full size.
Mushroom Curiosity currently sells Lion’s mane mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and white, blue, and pink oyster mushrooms. Studies have shown that all three types aid the body in brain health, nervous system function, and immune strength. The Williamses encourage all of their customers to do their own research and find which mushroom might best help them and how they can incorporate it into their diet.
“Mushrooms are special because they’re present in life, death, and rebirth,” freshman biology student Stephen Berntson said. “Also, the forrest knows you’re there — because of underground mycelia that connect to the roots.”
While mushrooms might be scientifically classified as decomposers, they bring to life a world of possibilities. Some people might reach for blueberries or other familiar produce before grabbing a shiitake mushroom, but the fungi pose a promising future in health research. The mystery that once surrounded the fungi are disappearing as people like the Williams grow and educate their areas about the potential benefits.