From Mines to Mushrooms: Hernshaw Farms’ Mushroom Mission

George Patterson, 25, never set out to be a mushroom farmer. Growing up in West Virginia in a family with ties to mining for generations, he saw an opportunity to make a difference in his community.

“I realized the need to diversify and create jobs, especially when mining coal and using that for energy production won’t be as lucrative in the future,” Patterson says. “I thought, what better way to do that than to look at the existing infrastructure and ask how we can turn that into something good.”

His solution: start a mushroom farm on a former mine site, where waste product is used as soil to repair the ground and offset some of the problems caused by mining. The thing about growing mushrooms, though, is that it’s a lot more complicated than planting a seed. “I’m not very good at growing plants,” Patterson says, “but [now] I’ve got my mushroom knack down.”

How Hernshaw Farms Grows Mushrooms

When he started Hernshaw Farms in 2018, Patterson had no idea where mushrooms came from. So he did what any determined entrepreneur would do, reading as many books as he could about growing mushrooms and watching lots of YouTube videos. Paul Stamets, an American mycologist, and Tradd Cotter, a microbiologist with Mushroom Mountain in South Carolina, also helped inform his plans for the farm. “It really was the school of hard knocks,” Patterson adds.

He had the local climate on his side. West Virginia’s cool summers, excellent falls and colder winters make a perfect environment for growing mushrooms. Rather than cultivate them in the wild, he decided to house them in shipping containers – the most cost-effective structures per square foot and also easy to move, Patterson explains.

See more: What’s in Season: Mushrooms

The mushroom-growing process is intricate, but in simplest terms, it involves using steam to eliminate competing bacteria in sawdust blocks before inoculating them with mushroom spores, which colonize and multiply, growing mushrooms. The entire process takes about 25 to 50 days, depending on the conditions and type of mushroom. Harvest takes place year-round, so there’s never a slow season. The mushrooms are ready to pick when the gills turn up, Patterson says, a process that can happen so quickly you can actually see it.

Varieties of Mushrooms

Patterson says American culture doesn’t respect mushrooms as much as, say, Asian culture does. “People here think mushrooms are gross, but we need to change that perspective,” he says. At Hernshaw, they grow a wide variety of flavorful, textural mushrooms – a far cry from the plastic-wrapped button mushrooms from the supermarket that you might have grown up on.

Right now, they’re growing about 20 or so varieties, ranging from oyster mushrooms to shiitake, chestnut and medicinal Reishi. Lion’s mane is among the most popular – it resembles cauliflower, is thought to help boost your immune system and is great to cook with, both in fresh and dried form, Patterson says. He likes to vary the crop with the changing seasons and is also trying to culture wild species currently.

See more: How Mushrooms Grow

 

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Unexpected Results

It’s safe to say Hernshaw Farms has been a smashing success so far, thanks to Patterson’s ingenuity. He started out with one container and has since grown his operations to seven, and also added four employees. Prior to the pandemic, 75% of his business was selling to restaurants. But when COVID hit and those shut down, Patterson knew he had to adapt. “I sat down YouTubing how to do targeted ads online, and then we transitioned into selling mushroom growing kits,” he says.

In addition to his existing Etsy shop, Patterson launched The Mushbox, a subscription service that delivers goodies like dried lion’s mane, mushroom chocolates and mushroom tinctures to subscribers every other month. Next, he’s partnering with a friend from college who runs a coffee shop to create mushroom coffee. The Mushbox been so popular, he’s had to cap subscriptions.

Patterson wasn’t even a mushroom lover before he started, but he’s come to love them – if he can actually get his hands on them, that is. Their product often sells out before he can get any in his own kitchen. Yet for him, it’s not about his personal enjoyment; it’s about inspiring others and improving his community, where he’s already making a difference – other mushroom growers are starting to pop up around the state.

“We’re one of the first agricultural mushroom operations [in West Virginia] to successfully commercialize,” Patterson says. “I think a lot of it comes down to your ability to work and how much you want it.”