US couple watch their oyster mushroom business grow

A Lenawee County couple are hoping that their interest in edible fungi will — pardon the expression — mushroom into a profitable business.

They've become proficient enough at growing oyster mushrooms that they sell them by the pound to a few area restaurants, including the Hathaway House in Blissfield. But the business, FreshBread Farms, isn't to the point where they can make a living at it.

Five years ago, Josh Woodby started growing mushrooms in an aquarium as a hobby. "Mushrooms are kind of mysterious," he said. "I was intrigued by them." "It kept him interested," his wife, Michelle, said. "It's fairly difficult to grow them."

Now they've moved into a house, located near Adrian, with a barn that has enough space to grow a large amount of mushrooms It is a lot better than growing them in the basement of Michelle Woodby's mother's house in Riga, with its low ceiling. "I can stand up," Josh Woodby said.

"When we moved here, it was a wonderful thing because his operation could come out and come with us here," Michelle Woodby said. Both take part in harvesting the fungi, while she does the sales and he handles the mushroom growing. He doesn't have a degree in biology or horticulture.

"Through reading and trial and error, I was able to figure it out," he said. Their 10-year-old son, Dyami, helps a little. They also have a daughter, Tabitha, who is almost 2. Dyami likes the laboratory where the mushroom cultures are grown, his father said.

"The lab work is pretty scientific and challenging," Michelle Woodby said. "That's why Dyami is intrigued by it," Josh Woodby said. "It's a good science lesson," Michelle Woodby said.

Their method of growing mushrooms does not involve keeping them in the dark. They grow the oyster mushrooms in a pole barn that has high-intensity lights and is insulated so they can grow year-round. It stays between 60 and 80 degrees and at 92 percent to 100 percent humidity.

"Oysters actually need a lot of light, or they'll grow real long stems," Josh Woodby, 32, said, adding that portobello and button mushrooms prefer the dark. The oysters' caps won't grow very big in the dark. An oyster mushroom that's ready to be harvested has a cap with a diameter that's larger than a silver dollar.

The process begins in Josh Woodby's lab in the basement of their home. He grows cultures of the spores in petri dishes. That grows into mycelium, which is the plant part of the mushroom.

They then pasteurize shredded straw and mix the straw and mycelium spawn together. The mixture goes into long, clear plastic bags called columns that are hung on 10 racks in the barn.

"We're down on the floor, packing the bags and the straw gets all over us," Michelle Woodby, 30, said. "Then we tie up the bags and poke holes in the plastic with a board with arrow heads on it, and that's where (the mushrooms) grow out of."

The Woodbys sell the mushrooms for $6.50 a pound with stems. The price doubles to have the stems cut off. The business' future is probably not in oyster mushrooms.

"We plan to switch over to shitake (mushrooms) from oysters," Josh Woodby said. "We had a lot more problems with bugs and pasteurization (with oysters). It's a lot more work."

Shitakes don't require as much light to grow, meaning the Woodbys would not spend as much on electricity, and they have a longer shelf life than oysters after being picked. Shitakes are grown by putting the spawn into holes in a wood chip block.

"We think we can get a lot more yield growing shitake," Michelle Woodby said. "It would be less messy work and we can have taller shelves. And there seems to be more of a market for shitake mushrooms than oysters."

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