Mushrooms are having a well-deserved moment 

Seacoast mushrooms are grown on a wood-based substrate mixture, treated to eliminate competing organisms from growing, but without pesticides.

Tucked inside three shipping containers in Stonington mushrooms are growing. Shitake and golden oyster, blue oyster and lion’s mane, king oysters, and more.

In nature, Shiitake, Maitake, King Trumpets, Blue Oyster, and Golden Oyster mushrooms, typically grow on decomposing logs and trees but at Seacoast they grow on a wood-based substrate mixture that’s been sterilized to eliminate competing organisms from growing on the substrate. Most of these 'woody' mushrooms take weeks to months to be harvest ready. Blue Oysters, for example, take 4 to 6 weeks while a Shiitake may take as long as 4 to 6 months.

“I designed all the mechanicals the mushrooms need to grow,” says Chris Pacheco, the founder of Seacoast Mushrooms. “We can control the temperature, the moisture and the shipping containers make it easy to clean the growing rooms.”

In any given week, Chris harvests between 600 and 800 pounds of mushrooms from the upcycled shipping containers. The mushrooms then make their way to chefs at restaurants throughout Connecticut and home chefs who buy them directly from Seacoast Mushrooms at the Stonington, New Haven, and Westport Farmers Markets.

Mushrooms are having a bit of moment. They’ve been popping up in everything from blended burgers to coffee to doughnuts to the New York Times bestseller list. Journalist Michael Pollan even wrote about foraging for magic mushrooms in his most recent book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. But when Chris started Seacoast Mushrooms four and a half years ago mushrooms weren’t as popular. He had such a hard time finding chefs to buy his mushrooms that he began to worry his business wouldn’t work.

“I had this whole business plan based around market share and everything was wrong with it, there was no market share to capture,” says Chris.

Growing up on his family’s apple orchard in Little Compton, Rhode Island, Chris was immersed in farming from a young age. About a decade ago, he began looking for ways to diversify the business and started mushroom farming.

“I kept talking to people at the market, about the mushrooms, how to cook them, and I’d say ‘go talk to your favorite chef’ and then I started getting calls back from all these chefs that had said no to us.”

“Everything we did was trial and error,” Chris says. “We read a lot in books, did a lot of experimenting, figuring out how to grow.” After helping out at Hillside Mushrooms for several years, Chris, who’d been an engineer in the Navy and was living in Mystic, decided to open Seacoast Mushrooms. But he quickly found that people didn’t know how to pronounce the mushrooms he was growing let alone how to cook with them.

“I was really down, I had spent a lot of money, I thought this was going to work and I was getting rejected constantly,” Chris says of the early days of Seacoast Mushrooms. “I had to shift my strategy of selling mushrooms to educating people about mushrooms.”

Chris’ big break came from the Oyster Club in Mystic and the Water Street Cafe in Stonington Borough. On the same day, Oyster Club executive chef James Wayman bought a box of freshly picked mushrooms from him, Chris also ran into Water Street Cafe chef and owner Walter Houlihan, who bought everything he had left in his truck. From there word of mouth among Connecticut’s chefs as well as from people he met at the Stonington’s Farmers Market helped expand the business.

“I kept talking to people at the market, about the mushrooms, how to cook them and I’d ask them to ‘Go talk to your favorite chef.’ And only then I started getting calls back from all these chefs that had previously said no to us,” Chris says. “Now we have such an amazing relationship with all these chefs.”

Chris grows about eight di erent varieties of mushrooms at any given time, although the exact mushrooms depend on the season, and also what types of mushrooms chefs are seeking.

“It’s an interesting balance as want to supply the restaurants and the farmers market, so we have our staples, but we’ll also get special requests from chefs that want to have a certain menu item for several months and then we’ll try to make that arrangement work,” Chris says.

While Chris is focused on growing mushrooms he occasionally forages for them in the woods as well. Most locally foraged mushrooms are safe but it’s really important to learn about the natural mushrooms growing around us.

That's where Ryan Bouchard and Emily Schmidt can help. They offer classes, guided walks and more through the Mushroom Hunting Foundation. Throughout mushroom season, which normally runs from May to mid-December in the Northeast they take people mushroom hunting (either to a place their customers want to go where they’ve seen mushrooms or they will suggest a local place), they’ll teach them about identification as well as how to cook with them.

“People who’ve taken one of our classes can text us pictures of what they found in the woods and we’ll tell them how to proceed.” Ryan says, adding, “If you can’t identify it 100 percent don’t eat it.’ Back at Seacoast Mushrooms, where Chris grows mushrooms year-round without the use of pesticides or fungicides he’s focused on expanding production in the year to come and adding in some new varieties of mushrooms, hoping that the popularity of mushrooms continues to grow.

While you’re waiting to try those new mushrooms you can pick up some Shiitake Mushrooms and make Seacoast’s Mushroom Soup at home. Perfect for winter’s short, cold days.

• Seacoast Mushrooms can be found at the following farmers’ markets all winter on Saturdays - Stonington, New Haven, and Westport. Follow them on Instagram @seacoastmushrooms or on Facebook at facebook.com/seacoastmushrooms1205/
• The Mushroom Hunting Foundation can be contacted at info@mushroomhunting.org (401)595-6143, or online at mushroomhunting.org