Edible Sacramento Fall 2022

Opposite, from top: Father and son team Paul and Brendan Linnane, owner-operators of Foggy Dew Fungi, show o their bounty at the farmers’ market in Auburn; Cool Mush room Farm’s mushroom fruiting room; This page, clockwise from top left: Fruiting blocks await inoculation with mush room cultures at the Yialourises’ Cool Mushroom Farm; Mushroom cultures; Dillon, Emily, and Milo Yialouris in their mushroom fruiting room; Golden and pioppino mushrooms from Cool Mushroom Farm

Mushrooms don’t need trees or soil. They grow in sawdust or other substrates. They start as spores in agar in a petri dish before progressing to blocks of hardwood pellets. (Mushrooms don’t like soft woods.) The Yialour ises prefer soy hull pellets, a byproduct of soybeans. Anew crop of oysters canmature in only threemonths. Emily creates recipes to gowith theirmushrooms. “I love cooking with the king blue oysters. They’re re ally savory with a rich, beefy flavor,” she says. FoggyDewsupplies recipes alongwith itsmushrooms. “Our most popular is the lion’s mane crab-less crab cakes,” Linnane says. “[The mushroom] shreds just like crabmeat.” As a side business, FoggyDewFungi also startedmar keting its own at-home growkits. “They’re insanely popular,” says Linnane, who sells 40 kits a week at farmers’ markets ($20 – $30 online). “I just love growing mushrooms,” Linnane adds. “I love feeding people and building community. So much is happening in the mushroomworld right now. I love to get people excited about mushrooms.”

Cool MushroomFarm Coolmushroomfarm.com Foggy DewFungi Foggydewfungi.com

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