Farmers learned by doing Though Christine Kubogamell grew up on the farm and is now its third-generation grower, she and her husband did not enter the business until 2006. With no previous experience in agriculture, Arthur Kubogamell said learning how to grow mushrooms was “a large challenge initially.” They both learned by doing, they said. He went on to study the process in the Netherlands. “I was very fortunate that there were other growers here locally that were extremely helpful and extremely generous in sharing their experiences and information and expertise,” he said. Christine Kubogamell’s family didn’t set out to become mushroom farmers. Her grandparents, age 60 and 70 at the time, had been strawberry growers and knew nothing about growing mushrooms when they took over the farm from relatives who were unable to repay money they had borrowed for the mushroom venture. “They kind of reluctantly got into (the business),” she said. “If you can imagine a 60-year-old woman driving a tractor and having to do all the labor. It was really difficult for them for a long time.…Luckily, they got help from the generosity of another nice mushroom grower in the area.” In those days, the farm grew only brown mushrooms, also known as crimini or “baby bellas,” because they are a younger version of portabella mushrooms. White button mushrooms, now the most widely grown variety, came later, even though all three varieties come from the same mushroom species, Agaricus bisporus. Ca l i fornia rema ins the nat ion’s second-largest mushroom producer, behind Pennsylvania, which grows more than half of the U.S. crop, while the Golden State accounts for about 18%, according to the USDA. The world’s top producer is China. A self-sustaining crop Though mushroom farming has become more mechanized through the years, Christine Kubogamell said, the growing process remains largely unchanged, with farms producing and harvesting the crop year-round. Al l mushrooms grow f rom microscopic spores collected in laboratories and then used to inoculate grains or seeds to produce spawn, the mushroom farmer’s equiva lent of seed. White, brown and portabel la mushrooms grow in a compost blend of materials such as straw, cottonseed, gypsum, corncobs, seed hulls and
Hamdey Altayyeb, owner of My Pizza in Morgan Hill, uses mushrooms grown by South Valley Mushroom Farm.
nitrogen-rich manure from chickens or horses. The fungi conta in no chlorophyl l and don’t need l ight or photosynthesis to grow, relying only on the nutrients from the compost. For mushroom farmers, compost is “the cornerstone of each crop,” said Arthur Kubogamell, “and if you don’t get your compost right, then your production won’t pan out for you.” Before it can be used, the compost is pasteurized, then pressed into large trays or beds. Next, the spawn is mixed into the compost. After two to three weeks, what looks like a fine, white web forms on the surface of the compost. This mycelium forms the root structure that starts the mushroom colony. At this point, growers spread a layer of peat moss over the compost to hold in moisture, and the entire bed is moved to a growing room where temperature and humidity are carefully controlled. Eventual ly, tiny pea-size mushrooms form on the mycelium and push up through the peat-moss casing. “Once we put the casing layer on, it takes about 14 to 18 days before you start to see mushrooms,” Christine Kubogamell explained. “They double in size every day.
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November/December 2020
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