AT LOCAL FARMERS MARKETS
For sale
Just coming to market: micro greens, parsnips, Savoy cabbage
Vegetables and nuts: arugula, Asian greens, beets, cabbage, carrots, celery, chard, chicory, collards, cornmeal, endive, escarole, grits, herbs, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, mushrooms, mustard greens, Napa cabbage, pecans, polenta, radicchio, radishes, sorrel, spinach, sweet potatoes, turnips and greens, winter squash
— From local reports
Mushrooms have become one of the mainstays of local farmers markets. Tables covered with brown shiitakes and oyster mushrooms in several colors appear at many markets. The producers are happy to package your purchase in a small brown paper bag, all the better to protect this somewhat fragile purchase for the trip home.
The most unfamiliar mushroom on the table is usually the lion’s mane. Instead of the cap-and-stem mushroom we grew up with, lion’s mane mushrooms grow in a mounded shape made up of long slender “branches” that radiate out from a base like the fur in a lion’s mane. It’s also known as the “hedgehog” or “pom pom” mushroom, which are more names descriptive of its shape and shaggy appearance.
Sparta Mushrooms has been growing lion’s mane mushrooms almost from its inception. And the story of the inception of Sparta Mushrooms is the tale of a couple who fell in love with a community. An invitation to lunch in 2001 introduced Robert Currey and his wife, Suzy, to this small town in Hancock County. Before a year was over, they’d bought an 1840s Greek Revival home there, in a community where they planned to cultivate their interest in healthy eating and organic gardening.
One thing led to another, and as Currey says, “Ultimately we slid downhill to Sparta.” The couple now lives there full time.
Through the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, the Curreys bought an old cotton warehouse building that later had been used as a furniture factory. A meeting with Jonathan Tescher, who was working with Georgia Organics at the time, led to a conversation about agriculturally related products that weren’t being grown in the Atlanta area. “Jonathan’s research told him Atlanta was one of the top mushroom-consuming metropolitan areas but there were no local mushrooms. We decided to go in the mushroom business.”
In late spring 2013 Sparta Mushrooms harvested its first crop.
The mushrooms grow in climate-controlled greenhouses within that old factory. The growing medium is five-and-a-half pound blocks of oak sawdust mixed with wheat bran. The dampened mixture goes into heat-resistant plastic bags and is sterilized, then inoculated with rye grain and mushroom spores and sits. Depending on the mushroom, it can take two to eight weeks for mushrooms to emerge from the holes punched in the bags. Mushrooms are harvested on Thursdays for delivery to the Turnip Truck, restaurants and Whole Foods and then to make the trip into town on Saturday morning for the farmers markets.
Many of those Saturday mornings find Currey at the Morningside Farmers Market. Tables under one end of a large tent offer an array of mushrooms, while produce from the Curreys’ Elm Street Gardens occupy the rest of the real estate. Elm Street Gardens, managed by Jessica Legendre and Josh Plymale, is another spin-off of the Curreys’ passion for growing things and making jobs in Sparta. Plymale covers produce sales for Sparta Mushroom at nearby Freedom Farmers Market.
There’s no question Currey loves the part of his “job” that allows him to talk to customers. And he’s happy to explain how he enjoys lion’s mane mushrooms. “We use them most in soups and chilis. We just cube it or tear the mushrooms apart. We enjoy it that way more than we do sauteed although it’s delicious sauteed in canola oil with just a little shot of butter at the last minute for flavor.
“A lot of people say it tastes like lobster. I tell you, I ate a lot of lobster before I became a vegetarian 20 years ago and the texture might be like lobster but it sure doesn’t taste like lobster to me,” he says with his signature laugh.
Lion’s Mane Mushroom Spinach Bake
The Curreys make it easy on Sparta Mushroom shoppers by providing recipe ideas for their many varieties of mushrooms. This is one of their offerings, a variation on the well-worn theme of hot artichoke and spinach dips. Your guests may never guess the main ingredient is mushroom until you reveal the secret. Serve this with toasted bread, pita crisps or your favorite crackers.
This recipe was created for and tested with lion’s mane mushrooms, but any fresh mushroom would work. Lion’s mane mushrooms don’t require chopping. Just tear them into segments as you would peel leaves off an artichoke.
1 pound lion’s mane mushrooms, torn into 1/2-inch pieces
6 cups roughly chopped spinach leaves, lightly packed
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/4 pound Gruyere, grated
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch baking dish.
In a large mixing bowl, toss together mushrooms, spinach and garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and season to taste. Arrange in a prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake 30 minutes or until cheese melts and has lightly browned. Makes: 4 cups
— Adapted from a recipe by Bernerhof Inn, Mount Washington Valley, New Hampshire.
Per 1/4-cup serving: 147 calories (percent of calories from fat, 33), 5 grams protein, 22 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams fiber, 6 grams fat (2 grams saturated), 8 milligrams cholesterol, 36 milligrams sodium.
