Hot News

11.16.04

By LINDA SIEMON

OXFORD, Pa. — Sauteed, stuffed or smoked - mushrooms are a year round commodity that many farmers have not tried their hands at yet.
With less than 200 mushroom farmers in the country and most of them on the east coast, Edward A. Leo, the owner of John C. Leo & Son, LLC, said the trade is something that takes a lot of testing and monitoring to assure the right conditions for growing the fungus.
“It’s capital intensive and labor intensive. It’s somewhat comparative to dairy,” Leo said of the operation, adding that it requires constant attention.
The art of growing the small white toadstools is dependent on having the right conditions. Since the mushrooms grow in temperature controlled rooms, they can be grown anywhere.
But the process is a meticulous one.
On Nov. 9, Leo showed The Delmarva Farmer, along with Mid-Atlantic Farm Credit, just how intense the growing process is on a tour at one of his facilities.
The farm was originally his father’s, John C. Leo, who started the operation in Avondale, Pa. after returning from World War II in 1952.
Ed Leo has been growing white mushrooms on the farm since 1972. His largest facility is located in Oxford, Pa. which grows about 5.5 million pounds of mushrooms per year. The facility has been in operation for the past four years. A second facility grows about 4 million mushrooms per year.
Leo said mushroom growing started in the United States when a greenhouse grower brought the technology over from Europe. After World War II, several growers moved out west and now there are mushroom growers in 24 states, but Pennsylvania still has about 45 percent of the market.
At the John C. Leo & Son, LLC farm, Leo uses a compost made from chicken litter and hay. The process takes about 10 days to pasteurize and have the right amount of nitrogen for the mushrooms to flourish. The mushrooms need an adequate amount of moisture, oxygen, nitrogen and carbohydrates in order to grow and mature.
After about 10 days of preparing a compost and keeping it at the right temperature with the right amount of moisture, the mushroom growing begins. He said he averages about a 16-day growing period before the mushrooms are mature enough for picking.
To prepare the compost and grow the mushrooms, John C. Leo & Son, LLC has 20 temperature controlled rooms at its Oxford, Pa., facility which are kept at various temperatures throughout the different stages of composting. Some rooms are humid. Others will give a steamy kick in the face when the doors are opened. One room during the pasteurization process is kept at 90 degrees with a compost temperature of 140 degrees.
Once the compost is prepared, spawn is then worked into the compost from which the mushrooms will grow. Spawn is made from spores dropped from previously grown mushrooms. The spores are inoculated with grain to produce spawn and then mixed into the compost.
One of the drawbacks of growing mushrooms is the operating cost. Mushrooms need to be grown in a compost with a temperature between 75 and 80 degrees. Leo said a temperature in excess of 85 degrees could kill off the growing fungi. During the summer months, Leo said the electric bill can run up to $30,000 per month to keep the mushrooms cool.
Each room takes a large amount of capital as well in preparation and holds about 55 to 60,000 pounds of mushrooms. One room could have from $36,000 to 37,000 invested that could run the risk of being totally lost if infection occurs.
Leo said there have been times when he’s had to flush an entire room because of infection.
“If you have a room that’s infected pretty bad, you run the risk of spreading it to other rooms,” he said adding that workers can carry bacteria with them from room to room.
“What you see as the price of mushrooms in the store bears no relationship,” Leo said. The farm will get about 70 to 80 cents per pound depending on the quality once the mushrooms are distributed, however Leo said the average price in the store may be in excess of $2 per pound.
Leo’s white mushrooms are distributed along the East Coast from Boston down to Miami. He said the larger the mushroom, the more flavor there will be and the more money the mushroom pickers will get paid.
With intense concentration, the workers quickly pick the largest and most mature mushrooms out of a vast colony of tiny white clouds. They get paid by piecemeal and will get paid more for the larger mushrooms.
When some people on the tour commented on how perfect the mushrooms looked in their packages, Leo quickly piped up.
“No, they don’t to me,” Leo said.
He explained that a large round cap with no bruises and a thin stem is what he is searching for in the perfect mushroom.
For storage purposes, the mushrooms should not be washed until ready to be eaten or cooked. Once they come home from the store, they should be placed in a brown paper bag and stored in the refrigerator. Under these conditions Leo said they should last about a week to a week and a half before perishing.

If you cook ’em ...

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked, flaked crab
1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 tsp lemon juice
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 green onions, minced
1/8 tsp lemon pepper
24 large mushrooms
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
2 Tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese
Instructions:
Wash mushrooms well, remove stems, and set caps aside. Finely chop about 1/2 the mushroom stems. Mix cream cheese, crab, chopped stems, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, basil, garlic powder, onions, and lemon pepper. Fill mushroom caps with the crab mixture and place in a large, lightly greased baking dish. Top with the grated cheddar and parmesan cheeses. (Recipe may be prepared to this point and refrigerated, covered, overnight.) Bake at 450 F for 15- 20 minutes and serve warm. Any leftover crab mixture may be thinned with sour cream and served as a dip or spread for crackers, chips, or vegetables. Shrimp could be substituted for crab.