The fun-guys and gals behind Oxford’s mushroom market
Oxford has multiple sources for year-round locally grown mushrooms.
Mushrooms probably come with more symbolic baggage than any other food. “It is impossible to have a neutral opinion about mushrooms,” writes Shannon Lewis in The Symbolism of Mushrooms. “You love them or (correctly) you hate them,” writes Lewis. “Or, more correctly, you fear them.”
Mushrooms can signify good luck or bad luck, growth or decay, life or death. “Alice in Wonderland” effectively captures these extremes. The caterpillar sitting on a mushroom tells Alice that biting from one side will make her grow taller, and biting from the other side will make her shrink. Mycologists have identified Alice’s mushroom as Amanita muscaria (commonly fly amanita), a variety known to have psychoactive effects.
Oxford has two year-round sources of locally grown mushrooms: T.A.K.E. Mushrooms and Guided By Mushrooms.
T.A.K.E. Mushrooms is a year-round fixture at Oxford’s Saturday morning Farmers Market. Tessa and Keenan Thomas started the business a few years ago on their farm located between Monroe and Lebanon. (T.A.K.E. is an acronym for Tessa And KEenan.) On their Facebook page, they write “in 2021, we got bit by the mushroom bug, and haven’t been the same since.” They started by gathering wild mushrooms on weekend hikes with their children.
Keenan Thomas explained that the key to converting their hobby to a business was the purchase of a several-hundred-dollar high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. Mushrooms are grown in enclosed structures to regulate temperature, light and humidity for year-round production. However, mushroom growers can develop breathing disorders due to the ongoing inhalation of dust, pollen, mold and bacteria in the indoor structures — hence the need for a HEPA filter to remove airborne particles.
Guided By Mushrooms (GBM) provides mushrooms and mushroom-based products to MOON Co-op Market. GBM was started a few years ago by David Sparks, his wife Audra Sparks, and Audra’s brother Michael Goldstick. David started growing mushrooms and creating tinctures to help alleviate Audra’s chronic pain. They began operations in a building attached to an ordinary suburban house in Dayton before moving to New Lebanon, between Dayton and Eaton.
Goldstick, who sometimes delivers to MOON Co-op, told Spectrum News 1, “I actually was a mushroom hater . . . until David started messing around with mushrooms in his garage [and] I started getting interested in the actual cultivation side of it.”
In addition to fresh mushrooms, GBM supplies MOON Co-op with powders and tinctures. Amy Cox, one of the employee-owners, is a biologist who discussed these products with me one time when she was delivering the mushrooms.
A tincture is typically an extract of plant material dissolved in alcohol. GBM uses 30% grain alcohol. Tinctures are used to help support immune systems and reduce inflammation. GBM recommends adding it to tea, coffee or another hot beverage.
GBM mushroom powders are a version of umami, which is essentially a high concentration of glutamate. Umami is a Japanese word for “delicious,” because when the powder is sprinkled on food, the flavor is enhanced. Sprinkling mushroom powder is especially helpful in enhancing flavor as a substitute for salt. I use the powder instead of flour to thicken sauces.
Sally Fallon writes in Nourishing Traditions that “mushrooms must be very fresh or they are not worth cooking … Commercially grown mushrooms seem to be devoid of specific pharmacological effects.” Oxford is fortunate to have two year-round sources of fresh locally grown mushrooms.
James Rubenstein is president of the Board of Directors for the Oxford Free Press and professor emeritus of geography at Miami University.
