—Lancaster Farming. Saturday
14
Mushrooms, a Rapid Growth Pa. Industry
Mushrooms are a must for
many housewives to serve for
Thanksgiving, Christmas and for
other holdiay menus and festive
occasions They are a real taste
treat
They are an inexpensive luxury
that adds variety to menus, a lift
to recipes, flavor to all foods.
Best of all for the calorie
conscious individual, they con
tain only 66 calories to a whole
pound of mushrooms.
Yet, they have five to ten times
the amount of niacin as carrots,
spinach or tomatoes, contain
more riboflavin than meat, a
similar amount of protein as
many vegetables and high
content of phosphorous and
calcium They also contain other
B vitamins, iron and copper.
They are being used more and
more in combination with meats
George Jackson is picking mushrooms
into a 10 pound basket. He trims the
Kirkwood Woman
One of Lancaster County’s
older mushroom growers is Mrs
Paul W (Ruthanna) Farron of
Pumping Station Road, near
Route 472 going into Kirkwood
She and her former husband,
the late Joseph McCrabb, built
and filled their first house in 1948
It was pretty tough going for
them for a while due to the large
investment and his illness
During the 7V> years after his
death she was on her own and put
up her second mushroom house
and a dirt shed
She sold her mushrooms in
three pound baskets in New York
City
She had as high as 12 persons
picking mushrooms for her They
would pick from 9am till 3pm
Most of them were women, but
she always had one man picking
She herself worked from 4 or 5
a m till 10 p m or midnight She
even worked around the clock
sometimes to get them all picked
Sometimes her day started at
midnight
One time, she relates, a snow
storm blocked all the roads and
no help could get in Neither
could trucks to take them away,
so she turned the temperature on
the houses back to 45 degrees to
slow the growth This resulted in
disease setting m and she lost the
rest of the crop
Mrs Farron and a girl who
worked for her took a short
course at Penn State July 9-12,
1956 and learned a lot about
mushroom production
Farrons belong to the
November 27. 1971
and vegetables, in soups, for
gourmet meals, relish, kabobs,
cocktail snacks, raw in salads
and for dips and dunks. Also
many canned and frozen par
tially prepared foods with
mushrooms are available.
About 38 per cent of the annual
mushroom production is sold
fresh and 62 per cent is
processed.
Of the 62 per cent processed, 45
per cent is canned, 14 per cent in
soup and 3 per cent frozen and
other. Canned ones are available
in whole caps, sliced and m stems
and pieces. They come in various
can sizes for convenience.
What are mushrooms? They
are not exactly plants because
they have no leaves, bear no
fruit, produce no flower and do
not grow in soil. They are not a
mineral, although they grow in
***• -
Is Veteran M
American Mushroom Institute
which is located at Kennett
Square Mrs Farron was a
charter member of it
Mrs Farron says, “It doesn’t
pay to hurry a mushroom crop ”
We think this is good advice,
judging from her yield of
mushrooms She says, “A good
crop is 6,000 to 8,000 three pound
baskets to a 40 by 60 foot house.
You really should get 8,000 to
10,000 baskets ”
She is very modest and doesn’t
want to be quoted, but her yield
exceeds this
From the time the mushrooms
start producing you must pick
them every day. After three or
four months you may pick every
other day The pickers wear caps
with head lights to see where to
pick The latest thing in
mushroom production is an
automatic picker, but is quite
expensive and there is a question
as to how efficient it is Mrs
Farron is not contemplating
using it
Ruthanna married a spawn
salesman, Paul Farron of Kelton,
Chester County, and in 1960 they
put up a building to produce
mushroom spawn They are the
only spawn producers in Lan
caster County There are 14
spawn producers who supply
mushroom growers in the United
States, one of which is in France
Mrs. Farron still owns the four
double mushroom houses, but the
past four year her brother,
George Jackson, has been ren
ting them from her. She still
•
bottom of the stems off as he
helps some with the mushrooms.
This year she brings the
mushrooms out of the house and
weighs them Jackson sells them
in 10 pound baskets to a trucker,
who sells them to canning
companies. Mushrooms are
trucked m air-conditioned trucks.
He has four pickers who help
him He likewise is a successful
grower
The price of a three pound
basket of mushrooms runs
around $2.50 to $3.50 for big
mushrooms and about 50 cents
less for smaller ones. This
compares to $l.OO to $1 25 Mrs.
Farron received when she was
first in the business Then they
only received 80 cents to a dollar
for soup purposes. In the
meantime cost of production has
gone up comparably to the price
of the mushrooms Foreign
imports have hurt the sale of
mushrooms somewhat
Ruthannna is the daughter of
Leavmi Jackson who lives next to
the Farrons He owns two
mushroom houses next to hers.
He owns steaming equipment
which he uses to steam his own
houses and Mrs Farron’s which
George Jackson rents Farrons
also have equipment so between
them they have all the necessary
machinery to clean and steam
the houses and to turn the
compost before it is put in the
houses This works out fine for
them, since their mushroom
houses are on adjoining land.
Mushrooms are not different
from other agricultural crops in
' K
*4 •*
Mrs. Paul Farron is packing mushrooms
into three pound baskets for marketing.
total darkness. They are not a because mushrooms must be
manufactured product, although picked seven days a week, and at
they do appear on grocery the height of production require
shelves in combination with other picking almost around the clock.
foods in cans The H° use
The mushroom is a fungus. A Because mushrooms do not
fungus grows from a spore, not a need light to grow, mushroom
seed These, in turn, must be houses are built without windows,
induced to produce a threadlike since it is easier to control
mass called mycelium or spawn, temperatures within the house,
which under the proper con- In order to get fresh air for
ditions develops edible them to grow, the houses are built
mushrooms. with ventilators on the top.
Mushrooms are sensitive and Houses must be equipped with
delicate organisms. No crop, hot water heating systems to
including orchids, is as exacting keep the temperature high
in its requirements They need enough in winter
fresh air, but cannot stand drafts If they are to be grown year
They must be grown with con- round, the houses must be
trolled humidity and within equipped with air-conditioners to
narrow limits of temperature keep them cool enough to grow in
margins through the various the summer,
stages Houses need to have some sort
The mushroom grower is an of insulation near the roof. Some
agricultural specialist. He must producers use sawdust, but
be aware of diseases and insects fiberglas or rock wool insulation
and pests that threaten a crop. is better.
Sanitation is a necessity. Some people use oak boards to
It is a confining occupation construct the beds for them to
_ _ grow in Cypress is better, as it
ushroom Grower rr l ,? ‘rs- "sr,ir"
,mushroom house.
Most mushroom single houses
are 20 by 60 feet; however, they
are usually built as a double
house or 40 by 60 feet. They are
built of cement or cinder blocks.
Each single house contains two
tiers of beds and an alley bet
ween. Each tier is six beds high,
giving a total of twelve beds and a
surface of approximately 4,000
square feet.
Most houses have cement
floors to help cut down on disease
that seems to breed more on dirt
floors.
The cost of a cement block
double house with insulation,
cypress boards used for the beds,
ventilators and heating is around
$15,000.
There is a lot of hard work as
well as know-how required to
grow mushrooms. It is not ad
visable for someone who has
never worked with mushrooms to
invest in the business Nor is it
advisable for a retired person to
try it on account of the hard labor
involved. Many hours of labor are
required in practically all stages
of production and there is much
stooping, stretching and standing
in the picking, but even more
strenuous is the work of bringing
in the compost and soil to fill the
beds
♦
»
picks.
that there are many diseases and
insects which can attack them It
is very important to use every
precaution before planting new
spawn to prevent them in
preference to trying to cure
diseases Some of their enemies
and diseases are - pigmy mites,
histomites, red spider, sciarid
fly, phorid fly, cecid fly, eel
worms or nemotodes, mummy, X
disease, brown spot and spring
tails
.
Ruthanna Farron holds a
prized piece of cut glass.
Preparing the House
The first step in starting a new
crop of mushrooms is
preparation of the mushroom
house. After the old compost is
(Continued on Page 16)