This week’s Featured Vendor is Frondosa Farms, owned and operated by Patrick and Melanie Webb. Check out this Q&A with Patrick about their awesome mushroom operation.
1. Tell us about your business. How and when did you get started?
Frondosa Farms is a Culinary Mushroom Farm that we started in 2015 on our property in Simpsonville. It originated from my love of mycology and a desire to return to Kentucky after living in New York and the Virgin Islands for many years. I spent a few years studying mycology and attended several workshops before finally putting together a plan for culinary mushroom cultivation on a commercial level. I wanted to work for myself and do something that would benefit the community and family I love. I converted shipping containers into a functional mushroom growing environment and with my wife providing accounting and tech support I was able to have product to market in time for Debry season in 2016.
2. What do you grow on your farm?
At this time, we only grow mushrooms for sale. Melanie and I are both avid gardeners and we grow many things for home use. We are especially excited to be growing 6 different varieties of hot peppers this year. Hot Sauce is a family passion.
3. What do you sell at the Franklin County Farmers Market?
I sell a variety of culinary mushrooms that I manage on a rotating basis. I grow a number of oyster mushroom varieties, including Italian, Elm, Pink, Golden and Black Pearls. I also produce Chestnut mushrooms, Lion’s Mane, Shiitake and occasionally Reishi and Maitake. We offer our mushrooms in 8oz portions and also a 2lb Chef’s Mix box, which is a scaled down version of what we deliver to our chefs. You can always check in on Instagram to see what is popping up at the farm every week. The mushrooms are so beautiful that photography has become a bit of a hobby for me over the years.
4. What is your favorite thing that you produce? Why?
Well, that is a hard question to answer. I love the mushrooms and they all have nutritional benefits and flavor profiles that I am passionate about. I guess it would be like asking which kid is the favorite. If I were to talk about one of the mushrooms I currently cultivate however, it would be the Black Pearl, known also as Shimofuri Hiratake. This is a newer strain of culinary mushroom that is a cross between the Japanese and European Hiratake (oyster). It is incredibly versatile and flavorful, you can pull it apart and simply sauté or roast the entire mushroom. We have even roasted an entire 3 lb cluster and served it as a main dish.
5. Tell us about your mushroom operation. How do you grow them?
I wanted to keep the operation as eco friendly as I possibly could. Shipping containers seemed like the best choice to repurpose an overlooked resource and I was able to compartmentalize the various aspects of cultivation. I have a lab, an incubation room and grow rooms that are monitored for ideal temperature and humidity year-round.
6. How does your family cook and eat the mushrooms you grow? Do you have any suggestions or ideas for our customers?
My wife and I both have a background in the restaurant industry, and we love to cook and to be cooked for. There are so many great resources out there, we find inspiration often on Instagram and have even talked about putting together a list of favorite recipes and links on our website. I actually participated in a cooking class coordinated via Instagram last night with mushrooms as the main ingredient. Mushrooms are very versatile and really will taste good with even the simplest of preparation. Always cook them! Raw mushrooms have very tough cell walls that are not easy to digest so not only can you experience discomfort, but your body doesn’t absorb the full nutritional value of what you are consuming.
7. What is your favorite mushroom to eat?
One that is cooked for me. Seriously, my wife is an amazing cook and we collaborate often to come up with new ways to prepare mushrooms. Over the years I have become close with many of the chefs who use my mushrooms and I really enjoy seeing (and sampling) all of the creative and delicious ways they use my product to create culinary art. Nothing brings me more joy than hearing from people who have enjoyed my mushrooms. With the Healthy at Home directive, many of the restaurants we work with abbreviated or suspended their business. This forced us to diversify our operations and we have been able to do so by offering our product directly to consumers at a small number of specialty markets and here at the FCFM. I can’t tell you how thankful I am for this wonderfully operated outlet for my product, career and passion.