You see them pop up seemingly overnight in your yard. They are growing wild throughout every forest in Kentucky. But have you ever looked at them, seeing a potential savior for family farms throughout the state?

Gary and Beth Anderson of The Forest School, Inc., have done just that. For the last 11 years they have studied and come to love all the incredible varieties of fungus that Kentucky has to offer, and have devoted themselves to helping show other farmers a way to achieve a sustainable, even profitable way to capitalize on this free gift of nature.

Their journey began when they were working as molecular geneticists at the University of Georgia. During their research work, Gary began to harbor doubts about the potential of the genetically engineered crops he was working to develop. He came to believe that bio-engineered crops could lead to greater problems than they might solve. He also saw that a lot of money was being spent to develop what are essentially sterile lines of crops that require a large amount of capital investment to sustain with very narrow profit margins for farmers. Gary concluded that this trend was having the unfortunate result of turning farming into a tenuous way to make a living at best, and a potential disaster in the making for small farming operations in Kentucky.

During this time, Gary and Beth also lived on a small subsistence-sized farm. It was this experience, combined with their academic work, that lead them to realize that farmers were being pitted against nature, rather than working with it to make it more productive in the manner nature was inclined to take it. Gary noticed that tremendous numbers of acorn, pears, figs and persimmons were produced on the half-acre plot where they lived with little prompting or tending by them. They were raising chickens, rabbits and goats with very little outside feed required, and their animals were fat and happy. They were left asking the question why wasn’t this being investigated more seriously?

The conclusion they reached is a tremendously important, and troubling, one for all of us. Somewhere along the line the idea arose that money could be made off of farmers and farms rather than with farms and farmers. A small distinction? Hardly.

The ramifications are seen in the current decline in the number of small family-owned farms across the nation and here in Kentucky. Considering that a large percentage of farmers are in a state of persistent debt, that taxpayers are left subsidizing these farmers to make it possible for them to continue producing food, and that using current hybridized seeds and fertilizers do little to create a sustainable, self-renewing crop from year to year, the fundamental problem facing farmers becomes clear. Very few agricultural commodities produce enough net profit for farmers to make a decent living when the market is only paying pennies per pound. Eventually you will not be able to make up in volume the costs required to support current high production farming systems. Gary’s conclusion? We need to try something different.

So turning the results into new questions, Gary asked: What could be produced that has inexpensive production costs and a high profit yield with significant profit potential?

The answer the Andersons found was, naturally, mushrooms.

But how much does it cost to get a mushroom farm going? Not much, apparently. Since forests are the dominant ecosystem in Kentucky, and forests are the natural home of mushrooms, the hardest part of the process is already done for you. There are literally dozens of species of wild mushrooms growing in Kentucky that sell on the wholesale market for $5 to $15 per pound freshly picked. These mushrooms plant themselves in the deadfall organic matter, a free gift from Mother Nature that only requires you to go in and gather up the profits. When you add in other “semi-wild” varieties such as shiitake, oyster, and miatake mushrooms that are even more lucrative, you have the makings for some real profits.

And there’s more good news, demand for mushrooms has steadily increased every year since 1986. In 1996 the rate had increased to 11 times what it was in 1986 with very little change in the wholesale price farmers could get for their product. Demand continues to grow worldwide, like a, well, mushroom…

Better still, mushrooms are perennials. Once a patch, stump or log is found, it will continue to produce mushrooms for years or even decades. All you need to harvest and sell your crop are scissors, a serrated knife, and some bags. Collecting essentially free money to the tune of $40 to $150 per acre is not an uncommon return for a wild mushroom harvest. This can produce a nice supplemental income for a farmer with very little effort.

A more profitable approach is to develop the woodland into a better habitat for the more desirable wild mushrooms by using a few inexpensive cultivation techniques. For a bit more work, you can establish a productive patch of semi-wild mushrooms using spawn and techniques taught by the Forest School. The process is a fairly simple affair of “inoculating” a log, stump, or pile of sawdust with “spawn,” which is essentially a culture of fungus that acts as the seed for your crop. You then monitor your woodland for harvestable mushrooms, and collect them up for sale.

The Andersons’ hard work has resulted in the development of their Integrated Forest ManagementSM(IFM) system. This system currently provides them with gross annual revenues of $500 to $2,000 per acre from their crop of gourmet mushrooms, depending on the weather. This soundly beats Kentucky’s current yearly agricultural return of $300 per acre, which includes revenues earned by both Thoroughbreds and tobacco. It also dwarfs the $15 to $30 dollars per acre that is realized from woodlands managed using conventional forestry techniques.

What does this mean in practical terms for Kentucky? According to the Kentucky Woodland Owners Association, there are over 400,000 private woodland owners in the state. The average size of these woodlots is about 26 acres. That’s an average of $13,000 to $52,000 that each of these owners could receive if they were managing and harvesting mushrooms using IFM techniques. If all 400,000 woodland owners were to use these methods, approximately 5.2 billion to 20.8 billion dollars of income would potentially be created to “inoculate” the Kentucky agricultural economy.

With little or no purchased inputs, a farmer or woodland owner can now realistically make hundreds, if not thousands of dollars per acre each year, grow delicious nutritious food for themselves, and live in harmony with the native ecosystem. Coupled with a family or small market garden, IFM offers true sustainability for farming families as well as excellent food source with minimal pollution or destruction to the natural habitat.

Another bonus of the system is that, eventually, the Andersons will harvest higher quality timber than they can currently produce and along the way can put the culled non-lumber quality trees to productive use rather than leave them as brush piles or simply leave them to rot on the floor of their woodland acreage. What is even more remarkable about this system is that is does not require the removal of the native eco-system, as most current farming methods do. In fact, the profit lies in allowing nature to go about its business so you can do yours.

This idea, as with home gardens and family farms, has long been part of the culture here in Kentucky. And while the idea may seem out of date for some, the possibility of living in harmony with nature rather than against it is not only an idea with the romantic appeal of the past, but now becomes a true possibility for Kentucky’s agricultural future.

Mushroom Food Value Many myths have been spread about mushrooms, a primary one being that mushrooms have no nutritional value. To properly weigh their nutritional benefits, they should be compared on a dry weight basis since they are comprised mostly of water. You only receive maximum nutritional benefit upon cooking. Fresh mushrooms are cholesterol-, fat- and sodium-free. They are low in calories and an excellent source of riboflavin and a good source of niacin, copper and pantothenate. Mushrooms are relatively high in protein, averaging about 20 percent of their dried mass. They contribute a wide range of essential amino acids, are low in fat (0.3 - 2.0 percent), high in fiber and provide several groups of vitamins, particularly thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, and ascorbic acid. While nutrient levels vary by type, many contain protein, vitamins A and C, B-vitamins and minerals including iron, selenium, potassium and phosphorus. Phytochemicals found in some mushrooms are being studied as possible cancer-fighting substances, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research.

Important Forest Facts Kentucky was approximately 95 percent forested before Europeans arrived. Kentucky is currently 50 percent forested. The forest is a spontaneous, self-sustaining ecosystem. Most disturbed lands in Kentucky will naturally revert back to forest when left alone. Gross agricultural revenue in Kentucky amounts to less than $300 per acre in a single year. Gross revenues from conventionally harvested woodland are less than $40 per acre each year. Using IFM techniques, landowners can realize gross revenues of $500 to $1,000 per acre each year while harvesting only 5 percent of their lowest quality standing timber. The majority of Kentucky timber is considered “low-grade.” Low-grade logs are only worth amounts in the tens of dollars for a conventional one-time sale, but can grow several hundred dollars worth of mushrooms using IFM. Forests remove carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, prevent soil erosion, and help keep water clean.

Mushroom Sources For more info on or to buy fresh mushrooms direct from Kentucky growers: The Forest School, Inc. Constantine, KY Gary & Beth Anderson theforestschoolinc@html.com (270) 862-4459 Sheltowee Farm Lexington, KY Billy & Rebecca Web www.sheltoweefarm.com info@sheltoweefarm.com (859) 293-3400 Best Farms Berea, KY Bill Best & Sons www,heirlooms.org staff@heirlooms.org (859.985.8648) Kentucky Department of Agriculture Jessica Anderson jessicap.anderson@kyagr.com (502) 564-4983 UK College of Agriculture Ag Info Center (859) 257-2758 www.ca.uky.edu

Basic Rules for Harvesting Mushrooms Buy and become intimately familiar with a good field guide to mushrooms in your area. An excellent guide for Kentucky is The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. Pay particular attention to the Introduction and the Appendices in Part III in the book. Even with a printed guide, it is recommended that you go out several times with an experienced mushroom hunter before hunting on your own. To positively identify any species you are not familiar with, you must, at a minimum, get a conclusive spore print. Never eat or sell any mushroom that you haven’t identified with 100 percent certainty. When trying a new species of edible mushroom for the first time, eat only small quantities until you know how your body reacts to it. For best quality and value, only harvest young specimens of edible mushrooms. Do not experiment. There are many delicious wild mushroom species, but there are several that can cause illness, and a few that can cause death. NOTE: The Lane Report and The Forest School are not responsible for the consequences to anyone who disregards these rules either due to neglect or ignorance.

Timothy E. Hunt (editorial@lanereport.com) is editorial director of The Lane Report.