A Fine Fungi Life

May 6, 2016

Michigan Mushroom Market

Ashleigh and Ken Harris started hunting mushrooms the way many other people in northern Michigan have: looking for morels as kids. Years later, after the couple had kids of their own, they’d hunt as a family.

“One of our friends mentioned that morel season always goes so fast,” Ashleigh Harris said. “And we thought, you know, there are a lot of other edible mushrooms out there.”

Ken and his friends started going out to see what he could find, bringing new mushrooms back.

“I’d cook them and they were so good.

It was like, whoa, we never knew,” Ashleigh said. “At first, we were just picking recreationally. Then one friend said, ‘you should take these to the farmers markets.’” And so the Michigan Mushroom Market was born.

MUSHROOM VISION

Once the Harrises got the idea, they sent Ken to one of the local markets and quickly found there was definitely a demand.

“Ken literally went just one day to — I think it was the Petoskey or Boyne City market — with a basket of chanterelles,” Ashleigh said. “He was sold out by 11am and had $300 in his pocket! And that was the light bulb; we thought we could really do something with this.”

Carefully utilizing a combination of guide books, learning from mushroom experts and cross-referencing with online photos, Ken was welcomed into the markets, and his wife wasn’t far behind.

PICKING POTENTIAL

“I went to the markets with Ken after he’d been going for a while, and I saw the other farmers with their beautiful canopies and nice setups and I said, ‘we need business cards, we need a table cloth, we need, need, need,’” Ashleigh laughed. “So we got everything customized, picked a business name, and got a dba and a website. The next three years was a whirlwind as we got more and more into it.”

As their Mushroom Market was getting started, Ken was working as a painter and Ashleigh ran a property management company.

“It was pretty good money for northern Michigan, but our hearts weren’t in it,” she said.

Once they thought they could make a living at something they loved, they both let their jobs go in favor of the mushrooms.

“Now our income is… a little different,” Ashleigh said. “We’re not quite there yet. But we know the potential!”

EXPERT HUNTERS

In October 2014, the Harrises expanded from farmers markets to a storefront just north of Petoskey on US-31. Things were going well until they were hit with a fire in August 2015, but they regrouped quickly.

“We now have a new location, also on US-31, about a quarter-mile north of Oleson’s,” Ashleigh said.

The Michigan Mushroom Market store will feature more than 15 varieties of wild mushrooms that grow in northern Michigan, picked spring through fall, starting with morel season.

“We’re fortunate that we have so many state lands we can pick on here,” she said. “We stick to those unless we have permission to hunt mushrooms on private property.”

Ashleigh said they also stick carefully to regulations, since mushrooms can be tricky at times.

“In Michigan, you have to follow Department of Agriculture food codes and you must be certified to sell wild mushrooms to the public, which we are,” she explained. “It took us a year to prove to them that we knew what we were doing, but ultimately we got certified.”

FAVORITE FUNGI

Now working with additional pickers, the Harrises are promoting mushrooms well beyond morels in the hopes of educating foodies about the bounty our region has to offer.

“Morels are like the red meat of mushrooms,” Ashleigh said. “They’re earthy, meaty and strong. Chanterelles are the opposite. They’re like a white meat mushroom; they have a lighter texture and an apricot-like aroma.” Another Harris-recommended mushroom, found in the fall, is the maitake.

“It’s also known as a medicinal mushroom,” she said, “but it’s one of the most versatile; it goes with anything and has a nice, strong, typical mushroom flavor, much like button mushrooms.”

Ashleigh’s personal favorite is a wildlyshaped bracket fungi that grows on trees and logs called chicken of the woods.

“That’s the one that even if you say you don’t like mushrooms, you’ll like it!” she said. “You can cook it like you would poultry and, yes, it literally tastes like chicken.”

FUTURE MARKET

While the Harrises plan to continue participating in the farmers markets as long as they can (“we have to be there personally, as we get so many questions about the mushrooms, so we can’t just send anyone,” she said), much of their focus is now on their store: a place to buy wild mushrooms, as well as cultivated and dried mushrooms, plus a wild mushroom-based deli.

“We will have a licensed kitchen, so we’re going to have soups, pastas, pizza by the slice,” she said. “You’ll be able to come in and get hot takeout foods.”

Because they now own the property where the new Michigan Mushroom Market is located, they’ve got plenty of plans to expand, too. “We’re going to have a mini mushroom farm and we also plan to add lectures and classes,” Ashleigh said. “There’s just so much you can do with mushrooms!”

To learn more about the Michigan Mushroom Market, their farmers market schedule and their new store (opening soon), visit michiganmushroommarket.com or call (231) 838-0858.

They can also be found on Facebook (facebook. com/michiganmushroommarket)