Beyond the Button
Try these plant-based ’shroom recipes
Magnificent Mushrooms
Gratitude Garden Farm’s eye-catching exotic mushrooms – oyster mushrooms in muted hues, lion’s mane, pioppinos – have captured the attention of chefs and farmers market customers. In Loxahatchee Groves, a few miles from Lion Country Safari as the turkey vulture flies, one five-acre square in the patchwork of small farms and nurseries is occupied by Gratitude Garden Farm.
The compact farm encompasses different components – a tropical fruit grove, rows of turmeric and ginger, hoop houses protecting pots of veggies, and a series of shipping containers, some painted sky blue with puffy clouds. It’s easy to be thankful wandering around this peaceful, bucolic space. But for farmer Joseph Chammas and his wife, Tawna, the name of the farm is filled with meaning. It reflects their attitude today.
Photo 1: Tawna and Joseph Chammas
Photo 2: Farm workers check on bags.
In 2008, Joseph was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. After going through conventional treatment, he decided to go raw vegan for three years. The couple started growing their own food. “I changed the way I ate and I changed the way I lived my life,” he says. “The farm was definitely one big step in that direction.”
Seven years ago, Joseph and Tawna left their old lives behind to build the certified organic farm where they work and live today. They started with raised beds and expanded to grow more crops organically. Among those was specialty mushrooms, both culinary and medicinal, raised in shipping containers that have been fitted especially for growing fungi.
“Mushrooms were definitely a challenge for us,” Joseph says. “There’s a lot you have to learn, and there wasn’t a lot of information on how to grow them.” But they persevered, and today Gratitude Garden Farm sells bouquets of swirly pastel oyster mushrooms, cauliflower-like lion’s mane mushrooms and other alluring varieties to restaurants from Palm Beach to Miami, as well as farmers markets throughout South Florida.
In the Mushroom Lab
Gratitude Garden is not the only farm in South Florida cultivating mushrooms – Paradise Farms in Homestead has been growing oysters for years – but it’s not a crop for every farmer. Even though mushrooms are grown in customized shipping containers, Joseph says South Florida’s heat presents big challenges. “The air conditioning can’t keep up,” he says. After “wanting to quit at least 10 times in five years,” Joseph says they’ve landed on a successful method for growing mushrooms. To solve that, their growing chambers are designed in such a way to stabilize the growing conditions.
The containers serve different purposes. There’s a lab for working on the mushroom spawn, and containers dedicated to the needs and conditions – temperature and humidity – of each variety.
Photo 1: Joseph checks on mushroom bags
Photo 2: Lions mane mushroom
Photo 3: Growing mushrooms on a shelf
A typical farm might start seeds in dirt, then replant seedlings in the ground to grow and ultimately harvest. To grow mushrooms, farm workers first fill biodegradable bags with substrate, often a mixture containing sawdust or hardwood pellets, brown rice and oak. This is the material where mushroom mycelium – the white network of cells similar to a plant root system – can establish itself. To eliminate contaminants, the bags are first sterilized by heat before the mushroom spores, or spawn, is added and mixed throughout the substrate. From here, the bags are labeled and placed on shelves for incubation. The tiny mushrooms, called pins, start to poke through holes in the bag, and grow until they’re ready for harvest.
At Gratitude Garden Farm, they grow culinary mushrooms – oysters in different hues, black trumpets, pioppinos and lion’s mane – and medicinal mushrooms, like turkey tail and reishi, used to make extractions that also incorporate the varieties of turmeric they grow. These are sold on their website.
Chefs’ Choice
Across the globe, mushrooms are essential elements of classic cuisines: French duxelles in Beef Wellington, Italian porcini pasta, Mexican tacos de hongo, Japanese shiitake tempura, Thai tom yum goong soup, Eastern European wild mushroom pierogi. In the hands of chefs, mushrooms have always been highly valued for their meatiness, their umami and their versatility. As restaurants recover from the pandemic, Gratitude Garden Farm’s client board is filling up again, working with a range of customers: high-end restaurants like Cafe Boulud and Buccan, Stubborn Seed and TUR to food trucks like Tres Tacos. Forager Debra Iglesias of the Garden Network regularly picks up mushrooms to deliver to her customers. They’ve brought on hospitality veteran Shauna Rollf to expand their client list.
GRATITUDE GARDEN FARM
gratitudegardenfarm.com
Find their mushrooms at seasonal farmers markets in Parkland and in Palm Beach County (West Palm Beach Green Market, Delray Green Market, Palm Beach Gardens and at the nearby Swank Specialty Produce Market). They’re also available at Urban Oasis Project farmers markets (Legion Park, South Miami, Vizcaya Village and the Arsht Center); on farmersmarketstogo.com; and grownextdoor.com.
All About Mushrooms
Mushrooms – classified as fungi, different from plants or animals, and including yeast, mold, mildew and truffles – are...
Communities Near You
Related Stories & Recipes
All About Mushrooms
Mushrooms – classified as fungi, different from plants or animals, and including yeast, mold, mildew and truffles – are grown and harvested year-round. Some fun facts:
• In the United States, Penns...
Mondo Mushrooms
Recipes from around the world