Vendor Spotlight – Fun Guys Gourmet Mushrooms

Fun Guys Gourmet Mushrooms

A recent addition to our market is Fun Guys Gourmet Mushrooms.  We liked the play on words as much as the truly gorgeous and delicious product.  Dean Lusk and Hamilton Daniels started growing oyster mushrooms as a fun project, and then decided to make it a business.  They already had a successful web design/maintenance business, so these entrepreneurs knew how to work hard and do research on the internet, learning everything they could about mushroom growing.

Starting small, the first batches were grown in a spare bedroom at Lusk’s residence.  This quickly moved outside to a utility building- for obvious reasons.  Things have recently ‘mushroomed’ to a full-fledged growing hoop house, located on a new partners’ property in Denton.   The 12’ x 36’ insulated and climate controlled growing room contains 4 ft. plastic bags filled with 100% natural locally sourced pasteurized wheat hay, alfalfa, and cottonseed hulls (growing medium) that has been inoculated with mushroom culture (spawn).  With the temperature and humidity controls carefully monitored, the mushrooms continue to grow throughout the summer’s heat.

According to their website, “Fun Guys Gourmet Mushrooms is a local grower and full cycle mushroom farm of fresh grown gourmet mushrooms. Our mushrooms include specialties such as Elm Oyster, Blue Oyster, King Oyster, Pink Oyster, Gold Oyster, and Lion’s Maine.”

Currently, about eight varieties of oyster mushrooms are being cultivated.  This particular type of mushroom grows reasonably fast and is meaty and delicious. It can stand alone, lightly sautéed and seasoned or be incorporated as an ingredient.  So, in addition to selling at farmers markets, their gourmet mushrooms are finding their way to local menus as chefs snap them up.

After the mushrooms are harvested, the substrate (material the mushrooms are grown from) is turned into mushroom compost and sold to local nurseries and gardeners. Find Fun Guys this Saturday along the curb near the parking area vendors.

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