Guided By Mushrooms, a company that produces about about 5,200 pounds of mushrooms annually, launched in the winter of 2018 on David andĀ Audra Sparks' six-acre farm.
āIt is very much geek farming,ā Sparks said, explaining that all farms have some level of geekiness.
Audra Sparks' brother, Michael Goldstick, is also a partner in the growing business.
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WHERE CAN THEY BE FOUND
The companyās seasonally changing mushrooms and mushroom products can be found on the menus of Lilyās Bistro, Winds Cafe, Grist, Meadowark and Corner Kitchen in the Dayton area and Stella Bleu Bistro in Springfield.
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Guided By Mushrooms, a name that David Sparks picked as a humorous play on the band name Guided By Voices, also counts Branch, Bouquet Restaurant, Maplewood Kitchen and Bar, Pleasantry and Red Roost Tavern in the Cincinnati area among its clients.
āI thought it was catchy,ā he said of the name.
Guided By Mushrooms will sell mushrooms and a list of mushroom products that include spiced powders during pop-ups 8 a.m. to 3 p.m Saturday, Oct. 12, and Saturday, Oct. 19, at the 2nd Street Market, 600 E. Second St. in downtown Dayton.
āThey are gourmet varieties that are not widely available.Ā They are directly from a local farm. They donāt go on a giant truck,ā Sparks said.Ā āThey are super fresh and grown with love.ā
Depending on whatās in season, the companyās offerings have included Italian oyster, chestnut, lion mane, golden oyster, snow oyster and grey dove oyster mushrooms.
Lilyās has featured a lion mane oyster sandwich āthat people have gone crazy for,ā Sparks said.
āThey taste like lobster,ā he added.
MORE THANĀ JUST MUSHROOMSĀ
Guided by MushroomsĀ allows people to sponsor mushrooms for the House of Bread, a nonprofit that provides hot meals to the needy daily. A pound of mushrooms can be sponsored for $10.Ā
Guided By MushroomsĀ recently partnered with theĀ Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions in Yellow Springs and hopes to use mushrooms to help farmland decimated by mono-agriculture.
WHY MUSHROOMS?Ā
Sparks, a nature lover, said he started the business after feeling weighed down by his website development business,Ā Buzzwad.com.Ā Ā
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āI wanted to do something more organic than computers,ā he said.Ā āGourmet mushrooms is one of the niches a small guy can compete in.ā
HOW ARE THE MUSHROOMS GROWN?
Sparks said mushrooms, especially gourmet types, must be handled with more care than most larger operations are willing to give.
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āThey just look beaten to death by the time they get to their customers,ā he said.
Sparks uses the master mix approach, growing his mushrooms on soy bean hulls and sawdust.
āMushrooms love it,ā he said.Ā āIt has a really good yield.ā
The mushrooms are grown in a sterilized environment before being moved to a fruiting chamber greenhouse.
The company has come a long way in its brief history.
āWhen I first started doing it, it was much more low tech,ā Sparks said.
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