Mushroom business pops up in Newport

NEWPORT – At only 24, Andrew Smith of Thorndike stands poised to launch his second major business. Already a successful organic farmer who raises Scottish Highland cattle and harvests his woodlot, Smith plans to open a mushroom facility in Newport’s Business Park that will supply gourmet stores and markets from Boston to Bangor.

Smith said there are several small mushroom growers in Maine, but his is the first sterile culture operation. He broke ground on three 24-by-48-foot greenhouses three days after the ground thawed. “We should harvest our first mushroom by the end of June,” he said, and the expectation is that two tons will be produced each week year round.

A market study Smith conducted indicated that if he focused on growing three kinds of gourmet mushrooms – oyster, shiitake and reishi – he could capture the local market, all the way to Boston. Because these mushrooms have a short shelf life, they cannot be trucked fresh from great distances. His closest competition is in Connecticut.

“This is such a profitable niche,” said Smith, who looks more like a soap opera star than a mushroom farmer. “We won’t be able to produce as much as the market can bear.”

Smith is a mycologist, a person who studies mushrooms.

“I grew up all over,” he said. His mom lives in Kennebunk, and he attended Gould Academy in Bethel. But at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., he first became intrigued with edible fungi. “Evergreen is a mecca for mycologists,” he said.

“I was doing biology and chemistry out there while at the same time looking to get into agriculture. The two collided,” said Smith. He interned at several sustainable agriculture farms in Washington and, while there, toured several large mushroom farms.

After marrying his wife, Abigail, settling in Thorndike and establishing his farm, Smith began looking at mushrooms again.

He flew back to Washington last fall and worked with a company called “Fungi Perfecti,” from which he bought his strains of mushrooms. The vials contain mycelium, or the white strands that will be used to create the “spawn,” or mushroom seed. When the growing medium is inoculated with the spawn, mushrooms can be harvested in 10 to 17 days.

By monitoring the temperature, humidity, light, ventilation and carbon dioxide levels in controlled greenhouses, Smith said, “We’ll make the mushrooms think it is fall and spring all the time.” The greenhouses will be kept at 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity.

Oyster mushrooms will be grown on cereal straw – barley, wheat or rice – which has been shredded and cooked by steam to 160 degrees. “This kills off any competing mold and bacteria,” Smith said.

Sawdust and wood chips are mixed with water and then heated in a pressure autoclave called a “retort” to make the planting medium for shiitake and reishi mushrooms. The mixture is heated at 280 degrees for eight hours.

Smith’s main building is divided in half – the “dirty” side, where the planting mediums are prepared, and the “clean,” where the laboratory and packing areas are. The doors between the two sections are air-lock doors, and all the air on the “clean” side is filtered 10 times an hour. A large 10-by-16 foot refrigeration unit will allow the harvested mushrooms to be flash-cooled to 34 degrees.

All the equipment Smith is using is being manufactured locally: Steel Processors in Rockland, Quality Fabrication in Newport and N.E. Mechanical in Brewer. “I like to be involved with the people I’m working with, shake their hands,” he said.

Within the next few weeks, Smith said he will be hiring a plant manager, about four harvesters and packers and a delivery person.

He will be supplying the Portland Public Market, the Boston produce terminal, a major supermarket chain and local farmers’ markets.

With the interest shown already, Smith said he is already looking at expanding before the first three greenhouses are complete.

After all, said Smith, “The property has room for six greenhouses in all.”