Mushrooms - Not the typical backyard

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Mushrooms – Not the typical backyard

FALLSTON — A section for beekeeping and an area for goats to roam isn’t the only thing Thomas Lewis keeps on 22 acres of land. The assistant jail administrator for the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office keeps something else tucked away on his land of rolling hills.

Venture behind his two-story home. Rows of chopped tree logs rest against a wire cable stretched between tall trees. The eye can’t miss what’s growing from holes drilled into the logs.

Mushrooms.

Lewis, also a commissioner for the Cleveland County Water District, has tended the mushroom farm for three years with his son Spencer, a student at Burns High School. The father-and-son pair grows different strands of the Asian shiitake mushroom: west wind, native harvest and WR 46. Lewis said he and Spencer grew mushrooms from 200 logs in the farm’s first year.

“It’s one of those odd things no one does,” Lewis said about the mushroom farm. “This is a way to relax and get away from everything.”

Lewis and Spencer grow the mushrooms in chopped red and white oak trees on the land. They rotate growing the mushrooms out of 452 logs. It takes around nine months before a log sprouts mushrooms after spores are imbedded inside the log.

Lewis and Spencer submerge the logs in cold water for 24 hours after nine months. Lewis said the temperature change forces the mushrooms out of the logs. It takes around three days before the mushrooms grow to a medium size, according to Lewis.

“It’s different and interesting. I wanted to see how it worked,” Spencer said about helping his father with the farm.

On the weekends, Lewis and Spencer sell the mushrooms at farmer’s markets at Shelby, Lincolnton and Dallas. Usually, they haul 15 pounds of mushrooms to the markets. Leftover mushrooms become meals for Lewis and Spencer, from stuffed to sauteed shiitake mushrooms paired with asparagus.

“Spencer likes it better on Saturdays when we split the money,” Lewis said with a laugh.

Lewis said he wants to expand the mushroom farm to 1,000 logs. The pair wants to add button mushrooms to the farm. They won’t grow the button mushrooms in trees. They’ll need compost instead.

Reach reporter Alicia Banks at 704-669-3338

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