By Nathaniel A. Lopez
There’s a FungusUmungUs!
Eric Harmon is the owner of this gourmet and medicinal mushroom company. Eric is a retired educator and wrestling coach, working up in northern Arizona for more than 16 years. It was during the pandemic when Eric began his interest in growing mushrooms, which he took up as hobby originally. During February, Eric decided it was time to make his hobby into something more.
“Even when I was hobbying it, I was taking my mushrooms out to restaurants, seeing what the interest was and that sort of thing. I mean, even as a hobby, I always wondered about how would this work,” he said.
“Gourmet and medicinal mushrooms seem to be growing in popularity at an exponential rate. Much research is being done regarding the health benefits of several varieties of mushrooms. Research suggests that various mushrooms boost immune health, repair and support neural pathways, and are powerful anti-cancer agents. Growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms is exciting and intellectually challenging. All the species that I grow are wood-loving mushrooms or saprophytes. Growing mushrooms involves several steps and the final material that they grow on is called a fruiting block. My fruiting blocks are made from oak sawdust and soybean hulls. No fertilizers or chemicals are ever needed,” Eric explained. “I expect to have four species of mushrooms for sale at this farmers market. I will have lion’s mane, snowy white oyster, pink oyster and lots of blue oyster mushrooms. The other species of mushrooms that I have in various stages of cultivation are king oyster mushrooms, black pearl king oyster mushrooms, chestnut mushrooms, shitake mushrooms pioppino mushrooms, and reishi mushrooms. I expect to introduce value added products like grow kits, tinctures and powders by the end of summer and hope to have a website up and running by that time as well. My mission is to make high quality gourmet and medicinal mushrooms accessible for people in my local area and to share my newly found passion for fungus among us.”
FungusUmungUs can be found at the Oracle Patio Cafe, in the market and in use on the menu. It can also be found at the Oracle Farmers Market on Wednesdays. They will also be featured during a Dinner With Dave, a no-menu, $60 a person dinner on June 14, that will feature their mushrooms in all of the courses. Eric also plans to get his mushrooms into Simply Something Market in San Manuel. He’s also been spotted at the San Man Street Market on the first Saturday in the parking lot of Phat Flavors in San Manuel.
Be sure to check out FungusUmungUs, the Tri-Community’s new Fungi!