Q&A: From $3 to $20K, Delphi-based mushroom business spreading across state

The Exponent met with James Mundell at the Lafayette Farmers Market on Saturday accompanied by his associates. He chatted about his passion for growing mushrooms, his process and his future goals. Here’s the conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Could you tell me a little about yourself?

I am a semi-driver for a full-time job. So, I do that for my main job. This is a secondary job growing and selling mushrooms.

Our main crop is Lion's Mane, oyster mushrooms and we specialize in making powders.

So we've come here to the farmers market and I got a couple of restaurants as well. So other than that man, I’m just a wholesome guy just trying to get by and work.

Can you tell us about Mr. Woody's?

This business started about four years ago when I bought a box from Walmart. We took it home, I got a culture and I grew a mushroom out of that little box.

Then, I got a hair-brained idea. ‘Is there a market for growing mushrooms out here?’

I started researching it and ended up with an internship at Mossy Creek Mushroom in Tennessee. I learned how to do all this, and four years later, here I am.

So, you guys have a mushroom farm now?

I do! I turned my two-car garage into my lab, my fruiting room and my incubation station. Mr. Woody’s Mushrooms is based in Delphi, Indiana.

Can you describe the process of taking a spore and turning it into a mushroom?

I use a liquid culture. I get my genetics from wild mushrooms. Then, I make a clone of that wild mushroom. I grow that clone until I find the right growth that I like.

Then, I will clone that growth as a next generation. I’ll repeat that process then turn it into a liquid culture which will go into a grain spawn.

Mycelium grows in the grain spawn. Then, I take the grain spawn with the grown mycelium and put it into a substrate which is either straw or wood.

I incubate it in that for about two to three weeks and then it’ll grow out into a fruit. It’s definitely a process.

Can you explain what a culture is?

A liquid culture is what grow the clone material, which is mycelium, in. It keeps it stable until I can put it into the grain spawn. It helps you grow mycelium in large amounts.

So, you’ve been at this for four years now. You first started growing mushrooms out of a box from Walmart. Can you describe that original process when you started with items from Walmart?

I spent $3 on that box. Now, I’ve invested $20,000 into this. That is how much has changed. It’s been a journey, but it’s been a profitable one.

It’s also turned into a passion I really enjoy. It’s kind of like I found the love I didn’t know I had.

What do you think you enjoy about this process?

I love watching them grow from start to finish. Within two to three days they’ll grow from this organism into this huge mushroom.

It’s so cool to be able to look at that every day and just see that it’s growing. There’s a lot of enjoyment in that.

There are times I’ve grown Lion’s Mane into the size of a basketball.

A culture starts out microscopic. If you were to break it down into a cellular level, you couldn’t even see it with the naked eye.

Do you frequent any other farmers markets?

Occasionally, I got to one in Frankfurt. We started there at the brink of our market and we branched to this market this year.

My goal is to develop more, go back to where I started and get bigger.

I currently sell my oyster mushrooms to a restaurant in Monticello called Oak and Barrel every week. They’re a farm-to-table restaurant.

I really want to provide fresh products to more gourmet restaurants with four or five stars. I want to bring them a great quality product.

Being in the mushroom harvesting business, I assume you always have a lot at home. What’s your favorite dish to cook with them?

There isn’t one favorite thing because mushrooms are so versatile. They’re like flavor profile elevators, elevating whatever I cook.