Head east to the farms and fields of Chester County, Pennsylvania. That’s where you’ll found a specialty crop that grows in unusual conditions – dark, dank and humid!

We’re talking about mushrooms. And these fantastic fungi is fueling a small fortune for one farm family that’s been growing them commercially for more than eighty years. Mushrooms seem to go with about anything—from soup to salad. One reason they’re so versatile is that there are so many different kinds.

The Basciani family’s been making mushrooms since the 1920’s. It started with grandfather, Emedio, an Italian immigrant. Chester County is where the U.S. mushroom industry began in the early 1900’s. Today, it’s Pennsylvania’s leading crop. Farmers produce nearly five hundred million pounds of the fungi each year, almost half the nation’s total.

"The key to growing mushrooms, when you get up in the morning, you look up the sky, the sun’s shining, the sky’s out, you gotta be ready to work," says family member Michael Basciani. "You have to enjoy what you’re doing. And it’s hard to do that 7 days a week."

The process begins in the compost pile. It’s a mixture of very ripe manure and different kinds of straw. The second stage of the mushroom growing process is the pasteurization stage. The room smells like rotten vegetables.

It’s the smell of ammonia, as the compost is pasteurized or steam-cooked so the growing environment is sterile and free of impurities. The temperature in the room will eventually reach 150-degrees Fahrenheit before the process is complete! In about two weeks, once the compost is ready, it’s seeded with a tiny cultured fungus called a spawn.

"Now if i dig into this with my hand, you see how it’s growing in the compost, says Michael. "See the white specks starting to grow. They’re getting a whiteish, grey look."

And in a few more weeks, those specks become mushrooms—their growth monitored every step of the way.

"Anybody can just close their eyes and just pick every mushroom on the bed, Michael notes. " A good harvester can tell when a mushroom’s ripe or not ripe."

The Bascianis produce a million pounds of mushrooms a week. One type, the Shiitake, does well in Asian markets. Sales of this exotic mushroom are growing about 15-percent a year in the U-S. The Shiitake is grown on wood logs.

Portabellas are actually Crimini mushrooms that have been allowed to grow to their distinctive large size. They’ve become one of the Basciani’s top sellers.

"These are jumbo, jumbo portabellas…. we call them hubcaps," Michael tells Pat, who exclaimed, "I guess so, they’re as big as your head!"

Commercial mushroom growers make up a relatively small farming community – less than three hundred nationwide. But business is booming – Americans eat more than a billion pounds a year. With this growing fungi fondness comes new opportunities for growers like the Bascianis .

"It’s the challenge, and it’s just the love," Michael concludes. "I like feeding people. We’re actually feeding the world."

Additional information:
Basciani Mushrooms Farms
8876 Gap-Newport Pike
Avondale, PA 19311

Phone: 610.268.3044
Fax: 610.268.2186
Web: http://www.bascianifoods.com/

To plan a Pennsylvania vacation go to: www.visitpa.com