North Country Farm

Among the many tables of brightly colored vegetables, fruits, jams and other wares at the farmers’ market, a small table selling mushrooms might have difficulty getting the attention it deserves. But savvy local shoppers are looking to expand the range of groceries they can buy at markets and it hasn’t taken long for them to notice Doreen and Jeremy Zehr’s North Country Farm fresh mushrooms.

I caught up with Doreen Zehr as her brand new baby girl (her first; she has six other children, all sons) Samantha turned 1 week old. The Zehr family moved to Brethren, Michigan, just two years ago after having visited their cousins in the area and attending church with them. They felt so welcomed they decided to move their family—and the mushroom growing operation that they had established in the Hudson Valley—to be a part of the local Mennonite community.

At any given Saturday market in Traverse City throughout the year, and in Muskegon spring through fall, you’ll find some of the Zehr sons: either the elder two on their own, Weston (18) and Kendel (16) or the younger Donovan (13), Levi (10) and Nicholas (6) alongside their father, Jeremy. You might also catch sight of baby Kyle (2).

The Zehr family picked up their current vocation in 2009, after surveying their clients at the farmers’ market—where they’d been selling baked goods—about what new products they’d like to see. They kept getting the same answer: mushrooms. “At first we just shrugged it off. We didn’t know anything about mushrooms,” Doreen told me. “The idea made us laugh. Finally, the third time we got the same answer, we decided to look into it.” So they went across the river to Saugerties, New York, for tutoring from a local mushroom specialist/ mycologist, Gary Wiltbank. Through his generosity they learned the skills, chemistry and patience required to become mushroom farmers.

The original impetus was that Jeremy, a skilled carpenter, wanted to find a means to support his family in which his children could participate, and which allowed him to be home to teach and raise them. From the beginning, mushroom growing has been just such an occupation for the whole family. All the boys participate in the growing, picking and selling of the mushrooms.

When the family arrived in Brethren, they found a rickety old shed in the backyard that could serve as their initial mushroom house. However, with demand consistent and growing, this past year they built a 40- by 80-foot barn with specialized rooms to weigh, store, spawn and grow the various mushrooms they bring to market.

Currently, the family specializes in four varieties: Shiitake, Oyster (blue, yellow and brown), Maitake (aka Hen of the Woods) and Lion’s Mane. Depending on the variety, they grow in sacks of pasteurized straw (inoculated with the mycelium) held in a humidity- and temperature-controlled space, taking from 18 days to six weeks to grow (Oyster, Maitake, Lion’s Mane) or blocks of sawdust, mycelium and millet (Shiitake). The blocks require up to 12 hours of soaking to awaken the spores, then seven to ten days to grow.

In addition to selling at market, the Zehrs sell to a number of retail and restaurant customers in the Traverse City area to whom they deliver on Saturdays after market, and a growing clientele farther north in Elk Rapids, Charlevoix, Petoskey and Boyne City.

Now that we’ve such a good, consistent source of cultivated mushrooms, I know I’ll be able to indulge my love of them, regularly. My favorite preparation: Sauté with a large pat of butter, add white wine to form an emulsion and spoon the mixture over a hunk of locally baked country bread. Pour a glass of wine, and I’m in heaven. Thanks, again, to my local farmers’ market!