Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And Pete and his wife Emily own rich Life Farm
and fung Guy, and their website is Richlifefarm dot com
if you want to check it out. But my wife
and I were at a farmer's market a couple of
weeks ago and purchased some of their mushrooms and they
are phenomenal and I got to reading about their story,
great story, how they got started. Now they're doing this
(00:23):
and can we do that? Well, we're gonna find out.
Pete's going to join us here coming up in a
little while, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime,
you and me talking, you already get eight hundred eight
two three eight two five five. Also want to remind
you we were talking about the last hour new vegetables.
If you're looking for your local independent garden center, nursery
greenhouse to grow those, let them know your list, let
us know what you've had good success with as well.
(00:44):
And also if you are looking to do raised bed
gardening and maybe expand your raised beds. If you're looking
to expand your gardening the time you garden during the season,
extend the gardening seas. I have two books for you
that've been around for quite some time, highly recommend them.
(01:05):
I talk about and I know both of these young
ladies that wrote these books. They do an outstanding job.
The raised bed one is called Raised Bed Revolution, Build It,
Fill It, Planet, Garden Anywhere by Tara Nolan and absolutely outstanding.
Just highly recommend this book for anybody that's interested in
raised beds, raised bed evolution. Tara Nolan. The other and
(01:28):
she's also very big at raised beds, but likes to
extend the gardening season is Nicky Jabor. Nicky's been on
her show. She's up in the Nova Scotia area, if
I remember correctly, but it's growing undercover, so she talks
about how to grow undercover to extend your gardening seasons
early and late and in those cool crops during the summer,
(01:48):
et cetera, instead of using covers. Two really good books
that go together nicely, Raised Bed Revolution, Growing Undercover, and
I do highly recommend those great Christmas GIFs as well
for yourself to learn more about that. Great good reading,
great illustrations, great pictures. The whole nine yards to Tennessee
we go.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Jeremiah, good morning, good morning, thanks for taking my call.
I spoke with you last week when we spoke about
their crows. Yes, sir, well, I wanted to call this
morning about blue jays. There's a lot of people have
no clue. They're carnivorous and they're extremely aggressive. They rob
(02:29):
all other birds nests, and they'll kill and eat baby birds.
I saved the baby out from one one time. But
probably the only positive aspect of blue jay is everyone
that has seen them knows what their scream sounded like.
If you hear and see a cluster of blue jays
(02:53):
that are screaming, you're just raising caine. In one I
guarantee you there's a snake on the ground. Blow. Oh
really the best of Yeah, they're the best alongs for
snakes there. When they see one, they just over over
them and just make a crazy noise. And so if
(03:14):
you experience that and be careful, somewhere belong as a snake.
The other thing I wanted to I.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Was gonna say the blue jays they really are bullies
out there when you know, especially if you got a
bird feeder up. Man, they're all over the other birds.
They're fun to watch and they're beautiful birds.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, but they're mean, but they're means nivorous. They eat
other they eat baby birds. That's primarily what their diet
is baby birds.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
But the other thing I wanted to talk to you
about last year, I don't remember what program I heard
about them on, and I haven't had any luck trying
to find any was the German orange tomato. They say
they're real sweet and they're just as orange as it
can be, but I haven't had any luck finding anything
(04:01):
else out about them. If you have an opportunity to
research it, and maybe on your next program talk to
us a little bit about the German orange tomato.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
All right, I will, and we grow a couple German tomatoes.
I think one at our nursery, and I think one
of them maybe orange. I will check double We grow
so many varieties, I can't remember them all, but I'll
double check Jeremiah, and we'll talk about it next week.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Thank you, brother. I hope you have a good week, all.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Right, Jeremiah, good talking with you. Stay stay safe. I
don't know if they're gonna get you that snowfall or not,
but stay safe. I love watching blue jays, and they
have that distinct call blue jays. Crows obviously have a
distinct call. Quayle obviously doves. You can tell always tell
the doves, uh and red wing blackbirds. When you hear one,
you know that it's a red wing blackbird. But yeah,
(04:47):
those blue jays can be real bullies, no doubt about it.
But we were talking about crows last week and I
still that's one of my favorite birds. Talk about smart.
Oh my gosh, they are so smart, kind of scary
sometimes talking to your art at eight hundred eight two
three eighty two five five, and one of the points
there was that if you've got a tomato or a
vegetable whatever that you've had good success with, let us know,
(05:10):
and we'd like to share that with us, and then
share that with your local garden center to see if
they can grow them for you as well. Also saw
this week that the National Garden Bureau and kind of
working with pinterest and their predictions for twenty twenty six,
and their prediction for twenty twenty six speaking of vegetable garden,
is that there's going to be a cabbage crush and
(05:33):
they're calling it a cabbage crush, and they're saying that
there's a renewed interest in cabbage, and then cabbage not
only for eating, but for decorations like plates, and things
like that. Is the new vegetable for twenty twenty six,
Live laugh leaf. In the year ahead, it says that
(05:55):
the boomers and Gen X will say goodbye to their
cauliflower obsession and crown cabbage the new kitchen MVP, kim
cheek cocktails, crispy or taco wraps, blistered edge steaks. It's
crunch time, baby. It is all about cabbage. So twenty
(06:16):
twenty six we'll see the cabbage crush. Now does that
throw Brussels sprouts in there too? I mean you see
in Brussels sprouts use a lot more. That's I would
think that would go in that category. Two fermented cabbage,
the demand is up thirty five percent, sautate bockchoi up
thirty five percent, cabbage alfredo up forty five percent. This
is searching for recipes for these. The cabbage soups ninety
(06:40):
five percent, cabbage dumplings one hundred ten percent, cabbage rolls
up one hundred percent. So it looks like look for
different varieties of cabbage to be growing. And remember they're
cool season crops. They love that cooler season, so you
want to grow those earlier in the spring, or you
can grow them in the fall as well. And there
are many varieties that are out there now for you
(07:00):
that are many cabbage heads. Don't get as big, stay
a little bit smaller. For your smaller gardens, your raised beds,
container gardening, you can grow cabbage in those as well.
So the prediction for twenty twenty six, the cabbage crush
is on. The focus will be now off of cauliflower head,
on to cabbage quick break, we come back. I cannot wait.
(07:22):
We're gonna talk to Pete Richmond. He's the owner co
owner with his wife Emily Richmond, and their name of
the farmer is rich Life Farm and fun guy. We're
gonna talk about growing mushrooms here in the garden with
Ron Wilson. In the garden with Ron Wilson, I ever
think about growing mushrooms? You know? You see those kids
all the time. They're becoming more and more popular out there.
(07:42):
You ever tried one? Well, I'll tell you what I
have got the man that knows more about growing mushrooms
than I think anybody out there. And I have experienced
their mushrooms. They are outstanding. They are gorgeous, they are
good looking. His wife Emily probably should get all the
credit for it, but we'll give him a lot of
credit as well. He is the co owner of their
(08:05):
farm called rich Life Farm. Go to their website richlifefarm
dot com. And I know you're tired of hearing this,
Pete Richmond, but I understand you're a really fun guy
at the parties.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Ah, yes I am, and thank you for having me
this morning. And yes you're right, Ron, My wife Emily
is definitely the one behind this operation. I like to
say I grow the mushrooms, but Emily is the one
that makes this whole business operation.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So she made that clear at the beginning when I
was getting in touch with you guys to get you
on here this morning. Yeah, she pretty much took care
of everything. Hey, no, I just what a great story
and the reason. First of all, I'll say right up
front here the reason I found out about you guys.
I have read stories about you in the Inquiry and
a couple of the books as well. But we experienced
your mushrooms firsthand from a produce market last week at
(08:55):
Mattrie and absolutely outstanding. They're probably the those gorgeous mush
gourmet mushrooms I have ever seen, and the flavor was
absolutely outstanding and just absolutely loved him. So I said,
give me a card. I would love to get you
guys on and talk about this because what an interesting thing.
So let's start out with you, first of all, how
you got involved with this? Because I love reading it
(09:18):
and I have to ask you. It says at an
early age you became fascinated with the natural world. What
does that mean?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah, definitely. I mean growing up, I always, you know,
wanted to spend my free time outside playing in the
creeks and the woods, you know, turning over logs and rocks,
just seeing what's out there. And yeah, just you know,
all the things that were surrounded by here in the
natural world. And I grew up in Cincinnati and there's
(09:46):
so many cool parks and woods and places to go
to explore. So definitely found that passion very early in life.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
So it stuck with you. And so when you get
out of high school, you said, I'm going to continue on,
so you hat it out to North Carolina. You got
your degree in Bachelor of Science and Natural Resource Conservation
and Management at Western Carolina University, and then that's where
you met the love of two loves of your life,
Emily and fun guy.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yes, that's correct. Yeah, very fortunate to get to go
to school in such a beautiful place and then to
meet my beautiful wife down there, and so yeah, I
studied natural resource conservation and management, so similar to a
forestry degree. But quickly after graduating college, I realized I
didn't want to spend the rest of my life cutting
(10:37):
down trees or fighting wildfires. And I've always enjoyed growing
food and this was something that I could experiment with
in a small place. So yeah, mushroom farming kind of
started as a hobby and in a small greenhouse. I
was growing some oyster mushrooms on.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Straw in our laundry room.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And from there it just quickly took over the house,
had a lab built out in our spare bedroom, had
a bigger greenhouse on our back porch where I was
fruiting mushrooms, and then I think one day Emily decided
that that was a little much, so we bought a
shed and stuck everything in there to have a dedicated
(11:19):
growth space for me to experiment and work on this
hobby of mine.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Unbelievable. I'm assuming that while you were growing these different mushrooms,
friends and family and whatever were like, these things are great,
can you grow some for me? Then the next thing,
you know, you're supplying everybody in the neighborhood and it
just continues on.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, so it definitely started out people were a little
inquisitive as to what we were doing, a little cautious,
just really unsure of it. And then eventually, yeah, friends
and family started asking us for certain varieties or if
you know, we could supply them for special and things
(12:00):
like that. And then I think one day we realized
that this could actually be a business. And at the time,
we were both kind of pursuing our own careers but
kind of giving the best eight hours of our day
to somebody else in their dream. So we wanted to
invest in ourselves and realize that growing mushrooms could be
(12:23):
a potential business and career for both of us.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Talking with Pete Richmond, he is a co owner of
rich Life Farm. Go to their website richlifefarm dot com
and learn more about him, and of course you can
sign up for the newsletter, you can order musher. You
did all nine yards, but to go to their website
learn more about him. So at that point you said, Okay,
let's give this thing a shot. So you convinced Emily
to move back to Cincinnati. And she's not from Cincinnati, right,
(12:50):
She's not.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
She grew up just south of Asheville, North Carolina, and Hendersonville,
and that's where we were living at the time, and
it's a really beautiful place. But the housing market was,
you know, it was such a booming economy that we
really couldn't afford land down there to start a farm.
(13:14):
So whenever we would come up to visit my family
in Cincinnati, I would bring boxes of mushrooms. I would
talk to friends who were in the restaurant industry. I
would knock on the back of restaurant doors whenever we'd
be in town, drop off samples, and just kind of,
you know, assess if there was a market for fresh
(13:36):
mushrooms in Cincinnati, and it turned out there was, So
in March of twenty twenty, we listed our house for
sale in North Carolina and moved up here and bought
our farm in May of twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
And then it's taken it from there, and again you're
a new Richmond and area. And then of course growing
not only you do mushrooms, but you have other things
you have on the rich life farm as well.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Right, Yeah, so we do have chickens as well. I
will say that they are definitely more of pets than
you know, production farm animals. I always like to say
we kind of have an old hen's home. Most of
our chickens are you know, past their productive laying years,
but we still keep them around because they're pets and
(14:24):
it's fun to have them around. So yeah, we do
sell eggs at some of our farmers' markets, and then
we've got a big garden that we grow every summer.
This year, Emily devoted most of that space to growing
flowers and she actually set up a little roadside stand
down at the end of our driveway to sell her flowers.
(14:45):
So yeah, there's always something new and exciting going on here.
But most of our business, actually nearly all of our
business is fresh mushrooms delivered to restaurants and then at
a few farmers' markets and specialty markets around the city.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
And then, like I said, we and we uh were
able to buy some last weekend and I tell you what,
absolutely outstanding what and it just beautiful. I mean, you've
got this, You've got you got this one going. I
mean it was the best I've ever seen. I love
your description in here by the way, and I bet
Emily wrote this. It says, when Pete is not working,
you can probably find him working.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Or sleeping.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I h we had to. We were in charge of
writing our own biography on the website a few years ago,
and I think it was at a time when I
felt like most of my energy was dedicated to just
growing mushrooms and helping to get this business off the ground.
So at the time, I definitely felt that way. But
(15:46):
since then I've been able to kind of separate a
little more from the day to day business operations and
uh yeah, take more time for myself at least.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And described him if he was a mushroom, he be
the King oyster pump in toleranenough heat and pale white
in color. You go to their website rich to learn
more about them, and during the break richlifefarm dot com,
we'll take a break, we come back more with Pete Richmond.
Here in the garden growing mushrooms with Ron Wilson with
(16:18):
Pete Richmond. He's the co owner of rich Life Farm
and fun guy out in New Richmond, Ohio. Check out
their website. It's Richlifefarm dot com growing mushrooms and they
do an outstanding and I'm talking outstanding job. So you know,
you obviously now are a mushroom or a fun guy
expert at growing is this? Is it kind of a
trial and error that got you to where you are today?
(16:40):
I mean, are there classes or things you take or
how'd you get so good at what you're doing?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Definitely a lot of trial and error. We took some
classes along the way. I spent a week up on
a mushroom farm in Canada kind of learning the ins
and outs of the operation. And then we've done some
mentorship programs with other successful mushroom farmers around the country,
(17:07):
and both of those things, you know, we're instrumental in
us successfully launching this business. But for the production side
of things, it was definitely a lot of trial and error.
And fortunately it was a hobby for a few years
before it was a business, so I was able to
(17:27):
work out a lot of those kinks. But even so,
we're learning something new every day. We're always trying to
improve our processes and you know, just get better as
we keep continue moving forward.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Well, you know what I think in our local area
and the history here in Cincinnati way back when was
Fred mushroom compost up in the Lebanon, the Lebanon area,
and of course he did all they can all kind
of mushrooms and stuff, but they grew in a mushroom
compost and landscapers ate that stuff up. I mean that
was great at soil amendment, top dressing or whatever. With
you though, as I'm watching the videos and seeing what
(18:03):
you grow in, that's not really a that's not a compost,
is it.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
No, So we grow everything on an oak sawdust based substrate,
whereas those canned mushrooms and things are grown on a
composted and mandeure based substrate. So everything that we grow
in its natural habitat would be growing on dead or
dyeing trees. Basically, we amend that substrate, that oak sawdust
(18:31):
with different things. Most of our varieties get amended with
soybean halls. It's the byproduct of processing soybeans and pressing
them for oil. And in Ohio we grow a lot
of soybeans, so it's pretty readily available agricultural byproduct to
amend that sawdust with, and that kind of acts as
(18:52):
a nitrogen source and that helps the mushrooms really take off.
And prove the yield that we need to maintain the
commercial production that we have here.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
You know, I had no idea until I watched a
couple of videos that the folks have shot when they
were visiting you and doing stories about you. The process
is really cool. I mean, that's very interesting with the
plastic bags and then the medium that you use there
and then putting the hole in the top and then
they grow out. I was I was set there, just like, Wow,
(19:27):
I had no idea. When you're growing these what do
they all require? Like the same humidity, the same temperature.
Is everything different grown in a different situation or pretty
much all the same?
Speaker 3 (19:40):
For the most part, everything that we grow grows in
the same conditions. There are a few varieties that we
grow at a smaller scale that requires some different conditions.
But yeah, basically, what we're doing is trying to mimic
all the things that occur naturally to cause mushrooms to grow,
(20:03):
and do that indoors in a controlled environment so that
we can harvest fresh mushrooms every day of the year.
So we are, you know, doing temperature changes to mimic
natural occurrences in nature. We're adding humidity to help the
fungi and mushrooms thrive and all just kind of mimicking
(20:24):
the natural processes.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Talking with Pete Richmund, he's the co owner of rich
Life Farm and fung Guy. Check out their website richlifefarm
dot com and learn more about what they do and
of course where you can find their mushrooms as well.
Are there are there? You know, when you're growing vegetables
and things like that, there's always insects or disease or
other issues that can come up. Are mushrooms affected by
things like that as well?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
So mushrooms, you know, when they're growing outdoors, they are
attracting insects basically to help spread their spores, their genetic material.
So there are definitely pests, but since we are indoors,
we're able to mitigate a lot of that. There are,
you know, things that are like pleasing fungus beetles that
(21:11):
will go in and eat the flesh of the mushrooms
when they're growing outdoors. There are fungus gnats that are
attracted to the CO two that mushrooms put off. But
in an indoor controlled environment, we're really able to kind
of get one step ahead of that and prevent any
infestations or things like that from happening.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So are are mushrooms then grown? Can they are they
considered organically grown?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
So we're not certified organic, but we use organic practices
in our operation. We don't treat our mushrooms with anything.
We say, the only chemical they come in contact with
is water. But then when we you know, when we're
preparing the growing medium, when we're harvesting packing mushrooms, we
wear gloves to keep them clean and just have a
(21:59):
clean product that's ready for our customers to use.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Well.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Talking with Pete Richmond again, check out their website richlifefarm
dot com. Now, course, obviously the pictures the lights are
on so we can see what's going on in all
but are mushrooms growing in the dark are not necessarily.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
So, like a white button mushroom is grown in the dark,
and then a crimini mushroom is actually the same type
of mushroom that's grown in light. So mushrooms have melanin
and there's you know the same way that humans have
melanin in our skin, and thus they are reactive to
that light. They're also phototropics, so they will grow towards light,
(22:40):
but without light they just won't get that melanin that
pigmentation to help develop all those really cool colors, everything
from pinks and yellows to blues and deep grays. So yeah,
there's a lot of color at play with these mushrooms
we grow as well.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Now, do you have grow inside these buildings that are
special special lights spectrum for them or not necessarily?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
So in our grow rooms we run daylight spectrum LEDs
and we run those I think like sixteen hours a
day in our growing rooms and that's really all they need.
They don't need. You know, they're not using the same
kind of spectrums as plants because they're not photosynthesizing, so
(23:27):
they're just using that as a kind of a beacon
to grow towards, but also as a source to produce
that melanin pete.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
You know, we see a lot of these kits that
are out there today for folks that are you know,
you can buy the log it comes with the spores
already on it, you know, put it in the closet
or whatever and grow those. I've never done one before,
you know, is that something that folks can get into
doing on their own as well? I mean, is it
something that you know you can do on it small well,
I mean obviously that's how you got started, but do
(23:55):
you advise people if they're looking to do this on
their own.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Yeah, that's definitely a great way to get into it.
A lot of the kits that are like commercially available
on the shelf have been kind of augmented a little
bit to allow them to stay viable on a shelf
for an extended period of time. But we're actually offering
some grow your own kits for the holidays this year.
(24:22):
We're just doing some blue oyster mushrooms right now because
it's a really easy mushroom to for first time growers
to have success with. But we've got a newsletter going
out later this morning that will have all the details
for that and those will be available to pick up
at a couple of our farmers' markets before the end
(24:42):
of the year.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Talking with Pete rich Richmond again, it's richlifefarm dot com.
Sign up for their newsletter and of course when you
go there you'll see all the varieties. You'll see where
they're going to be at at as far as markets
that you can buy them. The recipes they have recipes
on there for you as well. You can learn more
about Emily and can't leave out Kelly Coleman as well,
an integral part of your team there as far as
(25:06):
producing these mushrooms. Let's take a quick break. We come
back one more segment with Pete. I appreciate you spending
time with us this morning. We'll talk about the different
varieties they grow and how do you store those once
you get them on, what's the best way to do
and what's the best way to cook them? We'll find
out from Pete Richmond again. Their website is Richlifefarm dot com.
Here in the Garden with Ron Wilson. The Garden with
(25:27):
Ron Wilson's special guest this morning is mister Pete Richmond.
He is the co owner of rich Life Farm and
fun Guy. They grow a great selection of gourmet mushrooms.
Their website is outstanding. They have a newsletter. I have
the November newsletter in front of me. They're gonna they
were releasing the December one today, so sign up for it.
Go to their website. It's again richlifefarm dot com. Can
(25:48):
we can folks obviously for us local our local listeners.
We can find you at some of the markets and
all and that's listed on your website, can folks order
those and have them shipped as well?
Speaker 3 (26:01):
So we do not ship any fresh mushrooms.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Mushrooms are just really hyper perishable and kind of require
some specific storage to really get the best shelf life
out of them, and that's kind of our competitive advantage
within this market. Our mushrooms are grown here and delivered
fresh to our restaurant customers and markets every week, so
(26:28):
it's really in our best interest just to keep that
product local. We do, however, have some tinctures available on
our website, and those are just extracts of the fresh
mushrooms we grow and their use as a medicinal product.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
All Right, Pete, which is your favorite of all the
mushrooms that you grow that you enjoy the most eating.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
If I'm gonna grab some mushrooms to cook at our house,
I'm probably gonna go with the blue oyster mushrooms. They're
just so mild and versatile. Anything that I'm cooking, I
know that I can throw them in and really help
create a meal around them. They were the first variety
of mushrooms I overgrew and just super easy to cook with.
(27:14):
We kind of call those like our gateway mushroom from
your typical grocery store varieties, So just really familiar and
easy to work with, a good way to kind of
get your foot into it.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
And for folks that are curious, you have quite an
array of mushrooms that you grow.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah, at any point in the year, we grow probably
between five and ten different varieties. There is some seasonality
to our production. Despite the fact that we're indoors. There
are mushrooms that have adapted to grow pretty much in
every non permanently frozen environment on Earth, So there is
(27:54):
just a lot of temperature tolerance variation and things like that.
So in the summertime we'll grow more warm weather varieties
and then in the wintertime we'll grow more cold weather varieties.
And actually usually in the winter time we have more
variety and yeah, more variation among the species that we're
(28:14):
able to grow. But yeah, everything pretty much wants to
grow around fifty to sixty degrees, so it's a little
bit easier this time of year than in the middle
of the summer. Here in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Blue Oyster Queen Queen oyster, comb tooth, Lion's main and
Lion's Main's to me. I think I are your more
people asking where you find Lion's main seems to be
very popular. I don't know how to pronounce the other
than pino.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Pino in Italian variety. They grow on piopo or poplar
trees in Italy, so that's where that name came from.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
And chestnut are some of the varieties that they will
that you will find them growing. We bought the collection,
the large collection of all those I wanted to just
spram with with you know, a preserve, just use that
and hanging up on the wall.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah, they're definitely very beautiful. We've used them as a
centerpiece and our Thanksgiving table during some years, and yeah,
the mix is usually our best seller. I think just
all the varieties kind of piled up there and the
little boats that we have them in at the Farmer's
market are just really eye catching and give you a
(29:23):
little taste of everything there.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
And it's amazing the different flavor of the flavors that
you will get in course texture as well, you know,
when you're cooking all of those, And as far as
I'm concerned, I still think the best way it's just
sauteed and butter.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Yeah, definitely, you can't beat that. You know, there's a
lot of people that say they don't like the texture
of mushrooms. So our best tip for that is to
throw them in a dry skillet to sautee them. At first.
Mushrooms are like ninety percent water, so oil and water
don't mix and it just kind of locks all that
moisture up in the mushrooms. That can not be the
(30:00):
greatest texture to some people. So throw them in a
dry skillets what some of that moisture out of there,
and then add your fat, your butter oil and helps
get them a little crispy, gets some color on them
a little bit, and just I think makes a texture
a little bit better overall. But yeah, you really can't
go wrong roasted sautee thrown on the grill. They're very versatile.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
So now you can't use that as an excuse if
you don't like the texture of mushrooms, that's not an
excuse anymore. Peach is thrown that out the window. So
there you go, so I can't use of any excuse.
Talking again with Peach Richmond, go to their website richlifefarm
dot com. The varieties that you choose to grow are those?
Do those seem to be the most popular that are
(30:42):
used in restaurants and all. Do you do anything specific
for a specific chef or whatever that's out of your
list of mushrooms?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Not really, we've kind of narrowed down our production. We're
just we're very limited on space. We've grown about two
thousand square feet and right now we're growing probably between
six and eight hundred pounds of fresh mushrooms a week wow,
and we're really probably over one hundred percent capacity. But
we've kind of had to refine our production down over
(31:15):
the years to just really match the demand. And there
have been things we've grown over the yield years that
didn't yield as well or weren't producing as consistently that
we've had to cut out. So we've kind of refined
things over time. And the kind of the roster that
we've got right now seems to, yeah, really fit the
(31:36):
demand and what customers want.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
The best.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
You got to cover, there's no doubt about it. One
thing I forgot to ask you when I was watching
you fill up the bags with your with the sawdust
and all that you got your folks use the yolk
and all of that, and then putting the spores in
and all, do you reuse that or is once once
you harvest from the mushrooms from that, is that then.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Done so that sawdust substrate will continue to fruit out mushrooms,
but the limiting factor for the mushrooms is going to
be moisture. So really we try to get that oak
substrate as high of a moisture content as possible without
oversaturating it, so that we get really big first yields,
(32:22):
and then each successive flush of mushrooms off of that
will decrease in weight, sometimes by you know, fifty percent,
but sometimes even more like eighty to ninety percent. So
if we're getting two to three pounds off the first flush,
we might get a half a pound off the second flush. So,
since we're constrained by space, we typically fruit everything once.
(32:45):
There are a couple varieties that will do a second time,
but then we bring fresh material in so that we
can continue getting those yields that we need to remain
productive and yeah, viable business. But then we take that
spent substrate that we have and we compost it on
our farm, we use it in our own garden, and
(33:07):
we offer it to a few community gardens and people
around the area. Eventually we'd like to set up the
infrastructure to compost that at scale and have that as
a kind of secondary or you know, third type of
product that we could offer our customers. Sure, but right
now we don't have the infrastructure for that. So down
(33:30):
the line, definitely.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
I'm sure you will work though, And I'll tell this,
the whole thing is fascinating. And again, it all started
by just seeing your mushrooms and I realized that I
had read about you in the past. What you guys
have been doing is fascinating. It's unbelievable. Go to their website,
learn more about it, and you will love it again.
It's richlifefarm dot com. If you are local, of course,
(33:52):
then you get to partake and they're wonderful mushrooms that
they grow. They're absolutely outstanding. Trust me, I've tasted them all.
They are out standing. To do us such a great job, Pete,
I can't thank you enough for spending time with us
this morning. And again, yeah, I just encourage folks to
get in touch richlifefarm dot com. Sign up for their newsletter.
I get that as well, and you'll find out where
(34:13):
you can also find their mushrooms at the local markets
and things like that. Appreciate you spending time with us
this morning. Stay warm, keep those mushrooms warm. We get
this cold dip here, keep them going. We really appreciate
what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Thank you so much for having me Ron, I really
appreciate it. And have great rest of your day.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
All right, you two rich Pete Richmond and again the
rich rich Man and it's they're out in Richmond, Ohio,
A new Rismond, Ohio A getting. The website is richlifefarm
dot com. Richlifefarm dot com. By the way, I think
the best way to store those mushrooms I forgot to
ask him. We found out was in a paper bag.
(34:49):
So there you go. All right, quick break, we come back.
Our special guest coming up next. We're gonna talk to
Anthony ned He's from Flawns. You remember Anthony talking about
flowering lawns. Well he's got a new using bird seeds
and creating flowering lawns as well. We'll tell you all
about it after the break. Here in the garden with
Ron Wilson
And Pete and his wife Emily own rich Life Farm
and fung Guy, and their website is Richlifefarm dot com
if you want to check it out. But my wife
and I were at a farmer's market a couple of
weeks ago and purchased some of their mushrooms and they
are phenomenal and I got to reading about their story,
great story, how they got started. Now they're doing this
(00:23):
and can we do that? Well, we're gonna find out.
Pete's going to join us here coming up in a
little while, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime,
you and me talking, you already get eight hundred eight
two three eight two five five. Also want to remind
you we were talking about the last hour new vegetables.
If you're looking for your local independent garden center, nursery
greenhouse to grow those, let them know your list, let
us know what you've had good success with as well.
(00:44):
And also if you are looking to do raised bed
gardening and maybe expand your raised beds. If you're looking
to expand your gardening the time you garden during the season,
extend the gardening seas. I have two books for you
that've been around for quite some time, highly recommend them.
(01:05):
I talk about and I know both of these young
ladies that wrote these books. They do an outstanding job.
The raised bed one is called Raised Bed Revolution, Build It,
Fill It, Planet, Garden Anywhere by Tara Nolan and absolutely outstanding.
Just highly recommend this book for anybody that's interested in
raised beds, raised bed evolution. Tara Nolan. The other and
(01:28):
she's also very big at raised beds, but likes to
extend the gardening season is Nicky Jabor. Nicky's been on
her show. She's up in the Nova Scotia area, if
I remember correctly, but it's growing undercover, so she talks
about how to grow undercover to extend your gardening seasons
early and late and in those cool crops during the summer,
(01:48):
et cetera, instead of using covers. Two really good books
that go together nicely, Raised Bed Revolution, Growing Undercover, and
I do highly recommend those great Christmas GIFs as well
for yourself to learn more about that. Great good reading,
great illustrations, great pictures. The whole nine yards to Tennessee
we go.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Jeremiah, good morning, good morning, thanks for taking my call.
I spoke with you last week when we spoke about
their crows. Yes, sir, well, I wanted to call this
morning about blue jays. There's a lot of people have
no clue. They're carnivorous and they're extremely aggressive. They rob
(02:29):
all other birds nests, and they'll kill and eat baby birds.
I saved the baby out from one one time. But
probably the only positive aspect of blue jay is everyone
that has seen them knows what their scream sounded like.
If you hear and see a cluster of blue jays
(02:53):
that are screaming, you're just raising caine. In one I
guarantee you there's a snake on the ground. Blow. Oh
really the best of Yeah, they're the best alongs for
snakes there. When they see one, they just over over
them and just make a crazy noise. And so if
(03:14):
you experience that and be careful, somewhere belong as a snake.
The other thing I wanted to I.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Was gonna say the blue jays they really are bullies
out there when you know, especially if you got a
bird feeder up. Man, they're all over the other birds.
They're fun to watch and they're beautiful birds.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, but they're mean, but they're means nivorous. They eat
other they eat baby birds. That's primarily what their diet
is baby birds.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
But the other thing I wanted to talk to you
about last year, I don't remember what program I heard
about them on, and I haven't had any luck trying
to find any was the German orange tomato. They say
they're real sweet and they're just as orange as it
can be, but I haven't had any luck finding anything
(04:01):
else out about them. If you have an opportunity to
research it, and maybe on your next program talk to
us a little bit about the German orange tomato.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
All right, I will, and we grow a couple German tomatoes.
I think one at our nursery, and I think one
of them maybe orange. I will check double We grow
so many varieties, I can't remember them all, but I'll
double check Jeremiah, and we'll talk about it next week.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Thank you, brother. I hope you have a good week, all.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Right, Jeremiah, good talking with you. Stay stay safe. I
don't know if they're gonna get you that snowfall or not,
but stay safe. I love watching blue jays, and they
have that distinct call blue jays. Crows obviously have a
distinct call. Quayle obviously doves. You can tell always tell
the doves, uh and red wing blackbirds. When you hear one,
you know that it's a red wing blackbird. But yeah,
(04:47):
those blue jays can be real bullies, no doubt about it.
But we were talking about crows last week and I
still that's one of my favorite birds. Talk about smart.
Oh my gosh, they are so smart, kind of scary
sometimes talking to your art at eight hundred eight two
three eighty two five five, and one of the points
there was that if you've got a tomato or a
vegetable whatever that you've had good success with, let us know,
(05:10):
and we'd like to share that with us, and then
share that with your local garden center to see if
they can grow them for you as well. Also saw
this week that the National Garden Bureau and kind of
working with pinterest and their predictions for twenty twenty six,
and their prediction for twenty twenty six speaking of vegetable garden,
is that there's going to be a cabbage crush and
(05:33):
they're calling it a cabbage crush, and they're saying that
there's a renewed interest in cabbage, and then cabbage not
only for eating, but for decorations like plates, and things
like that. Is the new vegetable for twenty twenty six,
Live laugh leaf. In the year ahead, it says that
(05:55):
the boomers and Gen X will say goodbye to their
cauliflower obsession and crown cabbage the new kitchen MVP, kim
cheek cocktails, crispy or taco wraps, blistered edge steaks. It's
crunch time, baby. It is all about cabbage. So twenty
(06:16):
twenty six we'll see the cabbage crush. Now does that
throw Brussels sprouts in there too? I mean you see
in Brussels sprouts use a lot more. That's I would
think that would go in that category. Two fermented cabbage,
the demand is up thirty five percent, sautate bockchoi up
thirty five percent, cabbage alfredo up forty five percent. This
is searching for recipes for these. The cabbage soups ninety
(06:40):
five percent, cabbage dumplings one hundred ten percent, cabbage rolls
up one hundred percent. So it looks like look for
different varieties of cabbage to be growing. And remember they're
cool season crops. They love that cooler season, so you
want to grow those earlier in the spring, or you
can grow them in the fall as well. And there
are many varieties that are out there now for you
(07:00):
that are many cabbage heads. Don't get as big, stay
a little bit smaller. For your smaller gardens, your raised beds,
container gardening, you can grow cabbage in those as well.
So the prediction for twenty twenty six, the cabbage crush
is on. The focus will be now off of cauliflower head,
on to cabbage quick break, we come back. I cannot wait.
(07:22):
We're gonna talk to Pete Richmond. He's the owner co
owner with his wife Emily Richmond, and their name of
the farmer is rich Life Farm and fun guy. We're
gonna talk about growing mushrooms here in the garden with
Ron Wilson. In the garden with Ron Wilson, I ever
think about growing mushrooms? You know? You see those kids
all the time. They're becoming more and more popular out there.
(07:42):
You ever tried one? Well, I'll tell you what I
have got the man that knows more about growing mushrooms
than I think anybody out there. And I have experienced
their mushrooms. They are outstanding. They are gorgeous, they are
good looking. His wife Emily probably should get all the
credit for it, but we'll give him a lot of
credit as well. He is the co owner of their
(08:05):
farm called rich Life Farm. Go to their website richlifefarm
dot com. And I know you're tired of hearing this,
Pete Richmond, but I understand you're a really fun guy
at the parties.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Ah, yes I am, and thank you for having me
this morning. And yes you're right, Ron, My wife Emily
is definitely the one behind this operation. I like to
say I grow the mushrooms, but Emily is the one
that makes this whole business operation.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So she made that clear at the beginning when I
was getting in touch with you guys to get you
on here this morning. Yeah, she pretty much took care
of everything. Hey, no, I just what a great story
and the reason. First of all, I'll say right up
front here the reason I found out about you guys.
I have read stories about you in the Inquiry and
a couple of the books as well. But we experienced
your mushrooms firsthand from a produce market last week at
(08:55):
Mattrie and absolutely outstanding. They're probably the those gorgeous mush
gourmet mushrooms I have ever seen, and the flavor was
absolutely outstanding and just absolutely loved him. So I said,
give me a card. I would love to get you
guys on and talk about this because what an interesting thing.
So let's start out with you, first of all, how
you got involved with this? Because I love reading it
(09:18):
and I have to ask you. It says at an
early age you became fascinated with the natural world. What
does that mean?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah, definitely. I mean growing up, I always, you know,
wanted to spend my free time outside playing in the
creeks and the woods, you know, turning over logs and rocks,
just seeing what's out there. And yeah, just you know,
all the things that were surrounded by here in the
natural world. And I grew up in Cincinnati and there's
(09:46):
so many cool parks and woods and places to go
to explore. So definitely found that passion very early in life.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
So it stuck with you. And so when you get
out of high school, you said, I'm going to continue on,
so you hat it out to North Carolina. You got
your degree in Bachelor of Science and Natural Resource Conservation
and Management at Western Carolina University, and then that's where
you met the love of two loves of your life,
Emily and fun guy.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yes, that's correct. Yeah, very fortunate to get to go
to school in such a beautiful place and then to
meet my beautiful wife down there, and so yeah, I
studied natural resource conservation and management, so similar to a
forestry degree. But quickly after graduating college, I realized I
didn't want to spend the rest of my life cutting
(10:37):
down trees or fighting wildfires. And I've always enjoyed growing
food and this was something that I could experiment with
in a small place. So yeah, mushroom farming kind of
started as a hobby and in a small greenhouse. I
was growing some oyster mushrooms on.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Straw in our laundry room.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And from there it just quickly took over the house,
had a lab built out in our spare bedroom, had
a bigger greenhouse on our back porch where I was
fruiting mushrooms, and then I think one day Emily decided
that that was a little much, so we bought a
shed and stuck everything in there to have a dedicated
(11:19):
growth space for me to experiment and work on this
hobby of mine.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Unbelievable. I'm assuming that while you were growing these different mushrooms,
friends and family and whatever were like, these things are great,
can you grow some for me? Then the next thing,
you know, you're supplying everybody in the neighborhood and it
just continues on.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, so it definitely started out people were a little
inquisitive as to what we were doing, a little cautious,
just really unsure of it. And then eventually, yeah, friends
and family started asking us for certain varieties or if
you know, we could supply them for special and things
(12:00):
like that. And then I think one day we realized
that this could actually be a business. And at the time,
we were both kind of pursuing our own careers but
kind of giving the best eight hours of our day
to somebody else in their dream. So we wanted to
invest in ourselves and realize that growing mushrooms could be
(12:23):
a potential business and career for both of us.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Talking with Pete Richmond, he is a co owner of
rich Life Farm. Go to their website richlifefarm dot com
and learn more about him, and of course you can
sign up for the newsletter, you can order musher. You
did all nine yards, but to go to their website
learn more about him. So at that point you said, Okay,
let's give this thing a shot. So you convinced Emily
to move back to Cincinnati. And she's not from Cincinnati, right,
(12:50):
She's not.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
She grew up just south of Asheville, North Carolina, and Hendersonville,
and that's where we were living at the time, and
it's a really beautiful place. But the housing market was,
you know, it was such a booming economy that we
really couldn't afford land down there to start a farm.
(13:14):
So whenever we would come up to visit my family
in Cincinnati, I would bring boxes of mushrooms. I would
talk to friends who were in the restaurant industry. I
would knock on the back of restaurant doors whenever we'd
be in town, drop off samples, and just kind of,
you know, assess if there was a market for fresh
(13:36):
mushrooms in Cincinnati, and it turned out there was, So
in March of twenty twenty, we listed our house for
sale in North Carolina and moved up here and bought
our farm in May of twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
And then it's taken it from there, and again you're
a new Richmond and area. And then of course growing
not only you do mushrooms, but you have other things
you have on the rich life farm as well.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Right, Yeah, so we do have chickens as well. I
will say that they are definitely more of pets than
you know, production farm animals. I always like to say
we kind of have an old hen's home. Most of
our chickens are you know, past their productive laying years,
but we still keep them around because they're pets and
(14:24):
it's fun to have them around. So yeah, we do
sell eggs at some of our farmers' markets, and then
we've got a big garden that we grow every summer.
This year, Emily devoted most of that space to growing
flowers and she actually set up a little roadside stand
down at the end of our driveway to sell her flowers.
(14:45):
So yeah, there's always something new and exciting going on here.
But most of our business, actually nearly all of our
business is fresh mushrooms delivered to restaurants and then at
a few farmers' markets and specialty markets around the city.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
And then, like I said, we and we uh were
able to buy some last weekend and I tell you what,
absolutely outstanding what and it just beautiful. I mean, you've
got this, You've got you got this one going. I
mean it was the best I've ever seen. I love
your description in here by the way, and I bet
Emily wrote this. It says, when Pete is not working,
you can probably find him working.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Or sleeping.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I h we had to. We were in charge of
writing our own biography on the website a few years ago,
and I think it was at a time when I
felt like most of my energy was dedicated to just
growing mushrooms and helping to get this business off the ground.
So at the time, I definitely felt that way. But
(15:46):
since then I've been able to kind of separate a
little more from the day to day business operations and
uh yeah, take more time for myself at least.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And described him if he was a mushroom, he be
the King oyster pump in toleranenough heat and pale white
in color. You go to their website rich to learn
more about them, and during the break richlifefarm dot com,
we'll take a break, we come back more with Pete Richmond.
Here in the garden growing mushrooms with Ron Wilson with
(16:18):
Pete Richmond. He's the co owner of rich Life Farm
and fun guy out in New Richmond, Ohio. Check out
their website. It's Richlifefarm dot com growing mushrooms and they
do an outstanding and I'm talking outstanding job. So you know,
you obviously now are a mushroom or a fun guy
expert at growing is this? Is it kind of a
trial and error that got you to where you are today?
(16:40):
I mean, are there classes or things you take or
how'd you get so good at what you're doing?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Definitely a lot of trial and error. We took some
classes along the way. I spent a week up on
a mushroom farm in Canada kind of learning the ins
and outs of the operation. And then we've done some
mentorship programs with other successful mushroom farmers around the country,
(17:07):
and both of those things, you know, we're instrumental in
us successfully launching this business. But for the production side
of things, it was definitely a lot of trial and error.
And fortunately it was a hobby for a few years
before it was a business, so I was able to
(17:27):
work out a lot of those kinks. But even so,
we're learning something new every day. We're always trying to
improve our processes and you know, just get better as
we keep continue moving forward.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Well, you know what I think in our local area
and the history here in Cincinnati way back when was
Fred mushroom compost up in the Lebanon, the Lebanon area,
and of course he did all they can all kind
of mushrooms and stuff, but they grew in a mushroom
compost and landscapers ate that stuff up. I mean that
was great at soil amendment, top dressing or whatever. With
you though, as I'm watching the videos and seeing what
(18:03):
you grow in, that's not really a that's not a compost,
is it.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
No, So we grow everything on an oak sawdust based substrate,
whereas those canned mushrooms and things are grown on a
composted and mandeure based substrate. So everything that we grow
in its natural habitat would be growing on dead or
dyeing trees. Basically, we amend that substrate, that oak sawdust
(18:31):
with different things. Most of our varieties get amended with
soybean halls. It's the byproduct of processing soybeans and pressing
them for oil. And in Ohio we grow a lot
of soybeans, so it's pretty readily available agricultural byproduct to
amend that sawdust with, and that kind of acts as
(18:52):
a nitrogen source and that helps the mushrooms really take off.
And prove the yield that we need to maintain the
commercial production that we have here.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
You know, I had no idea until I watched a
couple of videos that the folks have shot when they
were visiting you and doing stories about you. The process
is really cool. I mean, that's very interesting with the
plastic bags and then the medium that you use there
and then putting the hole in the top and then
they grow out. I was I was set there, just like, Wow,
(19:27):
I had no idea. When you're growing these what do
they all require? Like the same humidity, the same temperature.
Is everything different grown in a different situation or pretty
much all the same?
Speaker 3 (19:40):
For the most part, everything that we grow grows in
the same conditions. There are a few varieties that we
grow at a smaller scale that requires some different conditions.
But yeah, basically, what we're doing is trying to mimic
all the things that occur naturally to cause mushrooms to grow,
(20:03):
and do that indoors in a controlled environment so that
we can harvest fresh mushrooms every day of the year.
So we are, you know, doing temperature changes to mimic
natural occurrences in nature. We're adding humidity to help the
fungi and mushrooms thrive and all just kind of mimicking
(20:24):
the natural processes.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Talking with Pete Richmund, he's the co owner of rich
Life Farm and fung Guy. Check out their website richlifefarm
dot com and learn more about what they do and
of course where you can find their mushrooms as well.
Are there are there? You know, when you're growing vegetables
and things like that, there's always insects or disease or
other issues that can come up. Are mushrooms affected by
things like that as well?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
So mushrooms, you know, when they're growing outdoors, they are
attracting insects basically to help spread their spores, their genetic material.
So there are definitely pests, but since we are indoors,
we're able to mitigate a lot of that. There are,
you know, things that are like pleasing fungus beetles that
(21:11):
will go in and eat the flesh of the mushrooms
when they're growing outdoors. There are fungus gnats that are
attracted to the CO two that mushrooms put off. But
in an indoor controlled environment, we're really able to kind
of get one step ahead of that and prevent any
infestations or things like that from happening.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So are are mushrooms then grown? Can they are they
considered organically grown?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
So we're not certified organic, but we use organic practices
in our operation. We don't treat our mushrooms with anything.
We say, the only chemical they come in contact with
is water. But then when we you know, when we're
preparing the growing medium, when we're harvesting packing mushrooms, we
wear gloves to keep them clean and just have a
(21:59):
clean product that's ready for our customers to use.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Well.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Talking with Pete Richmond again, check out their website richlifefarm
dot com. Now, course, obviously the pictures the lights are
on so we can see what's going on in all
but are mushrooms growing in the dark are not necessarily.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
So, like a white button mushroom is grown in the dark,
and then a crimini mushroom is actually the same type
of mushroom that's grown in light. So mushrooms have melanin
and there's you know the same way that humans have
melanin in our skin, and thus they are reactive to
that light. They're also phototropics, so they will grow towards light,
(22:40):
but without light they just won't get that melanin that
pigmentation to help develop all those really cool colors, everything
from pinks and yellows to blues and deep grays. So yeah,
there's a lot of color at play with these mushrooms
we grow as well.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Now, do you have grow inside these buildings that are
special special lights spectrum for them or not necessarily?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
So in our grow rooms we run daylight spectrum LEDs
and we run those I think like sixteen hours a
day in our growing rooms and that's really all they need.
They don't need. You know, they're not using the same
kind of spectrums as plants because they're not photosynthesizing, so
(23:27):
they're just using that as a kind of a beacon
to grow towards, but also as a source to produce
that melanin pete.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
You know, we see a lot of these kits that
are out there today for folks that are you know,
you can buy the log it comes with the spores
already on it, you know, put it in the closet
or whatever and grow those. I've never done one before,
you know, is that something that folks can get into
doing on their own as well? I mean, is it
something that you know you can do on it small well,
I mean obviously that's how you got started, but do
(23:55):
you advise people if they're looking to do this on
their own.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Yeah, that's definitely a great way to get into it.
A lot of the kits that are like commercially available
on the shelf have been kind of augmented a little
bit to allow them to stay viable on a shelf
for an extended period of time. But we're actually offering
some grow your own kits for the holidays this year.
(24:22):
We're just doing some blue oyster mushrooms right now because
it's a really easy mushroom to for first time growers
to have success with. But we've got a newsletter going
out later this morning that will have all the details
for that and those will be available to pick up
at a couple of our farmers' markets before the end
(24:42):
of the year.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Talking with Pete rich Richmond again, it's richlifefarm dot com.
Sign up for their newsletter and of course when you
go there you'll see all the varieties. You'll see where
they're going to be at at as far as markets
that you can buy them. The recipes they have recipes
on there for you as well. You can learn more
about Emily and can't leave out Kelly Coleman as well,
an integral part of your team there as far as
(25:06):
producing these mushrooms. Let's take a quick break. We come
back one more segment with Pete. I appreciate you spending
time with us this morning. We'll talk about the different
varieties they grow and how do you store those once
you get them on, what's the best way to do
and what's the best way to cook them? We'll find
out from Pete Richmond again. Their website is Richlifefarm dot com.
Here in the Garden with Ron Wilson. The Garden with
(25:27):
Ron Wilson's special guest this morning is mister Pete Richmond.
He is the co owner of rich Life Farm and
fun Guy. They grow a great selection of gourmet mushrooms.
Their website is outstanding. They have a newsletter. I have
the November newsletter in front of me. They're gonna they
were releasing the December one today, so sign up for it.
Go to their website. It's again richlifefarm dot com. Can
(25:48):
we can folks obviously for us local our local listeners.
We can find you at some of the markets and
all and that's listed on your website, can folks order
those and have them shipped as well?
Speaker 3 (26:01):
So we do not ship any fresh mushrooms.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Mushrooms are just really hyper perishable and kind of require
some specific storage to really get the best shelf life
out of them, and that's kind of our competitive advantage
within this market. Our mushrooms are grown here and delivered
fresh to our restaurant customers and markets every week, so
(26:28):
it's really in our best interest just to keep that
product local. We do, however, have some tinctures available on
our website, and those are just extracts of the fresh
mushrooms we grow and their use as a medicinal product.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
All Right, Pete, which is your favorite of all the
mushrooms that you grow that you enjoy the most eating.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
If I'm gonna grab some mushrooms to cook at our house,
I'm probably gonna go with the blue oyster mushrooms. They're
just so mild and versatile. Anything that I'm cooking, I
know that I can throw them in and really help
create a meal around them. They were the first variety
of mushrooms I overgrew and just super easy to cook with.
(27:14):
We kind of call those like our gateway mushroom from
your typical grocery store varieties, So just really familiar and
easy to work with, a good way to kind of
get your foot into it.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
And for folks that are curious, you have quite an
array of mushrooms that you grow.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah, at any point in the year, we grow probably
between five and ten different varieties. There is some seasonality
to our production. Despite the fact that we're indoors. There
are mushrooms that have adapted to grow pretty much in
every non permanently frozen environment on Earth, So there is
(27:54):
just a lot of temperature tolerance variation and things like that.
So in the summertime we'll grow more warm weather varieties
and then in the wintertime we'll grow more cold weather varieties.
And actually usually in the winter time we have more
variety and yeah, more variation among the species that we're
(28:14):
able to grow. But yeah, everything pretty much wants to
grow around fifty to sixty degrees, so it's a little
bit easier this time of year than in the middle
of the summer. Here in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Blue Oyster Queen Queen oyster, comb tooth, Lion's main and
Lion's Main's to me. I think I are your more
people asking where you find Lion's main seems to be
very popular. I don't know how to pronounce the other
than pino.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Pino in Italian variety. They grow on piopo or poplar
trees in Italy, so that's where that name came from.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
And chestnut are some of the varieties that they will
that you will find them growing. We bought the collection,
the large collection of all those I wanted to just
spram with with you know, a preserve, just use that
and hanging up on the wall.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah, they're definitely very beautiful. We've used them as a
centerpiece and our Thanksgiving table during some years, and yeah,
the mix is usually our best seller. I think just
all the varieties kind of piled up there and the
little boats that we have them in at the Farmer's
market are just really eye catching and give you a
(29:23):
little taste of everything there.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
And it's amazing the different flavor of the flavors that
you will get in course texture as well, you know,
when you're cooking all of those, And as far as
I'm concerned, I still think the best way it's just
sauteed and butter.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Yeah, definitely, you can't beat that. You know, there's a
lot of people that say they don't like the texture
of mushrooms. So our best tip for that is to
throw them in a dry skillet to sautee them. At first.
Mushrooms are like ninety percent water, so oil and water
don't mix and it just kind of locks all that
moisture up in the mushrooms. That can not be the
(30:00):
greatest texture to some people. So throw them in a
dry skillets what some of that moisture out of there,
and then add your fat, your butter oil and helps
get them a little crispy, gets some color on them
a little bit, and just I think makes a texture
a little bit better overall. But yeah, you really can't
go wrong roasted sautee thrown on the grill. They're very versatile.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
So now you can't use that as an excuse if
you don't like the texture of mushrooms, that's not an
excuse anymore. Peach is thrown that out the window. So
there you go, so I can't use of any excuse.
Talking again with Peach Richmond, go to their website richlifefarm
dot com. The varieties that you choose to grow are those?
Do those seem to be the most popular that are
(30:42):
used in restaurants and all. Do you do anything specific
for a specific chef or whatever that's out of your
list of mushrooms?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Not really, we've kind of narrowed down our production. We're
just we're very limited on space. We've grown about two
thousand square feet and right now we're growing probably between
six and eight hundred pounds of fresh mushrooms a week wow,
and we're really probably over one hundred percent capacity. But
we've kind of had to refine our production down over
(31:15):
the years to just really match the demand. And there
have been things we've grown over the yield years that
didn't yield as well or weren't producing as consistently that
we've had to cut out. So we've kind of refined
things over time. And the kind of the roster that
we've got right now seems to, yeah, really fit the
(31:36):
demand and what customers want.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
The best.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
You got to cover, there's no doubt about it. One
thing I forgot to ask you when I was watching
you fill up the bags with your with the sawdust
and all that you got your folks use the yolk
and all of that, and then putting the spores in
and all, do you reuse that or is once once
you harvest from the mushrooms from that, is that then.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Done so that sawdust substrate will continue to fruit out mushrooms,
but the limiting factor for the mushrooms is going to
be moisture. So really we try to get that oak
substrate as high of a moisture content as possible without
oversaturating it, so that we get really big first yields,
(32:22):
and then each successive flush of mushrooms off of that
will decrease in weight, sometimes by you know, fifty percent,
but sometimes even more like eighty to ninety percent. So
if we're getting two to three pounds off the first flush,
we might get a half a pound off the second flush. So,
since we're constrained by space, we typically fruit everything once.
(32:45):
There are a couple varieties that will do a second time,
but then we bring fresh material in so that we
can continue getting those yields that we need to remain
productive and yeah, viable business. But then we take that
spent substrate that we have and we compost it on
our farm, we use it in our own garden, and
(33:07):
we offer it to a few community gardens and people
around the area. Eventually we'd like to set up the
infrastructure to compost that at scale and have that as
a kind of secondary or you know, third type of
product that we could offer our customers. Sure, but right
now we don't have the infrastructure for that. So down
(33:30):
the line, definitely.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
I'm sure you will work though, And I'll tell this,
the whole thing is fascinating. And again, it all started
by just seeing your mushrooms and I realized that I
had read about you in the past. What you guys
have been doing is fascinating. It's unbelievable. Go to their website,
learn more about it, and you will love it again.
It's richlifefarm dot com. If you are local, of course,
(33:52):
then you get to partake and they're wonderful mushrooms that
they grow. They're absolutely outstanding. Trust me, I've tasted them all.
They are out standing. To do us such a great job, Pete,
I can't thank you enough for spending time with us
this morning. And again, yeah, I just encourage folks to
get in touch richlifefarm dot com. Sign up for their newsletter.
I get that as well, and you'll find out where
(34:13):
you can also find their mushrooms at the local markets
and things like that. Appreciate you spending time with us
this morning. Stay warm, keep those mushrooms warm. We get
this cold dip here, keep them going. We really appreciate
what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Thank you so much for having me Ron, I really
appreciate it. And have great rest of your day.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
All right, you two rich Pete Richmond and again the
rich rich Man and it's they're out in Richmond, Ohio,
A new Rismond, Ohio A getting. The website is richlifefarm
dot com. Richlifefarm dot com. By the way, I think
the best way to store those mushrooms I forgot to
ask him. We found out was in a paper bag.
(34:49):
So there you go. All right, quick break, we come back.
Our special guest coming up next. We're gonna talk to
Anthony ned He's from Flawns. You remember Anthony talking about
flowering lawns. Well he's got a new using bird seeds
and creating flowering lawns as well. We'll tell you all
about it after the break. Here in the garden with
Ron Wilson
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.