Meet 4 fungi farmers growing the Phoenix mushroom market

Mushrooms are having a moment. The popularity of fungi appears to be reaching a fever pitch, fueled by wellness gurus, including Tucson’s Andrew Weil, and appearances in pop culture, such HBO’s zombie thriller "The Last of Us."

At Phoenix restaurants, mushrooms are showing up on plates that highlight their versatility, from flatbreads at MATCH Market to menudo at Tia Carmen. They’re replacing coffee beans for morning brews and dairy in fresh baked breads. People are flocking to farmers markets for local mushrooms, sold fresh, dried and in liquid concentrates — or to purchase grow kits to cultivate their own.

“It does seem right now is like a zeitgeist for mushrooms,” says Mike Dechter, who heads the Arizona Mushroom Society, a non-profit organization that offers education, dinners and events for "novices and experienced mushroom hunters alike," according to its website.

The rising popularity and ensuing demand has led to a proliferation of mushroom farms across Arizona and local farmers point to a convergence of events, from growing interest in meat-free options and ways to improve one’s health in the aftermath of the pandemic to intrigue sparked by the Netflix documentary “Fantastic Fungi.”

The benefits of mushrooms have attracted fans from all corners of the cooking and health landscape — and the psychedelics community, too, but today we’re talking about just food. Meet four local mushroom farmers who are fueling the fungus fascination in Phoenix.

The Second-Actors

John and Lorian Roethlein launched Arizona Mushroom Co. in 2020. The couple has been involved in several ventures during their 30 years of marriage, from running an engineering recruiting firm to founding the Payson Farmers Market. When looking for something new to tackle, John saw mushrooms as a triple win, as in a “win for me, a win for you and also a win for our environment,” he says from their home in Payson, where they have converted their downstairs and garage into grow space.

When they first started their company, John wanted to explore every potential capability of mushrooms, from environmental restoration to building materials.

Ultimately, the Roethleins decided to focus on what they knew from the farmers market: growing gourmet produce for Arizonans to cook at home. Arizona Mushroom Co. can be found at markets in Payson, Flagstaff and Scottsdale (in the winter), as well as online. John and Lorian have gone from growing just shiitakes to producing seven different varieties and they harvest about 125 pounds of fungi each week. And after seeing an increased demand for lion’s mane — touted for its medicinal properties, including boosting immune systems — they ramped up its cultivation.

“All of our different varieties have a different medicinal value,” Lorian says.

In general, mushrooms are fat-free and a good source of B and D vitamins. They're also rich in antioxidants such as selenium. Specific varietals each carry additional, nuanced nutritional benefits. Mushrooms have been used throughout history as medicine, and part of their surging popularity is tied to research around the role that some types, such as reishi, turkey tail and maitake, may play in stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells.

“People are absolutely thrilled to be able to take control of their health, to eat something that’s great, to try something new, to impress their friends, to heal a chronic illness,” John adds.

The Homesteader

One person who hoped that mushrooms would make a positive impact on their health was Kevin Fitzgerald. The self-described “culinary nut” loves to cook and was looking for a more holistic dietary option that would help him transition off cholesterol medication. He had always been an avid gardener — citrus and pomegranate trees dot the backyard of his Glendale home — so he decided to try his hand at cultivating mushrooms.

From there, Sun Valley Harvest was born. While Fitzgerald considered growing other items, such as microgreens, once he started down the mushroom rabbit hole, “fungi just took my life over,” he says.

When selling his produce at Uptown Farmers Market, Fitzgerald often answers questions about which mushrooms to buy based on their medicinal benefits. Other customers are seeking to use mushrooms as a meat alternative.

“With my customers, they’re looking for something new to try,” he says.

Fitzgerald also loves showing people that mushrooms are more than the pale white buttons that are served on salads.

“There are mushrooms that taste like maple syrup,” he says.

Sun Valley Harvest sells a variety of mushrooms, from oyster to cordyceps, at markets and restaurants, including Merkin Vineyards and Prescott’s Torme.

Sun Valley produces about 200 pounds of mushrooms each week, and Fitzgerald has brought his daughter and son-in-law into the business. He has dedicated a shed, garage, room and closet to Sun Valley Harvest — and he plans to add onto his house to continue to expand his urban mushroom farm.

“I consider this a homestead, and it’s a lifestyle,” Fitzgerald says.

The Professor

Michael Crowe launched Southwest Mushrooms in 2017. After more than a decade of personal interest and growing mushrooms as a hobby, he decided to follow his dream to start a company that he couldn’t find elsewhere in the Valley.

He’s since become somewhat of a fungi godfather, teaching people in Arizona and beyond how to cultivate mushrooms through his YouTube channel, which has nearly 9 million views and 168,000 subscribers. During a pandemic pivot, he started selling mushrooms and grow kits online.

“I figure it’s better to help people,” Crowe says, explaining that part of his motivation is to empower people to grow their own food with very little space required.

His online sales have become a primary driver for his business and created an online community. Crowe also provides spawn – sterile grain that’s been inoculated with mycelium, a rootlike structure that can sprout mushrooms – to farmers who are looking to start, maintain or expand their farms.

“Sharing the knowledge has been great,” Crowe says.

A small warehouse space in Phoenix serves as Crowe's lab and farm. It is filled with grow tents that can produce around 500 pounds of mushrooms each week to sell to local restaurants, such as Giving Tree Cafe and Match Market & Bar, as well as individual customers who find Southwest Mushrooms at markets, including the Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market.

“Each mushroom has its own fan base,” Crowe says.

When he’s not farming, Crowe is exploring other uses of mushrooms that could improve the environment. For that study, “a lifetime isn’t enough,” Crowe says.

The Economist

Brian Hedger admits he initially was a mushroom skeptic, despite the fact that his family forages for the fungi in Oregon. But, he’s always been fascinated by economics and how markets work. That fascination was why he was studying to get a business degree, but a job at Chandler-Gilbert Community College’s garden changed everything.

The professor who ran the garden taught him about growing mushrooms, and they worked together to find a process that would allow oyster mushrooms to fruit more quickly.

“My dad thought I was crazy,” Hedger recalls. “I thought this would pay for college.”

Instead, he dropped out of school and quit his job to run Hypha Foods, which he launched in 2020. He sells mushrooms that he grows as well as ones that he imports, along with other coveted produce such as truffles, which also are mushrooms. His primary customers are chefs, and his mushrooms are used at Tarbell’s, Anhelo, Wrigley Mansion and Tia Carmen.

Hedger is expanding beyond fungi, adding microgreens to a new space he’s acquired in north Phoenix, which also will allow him to begin importing and processing meats. And he's in the process of buying land in Prescott where he can focus on growing gourmet crops on a larger scale.

Hypha has already branched out into Las Vegas, and Hedger hopes to expand to serve the rest of the southwest and position the U.S. as a competitor among produce categories dominated by Europe and Asia.

“With my love for economic theory and my passion for nature, I have a desire to enable everyone in the world to get ahold of these rare items,” Hedger says.

Arizona’s climate isn’t one that first comes to mind for growing mushrooms, so those who do farm them focus on varieties that can be cultivated indoors mimicking conditions for decomposer fungi that fruit on or near trees, such as oyster, shiitake, turkey tail, pioppino and lion’s mane. And while these four farmers may have come to the world of mushrooms differently – from looking for a change to looking to change the world – each is continuing to build a fungi farming movement of their own right here in the Valley.