SHELBY, N.C. — Inside a large shed in Daniel Dugan’s backyard is a small farm with an unusual crop.
A chemical engineer by trade, Dugan began growing gourmet mushrooms a year ago and sells them at the Foothills Farmers Market and to local restaurants.
He has pearly blue Oysters as aesthetically pleasing as a piece of artwork, rich yellow Golden Oysters, sweet little reddish capped Pioppinos, Shiitake, shaggy white Bear’s Head and more.
Dugan holds up the cluster of Pioppino mushrooms like a bouquet, their reddish-brown caps nearly matching his hair and beard.
Dugan, who said he’s brewed beer for years, has always wanted to start a business, but a brewery was a much bigger undertaking than he could manage.
While the word “farm” typically brings up the idea of acres of rolling fields stretching to the horizon, Dugan is interested in utilizing small spaces to grow relatively large crops.
So he started Fourth Fungi farm.
Growing mushrooms has a lot of similarities to brewing, and Dugan saw an opportunity to fill a void in the community. At this point, he is the only Shelby-based fungi operation.
In addition to selling his gourmet mushrooms at the market and to local restaurants, he grows them for special events.
“This is our first season at it, and it was received really well,” Dugan said.
Initially, market customers would stop out of curiosity.
“But that curiosity has turned into repeat customers,” he said.
He likes to ask his customers what they do with his products. He said some people saute them, others use the fungi in salads, soups or on top of pizza.
Bistro 214 on South Lafayette Street makes a mushroom tart from his shiitakes.
Dugan said he recently provided shiitakes for his brother’s wedding rehearsal dinner and can provide them for other special events. He grew mushrooms for the recent Seeds in Season event and said caterers and wholesale restaurants can reach out to him to supply their mushroom needs.
Dugan is originally from New Jersey but his wife, Sallee Dugan, is a Cleveland County native, and he said he’s lived in North Carolina for almost 15 years.
Dugan, along with his two sons, Oliver and Rhett, recently worked through a checklist of procedures, getting bulk substrate bags ready for the next step.
It’s a family-run business, and Dugan’s youngest son helps with the Farmers Market while his older son works in production.
Dugan said he buys his mushroom cultures from a vendor initially, but is able to collect spores and use them to grow new mushrooms.
“Part of the hobby is not having to buy cultures,” he said.
The mushroom spawn are added to the sterile sawdust mixture, like planting a seed, and the mycelium grow like white threads through the bag, feeding on the oak sawdust and soybean hulls. Dugan pulls out a bag that is nearly white with the threads of mushroom filaments. Once it reaches that stage, he cuts a hole in the bag and puts in a sterile tent where the mushroom begins to fruit, growing out of the slit in the bag.
The mushrooms are grown in sterile tents that will also keep them the right moisture with humidifiers. Keeping everything clean is a huge part of the business.
Dugan said he’s glad he started out small as he figured out which equipment he needed and which he didn’t.
It takes between four and six weeks to go from culture to full-grown mushroom, depending on the species.
Shiitake takes months, he said.
“I have a consistent weekly production target,” Dugan said. “It’s fun trying to reach that target.”
As an engineer, Dugan said he’s constantly trying to optimize the process, streamline things and do more using less time but with better results.
Even as a small operation, Dugan said he has the capability to grow 70 pounds of mushrooms a week.
“I don’t grow that much, but I have the capability,” he said.