EVERETT, Wash. — If you love gourmet mushrooms but prefer shopping over foraging, check out a new destination in Everett.
Black Forest Mushrooms is an indoor controlled environment farm, where four types of organic mushrooms are harvested and brought to market daily.
Housed in a century-old building just off Broadway Avenue, the 10,000 square foot facility features a mushroom market and offers tours of the growing facility.
It’s all the brainchild of founder Nathanael Engen, whose enthusiasm for growing mushrooms is contagious.
"I think that it takes a special level of obsession,” Engen said. "You know, I usually just have to follow my morel compass.”
He runs the business with an equally-enthusiastic team. Nicholas Fiacco worked as a chef before becoming Black Forest’s production manager.
"The best part about this job is it's given my wife a lot of peace of mind that I have other people to talk to about mushrooms, finally,” Fiacco said, laughing.
Austin Stein worked as a medical lab technician for ten years before transitioning into mushroom growing.
“I'd do phlebotomy, run blood and urine samples on analyzers,” he said. "I never thought I'd be working at a mushroom farm, never."
Creative Director Alex Blaskovich is an artist.
“It's really cool seeing the impacts of what we're doing,” she said.
Despite their varied backgrounds, they all share one commonality.
"There's not a single mushroom farmer out there who isn't just a little weird,” Engen said, laughing.
He means it in the best way possible, because growing isn't easy.
Every harvest begins with a mix of organic pellets and soybean hulls, bagged and then sterilized in a machine that functions like a giant insta-pot. The bags, known as production blocks, create the ideal environment for mushrooms to grow.
Inside a sterile lab, mycologists add mushroom spawn - kind of like seeding a field.
Then the bags are moved into a much warmer room, to incubate for about two weeks. Then they’re moved into the much cooler tent where they fruit - the last step before harvest.
The entire process takes about six weeks and can operate year-round.
“Because of that, we can take fungi to fork in a matter of hours, sometimes even minutes, instead of days and weeks like many imported mushrooms are currently,” Engen said.
The fresher they are, the better the nutritional value (mushrooms are high in fiber and protein.) Their impact on food systems as a meat substitute is wide-ranging. Additionally, the hyper-local growth cuts down on the farm's carbon footprint.
All of the potential good coming from the business is purposeful because, in his past life, Engen experienced trauma.
He served in the Air Force, and one of his jobs was at the DoD’s Port Mortuary, bringing fallen heroes home and consoling their families.
"It changed my sense of reality,” Engen said. “I think I started realizing the mortality around life. And getting out, I ended up getting PTSD. And, that was a challenge all on its own."
Later, as he healed, Engen started growing mushrooms in his home’s two-car garage and selling them at farmers markets. He discovered a viable small business and a new sense of purpose.
"I don't think mushrooms are the silver bullet to solve all of earth's problems, right? But I think it's a damn good start,” he said.
It’s a belief shared by all the “urban rangers” working inside the Black Forest every day - helping fungi flourish and, they hope, cultivating community.
"I've never been happier in my life,” Engen said. "We're just excited to be able to spread so mush love."
Black Forest’s mushroom market is open daily and is located at 2110 Hewitt Avenue. Orders are also available online.
Through the month of February, Black Forest is running the Mush Love Initiative – for every pound purchased, the company will donate a pound to partnering food banks and non-profits.
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