Hungry Eye 68 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine Clockwise from top left: shiitake from cap ‘n stem; Tipo; Union chael Smith “makes the sauce from mushroom stock, marsala, and just a dash of sherry vinegar,” says the wait- er as he sets down the shallow pottery bowl. A tangle of tender mush- rooms in its rich, dark sauce is heaped on a crisp, creamy-centered square of fried polenta and garnished with dabs of white-truffled egg yolk. It’s the earthy, exotic essence of mush- room mystery. This inspires a trip to the North Spore stand at Portland’s Saturday farmers’ market. Vivian Ewing walks me through the varieties she’s offering today. “Shiitakes and oysters are the most popu- lar. These chestnuts are prized for their col- or.” They’re slim-stemmed, with rich russet caps. “And we call these lion’s manes, but they go by other names, too, like hedgehog and bear’s tooth.” Aptly, they’re big, white, and ruffly. “Icookthemallprettymuchthesame.”She smiles.“Justsautetheminbutterwithgarlic.” North Spore’s wares include products made from medicinal mushrooms. There are tins of dried chaga, which resembles smashed fragments of dusty bricks, for simmering into tea. There are eye-drop- per bottles of mushroom tinctures, which can be taken as a few drops on the tongue or in herb tea. Most fascinating is a plastic bag about the size of a shoe- box, which appears to be stuffed with soil. Out of a hole in the bag, a fist-sized cluster of shiitakes is growing. “That’s an indoor growing kit,” she says. “You can order a variety you like and grow it right in your kitchen.” To The Source “We work with mushroom farmers all over the country,” says Matt McInnis of North Spore Mushrooms. He’s a co-owner, along with Eliah Thanhauser and Jon Carver, of the four-year-old company based in the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook. The three met as undergraduates at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Har- bor. “COA is small enough that everyone pretty much knows everyone else,” McIn- nis says. “The three of us were fairly biolo- gy-focused. I got into mushrooms through restaurants–I cooked all through school at the Burning Tree restaurant in Mount Desert. But we all liked to forage for mush- rooms in the woods downeast.” “We’ve got basically two tracks to our business,” he says. “We do spawn, which we sell to other [commercial mushroom] farms. And we also sell mushrooms.” North Spore mushrooms can be found in restaurants, the Portland Food Co- op, and other retail outlets. “We put out an availability report to restaurants every week, and we have a delivery van.” They al- so have a thriving mail-order business for indoor and outdoor growing kits, medici- nal products, dried mushrooms, and books. North Spore’s spawning lab is the key to its success. “We had a leg-up because Jon has a graduate degree in mycology. We make master spawn from cells in pe- tri dishes. We have a ‘cell bank’ of familiar and unusual mushroom varieties. I believe we’re the largest specialty spawn producer catering to small growers and home culti- vators in the east.” The Block Farm M ark Robinson of Cap ’n’ Stem in Gardiner explains his com- pany’s place in the mycologi- cal food chain. They buy spawn mixed with grain from North Spore. “First we incu- bate the mycelium–the part of a mushroom that’s underground–in a temperature-con- trolled room.” Thisincubationroomis“fouror fivethousandsquarefeet.We’ve gotabout12,000totalsquarefeet here,”saysRobinson.“We’rein anoldwoolmillthatlaterbe- cameashoefactory.Nowit’s hometoancommercialbakery andus.”Ifnothingelse,commer- Union sources hen of the wood,oyster,and beech mushrooms from MousanValley Farms for the sauce in this dish,also featuring confit chicken thigh,stone- ground corn polenta,spring peas, smoked cippolini onions. Tipo serves up North Spore mush- room ragù over polenta and white truffle egg yolk.