Crane Creek Farms
Jeff and Jesse Eichenberger are sugaring the old fashioned way, with wholesome-looking metal taps and pails on each tree they empty every day the sap flows.
Lawler, IA
Type: Producer
Produces: Mushrooms
Location: Vinton, IA
Miles from Coop: 20
For over 10 years, Josh and Nikki Osborn have been perfecting mushroom cultivation.
What started as a childhood love for the beloved morel mushroom, became an endeavor to cultivate morels on their own.
"We've been interested in hunting them all our lives, since we were kids. I was wondering why nobody was growing them," says Josh.
Josh delved into mushroom cultivation, growing his first morels in their home basement.
Since then, the operations have expanded to their farm and now include all sorts of sought after mushroom varieties.
"It was a whole lot of luck on the first one. And then a whole lot of research and trying things that didn't work later on. Then finally figured out putting it all together to getting stuff to grow."
Using both indoor and outdoor cultivation practices, Blues Best now grows a variety of specialty mushroom crops including morel, oyster, shitake, and lion's mane mushrooms.
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