Local Farm Feature: Cascadia Mushrooms

By Ben Goe

The Produce Team getting a tour of Cascadia Mushrooms

At the Co-op, we always emphasize locally produced goods, year in and year out, regardless of the geopolitical climate. Now, with the uncertainty added by proposed tariffs on foreign goods, it seems particularly important. We have a lot of longstanding and valuable relationships with local farms, and today I thought I’d dig into one of them, Cascadia Mushrooms, and how they influence and support our local economy.

Cascadia Mushrooms was founded by Seattle native Alex Winstead. As a child, Alex’s family took frequent vacations to the Olympic Peninsula, where he was fascinated with the array of fungal life. In 2005, after graduating from The Evergreen State College with a degree in mycology and the sciences, he started his first commercial mushroom growing operation. The initial farm was pretty humble, occupying a single rented basement in Bellingham. After one season of growing and selling Shiitakes at the Bellingham Farmers Market, it was clear that Alex needed to upgrade. He rented a second space, and five years later was able to break ground on a permanent facility in north Bellingham. The Cascadia Mushrooms vision is simple: produce the best quality mushroom products possible and feed our community while raising awareness of our humble fungi friends.

A group of us from the Produce department recently had the opportunity to tour the Cascadia Mushrooms facility, and it was truly impressive. Seeing so many mushrooms growing in one place was awe-inspiring. The specialized equipment required is largely bespoke. They mix the growing medium themselves from locally sourced and sustainable products, cook it, bag it, and inoculate it. They grow Reishi, Shiitake, Lion’s Mane, Wine Cap, and three kinds of Oyster mushrooms. The company that produced their mycelium recently went out of business, and offered to sell. So, now Cascadia produces all of the mycelium they use and supply many other mushroom farms as far away as Texas. They grow year-round, producing between 1,500 and 2,500 pounds of mushrooms a week!

Cascadia Mushrooms sell about 25% of their product directly to food co-ops like ours, meaning the remaining 75% is sold through CSAs, farmers markets, and to restaurants, and the Puget Sound Food Hub. They support other local businesses whenever possible. They purchase organic rye from a farm in Lynden and organic grain by-products from farms throughout the western states. The natural alder sawdust used in the growing medium is a byproduct from hardwood mills in Centralia. Their printed materials are produced locally, their mushroom boxes are made in the Puget Sound area, and all of their merch is designed and screen-printed locally. They frequently donate mushrooms to food banks and other nonprofits, growing supplies and merchandise to benefit local schools and fundraisers, and contribute financially to organizations doing work they believe in here in our communities and around the country. Last but not least, the spent mushroom plugs are donated locally for composting. Like most fungal networks, theirs is robust and far-reaching

Cascadia Mushrooms is just one small farm and one example of how a local business has its own multiplier effect. All of our local farms and producers have their own stories and their own innumerable ways of contributing to the local community and economy. They work together, and they take seriously the well-being of our region—people, land, and economy. When you choose to purchase a locally grown or produced product from a local independent business, it’s an investment in the health of our entire region, as well as your own. Thank you for shopping local forever and always.