Image courtesy of Down Home Mushrooms
Chef Nicholas Gipson grew up with a handy father. He recalls, “When I was a kid he’d say, ‘You want it? Let’s build it,’”—though it’s doubtful either of them realized that those lessons would someday culminate in a full-scale mushroom farm in Gipson’s backyard.
Pointing to the drum of his steamer pasteurizer, he said, “If that looks like it came from a washing machine, it’s because it did.” As he expanded his business, Down Home Mushrooms, to take up a second grow room and added a business office and incubation room, he was able to construct most of the structures himself—including a steamer, sterilizer, climate control system, autoclave, and filtration system.
Image courtesy of Down Home Mushrooms
The journey began when Gipson couldn’t find the mushrooms he wanted for a dinner recipe. A native of Mississippi, Gipson served as head chef at Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi and a trainer for Logan’s Roadhouse for four years before that, a job that took him around the country. “I was used to having easy access to whatever ingredients I needed for my dishes,” he said. When he made his way back home to Saucier, Mississippi to work as an electrician and raise his kids close to family, some ingredients just weren’t available to him anymore, even as a home cook.
“I wanted to make a simple oyster mushroom soup but couldn’t find fresh oyster mushrooms for sale anywhere on the coast,” Gipson said. His solution? He set up a small “grow tent” in the corner of his bedroom. But when he wanted to add a humidifier to the set-up, his wife, Katie, balked. So, he moved the operation to a small outbuilding next to the house.
Image courtesy of Down Home Mushrooms
In his new man cave, Gipson was able to inoculate about ten bags of substrate a week and grow enough mushrooms to share with family and friends. “We’d both work all day, get home, have dinner, help the kids with homework, then we’d fool with the mushrooms until 10 or 11 pm,” said Katie Gipson, a VA nurse. “It sounds crazy, but we loved it. Sometimes, we’d get the kids involved, and it was a great family project.”
The enterprise soon took up two buildings and those ten bags a week grew to eighty or ninety bags proffering shiitake, lion’s mane, king trumpet, chestnut, pathfinder, and several varieties of oyster mushrooms. The dream of becoming a full-time mushroom farmer started to look less and less far-fetched. “I’m lucky to have a wife who said, ‘Baby, if that’s what you want to do, I’ll support you’.”
“I’ve got 120 ideas, and I want to try them all. It truly never gets old for us. I hope when I’m one hundred, I’m still waking up and walking to the grow room to see what the mushrooms will teach me today.” —Chef Nicholas Gipson
He took the plunge and quit his job. His mother, Gina, joined the operation and became his right hand. That was three years ago. Saturdays now find Nick at The Pass Market in Pass Christian and Katie at the Ocean Springs Fresh Market. And on Thursday afternoons, he travels to Hattiesburg for their Downtown Farmers Market. All that on-the-ground exposure has led to restaurant clients across the Gulf Coast, including White Pillars in Biloxi, Siren Social Club in Gulfport, Nura Juice Bar in Pascagoula, Brew Paddle in Biloxi, and Vestige in Ocean Springs. Gipson is also a popular speaker teaching local master gardeners clubs about the health benefits of mushrooms and ways to cultivate, prepare, and consume them.
Image courtesy of Down Home Mushrooms
“If anyone wants to learn how to grow mushrooms, I want to show them how easy and rewarding it can be,” Gipson said. As part of his offerings, he sells “grow blocks,” which allow even the most fungal-naive to produce a hearty flush of mushrooms. And his website is packed with beginner-level recipes.
Down Home Mushrooms has even expanded into the realm of mushroom teas—a collaboration with Gipson’s brother, Timmy, co-owner of Mississippi Tea Company—and is working with Two Bros Roasting out of Hattiesburg on a mushroom coffee. He’s created several blends of mushroom seasoning and is also working on powder to make mushroom broth on demand. Katie has brought her medical experience to the venture, maximizing the health benefits of mushrooms by formulating medicinal tinctures to sell at market.
“We just bought a freeze dryer and I’m experimenting with mushroom snacks,” Gipson said. “I’ve got 120 ideas, and I want to try them all. It truly never gets old for us. I hope when I’m one hundred, I’m still waking up and walking to the grow room to see what the mushrooms will teach me today.” downhomemushroomsllc.com.
