Producer

Columbia Mushroom Company began in a small greenhouse in the corner of Neil’s living room. At the time, he was pursuing a career growing liquid yeast for the brewing industry. He took up mushroom growing as a project similar to growing yeast, but with more direct and delicious results. The excitement about mushrooms grew, and soon the space did too, moving to a room-within-a-room that was hand built. Upon moving onto it's new property in 2017, Columbia Mushroom has been able to comfortably expand the farm and production. The growth of Columbia Mushroom Company has been wonderfully dynamic, as the industry of cultivating exotic mushrooms has been growing and changing rapidly. Very much like the brewing industry, specialty mushroom farms have been developing new techniques and equipment to accomplish the end product. Every piece of equipment is an invention; every procedure is the summary of a thousand trial procedures. For these reasons and more, Columbia Mushroom Company is a true reflection of its founder, Neil Brent.

At Columbia Mushroom Company, simplicity and consistency are key. Using specialized mushroom cultivation bags, our mushroom mycelium first colonizes a sawdust spawn substrate. When the spawn is ready, it moves on to inoculating a sterilized mixture of supplemented sawdust. Once the supplemented sawdust blocks have been completely colonized, we place them into a custom-built Fruiting Room. This space is optimized for oxygen, light and humidity. The blocks are then cut open, exposing to they need to produce mushroom fruiting bodies. When at the correct maturity, the mushrooms are harvested at a a time that achieves a balance of flavor and shelf-life. Our harvesting practices have always been with the end consumer’s needs in mind. Our team hand-packages and hand-delivers our mushrooms. Whether to our restaurants, wholesale buyers, or our local farmers markets and retail markets, we are there from start to finish.

Columbia Mushroom Company cares deeply about our people. Our community has been essential to us from the very beginning. We decided to start this farm because of you. Your response to a specialty mushroom, at a point that most people had never experienced them; the support is what pushed us to make the leap. Our community, and your support continues to be our guide as we grow. As a Columbia Mushroom customer, we look forward to an open dialogue about your needs as a home cook, chef, or restaurant. Your experience with our mushrooms has shaped the trajectory and future of this farm. Every mushroom grown and harvested is a success, and we are so thrilled to share that success with you. Thank you all for your support over the years!

All of the products at Columbia Mushroom Co. are hand-crafted on-site using sustainable practices. From ready-to-fruit blocks to fresh mushrooms, everything is cultivated on our farm located in the county of Hood River, Oregon. After mushrooms are harvested, the blocks are worm casting composted and used on-site for supplementation of our field. We produce a lot of compost, more than we can use onsite. Returning the nutrients from our mushroom farm back to our land, to supplement our pasture, our garden, create hay for the animals - that is a pretty unbelievable experience to live. Currently, we follow USDA Organic practices on the farm. We are in the process of obtaining certification for our mushrooms, but we do not have certification at this point.