It’s early on a Saturday morning, and Emma Brown is setting up her Franklin Farmers Market booth, which is full of mushrooms that might just help you think better and feel better.
Brown — scientist, nature lover and mushroom farmer at Forage & Cultivate — is an expert on finding better health through mushrooms. She’s also one of the market’s newest vendors this year.
Named the Best Farmers Market in Indiana last year, the Franklin Farmers Market features more than 80 vendors each week offering local foods such as organic produce, crusty sourdough, golden jars of honey and now, mushrooms.
Supermarket mushrooms are often limited in both variety and quantity and typically lack flavor and nutritional value. The real power of a mushroom is rooted in how and where it is grown.
Many mushroom farmers, including Brown, believe in the Chinese concept of Di Tao, which emphasizes the connection between the soil in which something is grown and the medicinal and nutritional potency it develops as a result.
“I believe if you’re eating something grown locally, it’s actually benefiting your immune system more than something from across the country because what that plant has encountered during its growing season is similar to what you’ve also encountered,” Brown said.
The mushrooms and other products Brown creates are tangible examples of her business’s slogan: “Crafted for Consciousness.”
To ensure high quality, maximum nutrition and purity, Brown cultivates a wide variety of gourmet and medicinal mushrooms in a temperature-controlled barn rather than foraging for them in the wild. As a result, the mushrooms offer better flavor and, most importantly, are grown using organic production methods and are completely toxin-free.
Shiitake, comb tooth, lion’s mane, a variety of oyster mushrooms, reishi, chestnut, maitake and others are among the farm’s offerings. Brown also grows medicinal mushrooms used to create a line of nonsynthetic topical skin care products and tinctures.
While mushrooms are unassuming nutritional powerhouses that cultures around the world have relied on for centuries, their therapeutic properties are just as impressive when harvested properly.
“We use an ultrasonicator, which is a piece of equipment that breaks down mushroom cell walls with sound waves to extract all the medicinal benefits at the exact temperature a particular compound requires,” Brown said. “Then we make our tinctures and mushroom-infused honey.”
Lion’s mane, a white mushroom with hair-like tendrils, contains two compounds — hericenones and erinacines — that support the development of new neural pathways and are being studied for their potential role in supporting brain health and memory function. Brown cultivates lion’s mane to sell fresh and incorporates it into an easy-to-digest tincture.
Cordyceps is a type of parasitic fungus that grows naturally in the wild. This cylindrical orange fungus contains a diverse amino acid profile and has become an increasingly popular supplement among athletes. Brown has also formulated cordyceps into a tincture.
The chaga mushroom, which resembles a charred piece of wood, grows on birch trees and cannot be commercially cultivated in the same way as many other mushroom varieties. It has long been used in traditional wellness practices and is often associated with supporting overall health.
“Locally grown produce develops natural immune defenses and builds complex nutritional profiles from the same soil conditions we experience ourselves,” Brown said.
Forage & Cultivate can be found at the Franklin Farmers Market from 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays through Sept. 12.
To learn more about the business or purchase skin care products and honey, visit forageandcultivate.com.
