About Phaewild Farm

Phaewild Farm is a spore-to-supper mushroom farm and foraging operation based in Knoxville, TN. I'm independent, not growing under a corporate quota, which gives me the freedom to get out into the little nooks and crannies around East Tennessee to pull out some of the weirder, wilder wild mushrooms and bring them to dinner tables where they can be enjoyed and experienced, often for the first time, by all! I love Chanterelles and Morels as much as the rest of them, but have you ever had an anise-and-cinnamon scented mushroom that evolved to eat heavily-treated railroad ties? I'm growing it (on clean wood, not treated railroad ties)! It's called the "Train Wrecker," or the scientific name Neolentinus lepideus. And that's just one of many examples: while I grow Lion's Mane and Oyster Mushrooms, I also grow a rotating selection of some less-commonly-farmed mushrooms, all available as supply allows at my farmer's market booths and via local pickup/meetup. And I'm not only interested in mushrooms - I also grow koji and make gourmet food products from both my koji and my mushrooms, from gourmet condiments like garum and miso to functional mushroom teas that honor the "what grows together goes together" mindset our ancestors lived by. I'm never going to be the guy with the massive farm bringing hundreds of pounds of a single species to market. I'm not interested in mass production; I'm interested in biodiversity and learning. So if you are a chef or a home cook interested in cooking a "weird" fungus for the first time, let me know! I might already have some around, and if not, I'd be happy to figure out with you how and when you can get it, and I'll get it for you if I can! Contact me on Instagram or at the email address listed here if you want to discuss a local pickup or a custom order! Oh, and I'm documenting my experiments and processes on YouTube at Phaewild. Check it out if you want to follow along, play some mushroom games, and learn all about the weird and wild fungi native to Southern Appalachia. Currently growing: Hericium erinaceus (Lion's Mane) Hericium coralloides (Coral Tooth, a relative of Lion's Mane cloned from near Norris, TN) Hericium americanum (Bear's Head, a relative so close to Lion's Mane it can reasonably also be called Lion's Mane) Neolentinus lepideus (Train Wrecker, wild clone from South Knoxville) Flammulina velutipes (Enoki) Pleurotus ostreatus (Oyster - Gray) Pleurotus columbinus (Oyster - Blue) Pleurotus eryngii (Oyster - King) Trametes cf. versicolor (Turkey Tail, a native wild clone from a stump on the "farm") Ganoderma oregonense (Oregon Reishi or Western Varnish Conk) Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi) Under construction (somewhere between putting a tissue sample onto an agar plate and fruiting from that genetic line for the first time): Auricularia fuscosuccinea (Wood Ear - native hardwood-loving species from the shore of Lake Loudon) Lyophyllum decastes (Fried Chicken Mushroom) Sparassis crispa (Cauliflower Mushroom) Hypsizygus tessulatus (Shimeji) Lentinula edodes (Shiitake - 2 strains: one commercial strain and one "donko" or "flower mushroom" strain) Cordyceps militaris (Original genetics from AppalachianGold) Cerioporus squamosus (Dryad Saddle)