Sarasota Grows Its Own Mushrooms, and One of Them Needs a Haircut

I need everyone to look at a lion's mane mushroom one time. It's a white, shaggy pom-pom covered in little dangling spines, like a Pomeranian that lost a fight with a hair dryer. And somebody in Sarasota is growing them on purpose!

That somebody is Sunshine Fungi, a family-owned mushroom farm "nestled in the heart of Sarasota." According to their About page, Mark and Tori started it in 2024 after deciding to turn their love of fungi into a business. Now they're supplying restaurants, which is impressive for a crop that has never once brushed its hair.

What they grow

The farm lists oyster, lion's mane, pioppino and reishi as its main crops. The ones you cook:

• Lion's mane. Named, per the farm, "for their shaggy, mane-like appearance." It's the only thing at the market that arrives with a hairstyle.
• Blue oyster. Fan-shaped and blue-grey, the kind of mushroom that makes a farmers market table look like a magazine shoot.
• Pioppino. Little brown caps on long stems, described on the farm's own page as having "subtle hints of walnut and wine." So a mushroom that has notes. Fine. I'm listening.

Their Chef's Mix puts all three in one $10 box, and the description gets right to it: "Oyster mushrooms are the workhorses here." It shows sold out online as I write this, so try the market.

You may have already eaten them

The farm's Find Us page lists the places that use its mushrooms, and it's a good list! Indigenous and Veronica Fish & Oyster in Sarasota are on it, along with Fam Kitchen and Morton's Gourmet Market. Spice Asian Market sells its mushroom boxes, and Homestead Hydro Farm carries the mushrooms at its farm stand.

So if you had a mushroom at a nice Sarasota dinner recently and thought "wow, that's a good mushroom," there's a decent chance it grew a few miles from your table. Menus change, so ask your server before you order something just to say you did.

The jerky is mushroom jerky

The Lion's Mane Jerky is $8, 100% vegan and made from the farm's lion's mane. The pom-pom goes in, and something you can keep in a glovebox comes out.

The dried shelf is all $10 to $12: dried lion's mane chunks, dried pioppino and dried chestnut mushrooms at $10 each, plus hand-foraged dried lobster mushrooms at $12. Soak them in warm water for 20 to 30 minutes, the farm says, then use them like fresh. That's a risotto upgrade for ten bucks.

Or grow your own

This is the part that got me. The farm sells the starter stuff too: liquid cultures for lion's mane, blue oyster or pioppino at $25, and a 6-lb bag of grain spawn for $35. You could grow lion's mane in your own garage. Your garage is already 85 degrees and damp. It's practically begging.

Go

• Venice Farmers Market, 401 W. Venice Ave., every Saturday 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., with the full lineup of fresh and dried mushrooms, per the farm. "Come early for the best selection," they say, and I believe them
• Main Street Market in Lakewood Ranch, one Sunday a month
• Online: sunshinefungifarms.com for the jerky and dried mushrooms
• Order this: the Chef's Mix if it's on the table, a jerky for the drive home, and the shaggiest lion's mane they've got. Don't comb it.

Planning the week? Sandy has the week ahead and the meetups, Brooke has the outdoors, and the Halloween Finder has the rest of the spooky stuff before Saturday.

— Marina