The World of Mushroom Farming
By Allyson Meyer • Photos by Dave Meyer
At the end of a quiet, rural road in Clinton sits an unassuming building—its corrugated metal exterior seeming to emerge from the green Whidbey forest that surrounds it. Here, within the industrial setting, mushroom farmer Caleb Schulte has carved out a passion for fungi that takes us back to nature.
“My favorite aspect of mushroom farming is the sheer diversity of types I grow. It’s thrilling to have a new type pop up and how unique each one can be,” he said.
Mushroom farming wasn’t always Schulte’s path though. “I came from the beautiful state of Colorado. Always enamored with the Pacific Northwest, it had long been in my mind as ‘someday.’ It’s a climate like no other in the rest of this lovely country and I could easily picture myself settling in comfortably,” he said. “When my mother and her wonderful husband moved to Whidbey, the universe seemed to align in just a way that presented me with such an opportunity.”
