Eric Myers does not love mushrooms. He eats them once a week — at most. "They're not my favorite," he said. But he does love growing mushrooms, selling mushrooms, inventing machines that help others grow mushrooms, and making YouTube videos about mushrooms. Myers, 37, is a bit of a mushroom mad scientist. The owner of Myers Mushrooms — a grow operation in Haysville that provides mushrooms to several high-end Wichita restaurants — Myers is an Air Force veteran, husband and father of two who a few years ago managed to make mushrooms his main gig.
His farm, which operates out of the big garage behind his house on the outskirts of Haysville, has all the complex equipment needed to turn oak sawdust pellets, soybean hulls and milo into plump shiitake, oyster, elm and lion's mane mushrooms that can be used to dress up a restaurant pasta dish or to make medicinal tinctures.
The farm produces 100 to 200 pounds of mushrooms a week, but the mushrooms themselves aren't the biggest part of the business. Myers is also an inventor who has designed and now sells various pieces of equipment used by farmers across the country to grow their mushrooms. He's also a wholesaler of mushroom-growing necessities, from boxes of ready-to-fill bags to blocks of ready-to-fruit mushroom matter. The items he sells to other farmers make up about 90% of his business, he said.
He also recently started retail sales of both fresh and dried mushrooms. Customers who visit The Coop in both Derby and Wichita and all three areas of Wichita GreenAcres Markets can find Myers' mushrooms and mushroom products on the shelves.
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