Stephen Harrell and Mike Haldeman met in Oregon where they both worked at a farmhouse brewery and became friends. With backgrounds in food and agriculture, the guys would forage for mushrooms together. Mushrooms were abundant on the northwest coast. When Haldeman moved to Ash Grove, he missed the thriving mushroom scene.
"He was like, 'I can't get good mushrooms,'" said Harrell. "He did a couple of experiments with mushroom growing techniques and thought it would be a good idea to fill in that space in the food culture. He called me in early 2020 and said, 'Hey do you want to come start a mushroom farm in Missouri?'"
Harrell is from east Tennessee and that is where he was living at the time, but he moved to Missouri to start Mo' Mushrooms, a year-round operation. Haldeman and Harrell sell about five varieties of oyster and lion's mane mushrooms at the Farmers Market of the Ozarks and other markets and supply both Hy-Vee locations. A variety of restaurants also carry their products.
Timing is everything
Mo' Mushrooms launched in a small building in Ash Grove in February 2020. The goal was to sell wholesale to restaurants and grocery stores, but within a month, the world was shut down. They had to focus on direct sales to consumers and set up that summer in the farmers market in Webb City.
"We had to recalculate everything and think on our feet," Harrell said. The Webb City farmers market allowed them to see what a farmers market booth looked like, but the mushrooms weren't huge sellers.
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