88 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {food coloring} FOOD shroom boom words by JOHANNA HARLOW Talk about a mushrooming business! Far West Fungi has come a long way since John Garrone and his wife Toby started selling the common button variety out of their Volkswagen at a farmers market in the 1980s. Today, their four sons and extended family produce a mushroom medley—from hulking, caulifloweresque lion’s mane and frilly, fan-shaped oyster mushrooms to ringed turkey tails and potbellied porcinis. Not only do the Garrones grow numerous varieties at an eight-acre facility in Moss Landing, they cultivate mushroom spawn second son and Far West Fungi’s CEO, Ian Garrone. John grew up helping out with his family’s stand (fruit orchards, in their case). The Garrone boys followed suit, and today, Ian’s 13-year-old daughter and several of the other grandkids carry on the tradition. The markets still double as a testing ground—where they make new connections, reconnect with regulars and hear, in real time, what customers actually want. “They're the best source of information,” Ian attests. In this way, the Garrone family resembles the “wood wide web,” the so-called underground network of roots and fungi which allows plants to communicate. That’s not all the two have in common. They both share resources to strengthen the whole system—in the Garrones’ case, by supporting the broader network of mushroom growers across the U.S. With China producing over 90% of the world’s mushrooms and the in a lab in San Martin, operate two storefronts and partner with leading grocery stores like Whole Foods, Safeway, Lunardi’s and Mollie Stone’s. They’ve also put mushrooms on the menu at over 200 restaurants including Chez Noir, Che Fico, Saison, Boulevard and Ramen Nagi. But even as they turn out some 1.5 million pounds of organic mushrooms a year, the Garrones haven’t forgotten their roots: they also sell at 18 farmers markets across the Peninsula and San Francisco. “I mean, my parents met at a farmers market,” quips John’s PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHANNA HARLOW
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