17 February 2008

Keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em shit!

I grow up a mile or so from Longwood Gardens on the periphery of the self-declared "Mushroom Capital of the World" (was it just Kennett Square or all of southern Chester County?) and as a child I wouldn't eat mushrooms because I knew how you made them. You took horse/cow shit; put it in a warm dark place and, presto change-o, you ended up with mushrooms. The industry always claimed to be struggling first with Taiwanese canneries, then with Irish fresh mushroom exporters and now it the cost of energy. (How much energy does it take to keep things dark?) Despite their current problems I think the industry will survive. It just wouldn't be southern Chester County without that special smell, now would it?

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