Mushroom For Improvement

"MUSHROOM SCIENCE: In the 1920s, Penn State became the first land-grant college to initiate a comprehensive mushroom research program. Led by internationally recognized scientists and supported by the mushroom industry, the program developed improved composts and production practices that were adopted by growers worldwide. It also helped Pennsylvania retain its leadership in U.S. mushroom production."

Ever since I first spotted this sign on a high school trip to Penn State several years ago, it's become something of an inside joke. "What are you going to major in at college?" "Mushroom science. Definitely mushroom science." The joke is threefold: a) I could never figure out what I wanted to major in, and giving such an obviously fake answer helped to distract from my total hopelessness in this regard; b) I cannot do biology to save my life; and c) the word "mushroom" is inherently funny to me, and the idea of people willingly, even joyfully, devoting their careers to this singular subject is even more so. Who, I thought to myself, would actually want to spend their entire life working with mushrooms, of all things? As it turns out, the answer is "a good number of people".

(compliments of Wikimedia)

In case I haven't mentioned it enough on this blog, Penn State originally started out as a primarily agricultural school. However, this did not originally include fungi. In the school's early days, mushrooms were not a very popular source of food, since it was common knowledge that eating mushrooms was very likely to make you sick or even kill you. It was not until the early 1900s that America really started to appreciate the food value of edible mushrooms. Of course, by this time, America was losing interest in agriculture as a whole due to the industrial revolution, and Penn State's change in courses towards skills required in the industrial age reflected this shift in American values. So, why did such an unlikely program get so much focus in the first place? My research led me (figuratively) to the small town of Kennett Square.

Kennett Square is in the vicinity of Philadelphia, about three hours southeast of State College. Founded sometime in the country's colonial period, the town was totally unnotable for years other than being a fairly important stop along the Underground Railroad in the mid-1850s. Then, around 1885, some fun guy (whose name has been lost to time) who enjoyed growing carnations was looking for a way to efficiently use wasted space in the flowerbeds, and imported mushrooms from Europe to experiment with them. The business, well, mushroomed out from there. By 1920, the town had made Pennsylvania one of America's major sources of mushrooms, and since they were becoming so popular at the time, scientists and farmers flocked to the mushroom industry. Today, Kennett Square alone produces almost half of America's mushroom supply. The town calls itself the "Mushroom Capital of the World", and every September is capped by a massive Mushroom Festival.

(compliments of Wikimedia)

And, of course, the mushroom farms of Kennett Square could not have reached their current magnitude without the scientific advancements of Penn State's mushroom science department. World-renowned scientists spent years of their lives researching and developing technologies for mass composting and proper mushroom growing that put the town up to its gills in mushrooms and the money that comes from selling them. Who knew that this fungus would become so humongous?