Far West Fungi, San Francisco

What to buy here: Dried Mushrooms ($5-20). At the edge of the Pacific Ocean, more than 40 wild and cultivated varieties of mushrooms are grown on the Far West farm. A blend of straw, rice bran, and red oak sawdust is treated with high-pressure steam before being seeded in sterile chambers. Depending on the species, growth cycles can last from four to eight weeks. Shitake, tree oyster, king trumpet, bear’s head, and maitake are some of their top producers. Porcini – one of the more difficult varieties to cultivate due to the symbiotic relationship it forms with other plants in the area, has become one of the top selling gourmet mushrooms. Wood ear leads the food chain in terms of vegetable fiber and contains three times as much iron as liver and two times as much calcium as milk. There are chicken-like varieties – chicken of the woods, and peppery ones like yellowfoot; large, red parasitic lobster mushrooms and two-pound chanterelles. Once harvested, they are sold in the San Francisco store and at farmer’s markets around the Bay Area.

The Far West Ferry Building store services a family farm in Moss Landing, a commercial fishing town on the Monterey Bay. Mushrooms are grown there in petri dish cultures and cultivated in blocks of treated sawdust. Ian Garrone manages the store and helps run the farm along with his farther, stepmother, and brother.