America’s mushroom capital Kennett Square’s surprising choices

The Mushroom Farmers of Pennsylvania, an advocacy group for the area’s growers, traces Kennett Square’s mushroom legacy again to 1885, when William Swayne, a Quaker florist, started cultivating mushrooms within the unused area beneath his greenhouse’s carnation beds.

The borough’s geography and infrastructure performed a key function within the mushroom trade’s progress, with a rail line by way of close by Avondale providing quick access to main markets like New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

In 1931, a narrative in West Chester’s Daily Local News said that there have been greater than 500 mushroom homes throughout Kennett Square and inside a 10-mile radius, all liable for 85% of mushroom manufacturing within the US.

The family-run Phillips Mushroom Farms, which began in 1927 and now provides farm excursions, was certainly one of them. Tina Ellor, a mycologist at Phillips Mushroom Farms, reveals extra in regards to the sorts of shrooms grown in and round Kennett Square: white button mushrooms, sure, but in addition crimini, enoki, shiitake, snowball, portobello, oyster, and lion’s mane.

“Mushrooms aren’t laborious to search out in nature. But solely about 1,000 varieties are edible,” she says, including that Kennett Square is protecting mushrooms on the forefront of individuals’s consideration within the culinary, medicinal area, and regulatory area.

“They ought to be much less condiment, extra essential meal. Regular mushroom consumption can add years to our lives and life to our years,” she says, showcasing the Mushroom Exhibit, an informative show which reveals extra in regards to the edible fungus—its rising course of, well being and dietary advantages, and medicinal makes use of.

The on-site present store has quite a lot of recent, dried, and speciality mushrooms on supply. The mushroom memorabilia, together with tees, towels, books, ceramics, and different keepsakes, is eye-catching, extra so those with puns: “I’ve questionable morels”, “I’m in truffle”, “I’m a fungi”, “So mushroom to grow”, “Porto-hello”, “Shiit-ake happens”, and extra.

Ellor says the shroom obsession peaks each September on the Kennett Square Mushroom Festival, now in its fortieth 12 months. The 2025 version (6-7 September) will function cooking demos, farm excursions, grower displays, a mushroom cook-off, and even a “Mushroom Drop”—like Times Square, however yummier.

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However, there’s extra to Kennett Square than mushrooms. Originally residence to the Lenape tribe, Kennett Square has a wealthy heritage. It’s the place British troopers camped in the course of the Revolutionary War of 1777 and a army encampment was arrange in the course of the War of 1812.

Over the following couple of days, I discover extra of Greater Philadelphia, celebrated because the “Garden Capital of America”. Among its crown jewels is Longwood Gardens, a sprawling 1,000-acre property that blends Italian, French and English horticultural types throughout formal gardens, meadows, woodlands and dazzling fountains.

At the property’s restaurant, 1906, I dine with views of the grand fountain backyard. The menu pays homage to the area’s signature ingredient—mushrooms. Standouts embody a shiitake skewer, mushroom bisque, and a wealthy tagliatelle with cremini and beech mushrooms, capped off with a blinding illuminated fountain present set to songs by Pennsylvania’s personal Taylor Swift.

Chanticleer, typically described as a “pleasure backyard,” contains tall bushes, manicured lawns, and artfully designed landscapes. Highlights embody the evocative Ruin Garden, peaceable Pond Garden, and the plush Asian Woods, enhanced by the bridges, benches, paths and sculptural furnishings.

The girl ringing up my invoice at Talula’s Table, a connoisseur meals market and café, is chatty, extra so when she realises that I’m not an area. “Don’t miss the historic Longwood Cemetery, the Brandywine Museum of Art, and the Valley Forge National Historical Park,” she suggests.

As I sip my to-go espresso and stroll previous the Mushroom Cap, a retailer that shares uncommon presents and a spread of recent mushrooms, I realise that mushrooms aren’t simply grown in Kennett Square; they’re celebrated. It’s the place fungi flourish into enjoyable, folklore, flavour—and even ice cream.

Teja Lele writes on journey and life-style.