Tony Kennette and his wife, Andrea, manage Martenette Farms in Hillsborough, NJ, on unceded Lenni-Lenape land. He also manages the Somerset County Regional Farmers Market.
Tony is also the Communications / Marketing and Events Director at NOFA New Jersey. I met him at the NOFA Interstate Council retreat earlier this year when we were discussing new ideas for the NOFA Summer Conference. Tony’s passion for connecting with others and creatively engaging people was clear during the Zoom meeting; it didn’t surprise me that he’s also a mushroom farmer, passionate about mycelial networks.
Interviewed by Elizabeth Gabriel
TNF: Briefly tell us about your farm.
Tony Kennette: Well, my wife, Andrea, is the real farmer. She grows certified organic veggies. I manage the mushroom production on the farm. I studied under Shibumi Mushrooms about five years ago, and now I grow indoors, mostly in what some people call cannabis-growing tents. I can control airflow and humidity, essential for consistent mushrooms and helping control contamination. Other than sharing our market book, the enterprises are separate. Although we talk about incorporating King Strophia mushrooms into the vegetable beds (among other things, they can help enrich and aerate the soil), we haven’t done that yet. She uses some mushroom compost in her vegetable compost mix, but we’re not convinced that using mushroom compost every season is the right way to go. It’s not diverse enough; we also need rested animal manure for soil health. (I actually talked about this recently on the NOFA Mass podcast, season 6, episode 2, found on their website).
We grow oysters, lion's mane, pioppino, chestnut, and black pearl. These are grown on blocks from Noble Mushrooms, a certified organic mushroom-growling lab right down the street, using a proprietary blend for their substrate. I’ve grown on straw and buckets before, but I found that growing on straw alone causes a difference in the fruit's color, taste, and density. We produce a more nutritious mushroom to consume by using a more nutritious growing medium.
We’ve created a nice partnership with Noble, where we alternate weeks at the market. We sell our own and each other's products, but this way, we aren't competing in separate booths. Last May, we partnered with them and a few other NJ mushroom growers to host the first annual NOFA Mushroom Festival. It’s like the NOFA Winter Conference for mushroom growers and enthusiasts. About 100 people showed up, so we plan to do it again in 2025 and make it like a bar crawl through the town of Asbury Park, where you can taste mushrooms and do mushroom-related activities.
We have a unique CSA that we get people interested in early in the year. They pay for a share of their choice upfront, which adds them to our email list. On Sundays, we send them a note that includes a romantic story of what’s happening on the farm and a list of what veggies and mushrooms are available. They order what they want through our online store, which deducts from what they paid upfront. Occasionally, we limit what one customer can order, but usually, there’s no limit. So, if they go away for a few weeks, they don’t spend that money and always choose exactly what they want. It’s more logistics than a typical CSA, but we’ve gotten our online system to work pretty well now, and it’s less waste on the farm than when we did a box-style CSA because we harvest for the orders we’re filling. Some people pick up their orders at the farmers market, but we deliver most orders to the customers. Offering delivery meant we could expand our reach too. We do a significant drop-off in a regional beach town on Fridays, where there isn’t much fresh produce, and we get to spend our Fridays at the beach, which helps us relax and decompress from the week.
TNF: How did you first get interested in mushroom farming?
Tony: My father had a mushroom tattoo I saw since I was little. It was likely because of his “rock n’ roll heritage,” but I remember it either way. I’m a pescatarian, and though I can appreciate pasture-raised animals, I wanted to grow something I could eat. My interest started with foraging and then I started shiitake logs. The more curious I became to forage and produce them, the more I also started learning about the multiple layers of health benefits they provide, from gut biome to repairing neural pathways. I learned about the Stamets 7 - Reishi, Maitake, Lions Mane, Cordyceps, Chaga, Royal Sun Blazei, and Mesima, and then I started hanging out with and being mentored by Shibumi. I was a massage therapist and studied Eastern-focused holistic medicine, so I’ve studied a lot about herbs and shamanic practices. And I like entheogenic mushrooms - a substance that helps find the divine within. I value the therapy these offer people to help unlock new ways to heal.
TNF: What do you love most about farming and why?
Tony: I’m an environmentalist foodie educator; my job in communications at NOFA is mycelial, and I love connecting and supporting each other. It’s like a mycorrhizal exchange - making hidden connections to make everybody stronger.
TNF: What do you think about the realities of a new farmer getting into mushrooms, especially because you can farm on less land with this product?
Tony: I think it’s a great venture for new farmers and in urban settings. Indoor buildings can be converted and used as mushroom-growing facilities pretty viably and the price point for selling fresh mushrooms is pretty lucrative, especially in big urban markets. (Check out Urban Farmer Steve in Cherry Hill, NJ. He’s made an awesome business that includes urban mushroom production, #urbanfarmersteve). We sell them retail for about $20/pound and sell foraged mushrooms higher than this. The price point can also make these superfoods inaccessible to low-income folks, so we work with the EBT programs at the farmers to make all our produce and mushrooms more accessible. We are sure to sell mushrooms in $5 clusters. At our scale, it hasn’t worked to work with chefs, though I know some growers who grow exclusively for chefs.
TNF: What two books/blogs/podcasts/resources do you suggest people read about farming or land use?
Tony: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, Shaman, Healer, Sage, starts with the Monotropa uniflora ghost pipe, which can’t live without its ancient partnership with fungus. The fungus nitrifies mushrooms and gives the plant housing.
Links:
NOFA Mass podcast
Comentarios