I met with Angel, an Urban Farmer and the mastermind behind the mushroom production at Big Tex Urban Farms, in a small, green barn in Fair Park near the Errol McKoy Greenhouse on the Midway. As I was ushered through a door adorned with painted flowers and greenery, he began to unpack the mission of his work at the Farms whilst I struggled to hold back a poorly constructed fungi joke.

Mushroom growing, it turns out, is a recent addition to Big Tex Urban Farms. It is designed to further the Farm's mission: to help combat food deserts in North Texas by partnering with other nonprofits to provide the surrounding communities with access to fresh and healthy food. This new mushroom undertaking began in July of 2024 and has continued to grow and expand to a sizeable output of up to 60 pounds of mushrooms harvested each week.

As you might expect, mushroom growing is an intensive gig. With full-time care and dedication to nurturing the growth of these fungi, the scene of Angel in the barn played out as a shining pinnacle of fatherhood. And with each mushroom weighing in at ten pounds - these babies are huge.

From "conception" to "sending the kids off into the world," the mushroom growing business is a detailed multi-step process.

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As Angel explains it, one begins with a mixture of wood pellets that are sterilized and vacuum sealed into a substrate block which acts as a growing environment for the mushrooms. The sterilization process involves a mixture of intense heat and steam to kill all contaminants and living organisms present in the substrate. This provides a clean slate for the mushroom to grow. From there, the substrate block is introduced to a type of grain, like rye, wheat, or some other variety. This grain is then inoculated with fungus. There are two varieties of fungi that Big Tex Urban Farms uses: blue oyster and lion's mane. A quarter cup of these fungi are added to the bag before it's sealed and shaken.

This mixture will then sit for another three to four weeks until the blocks start colonizing. You can see the progress by measuring the amount of white color present amongst the various bags. The white color means fungus. As this fungus continues to grow it continues to eat through the substrate. Once enough white coloring has materialized, a slit is cut into the bag's side, and the growing mushroom environment is placed into a grow tent for another week before it is ready to harvest.

There are two mushroom growing tents in the Big Tex Urban Farms at the moment. A peek inside one of these tents revealed an entire mushroom block colony bathed in soft pink light and lots of warm, damp air. These tents maintain a balmy 60 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit to create an optimum growing environment for the mushrooms inside. Mushrooms thrive in damp, humid conditions, which is why you might notice so many mushrooms pop up in your yard after a particularly rainy day. As such, the tents operate as an incubator and regulate the humidity and temperature accordingly.

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Once the mushrooms are harvested, the final step in this process is packaging and sending them to a few of the amazing organizations that the State Fair of Texas partners with like Jubilee Park and 4DWN. Both of these nonprofit organizations are located in the South Dallas area surrounding Fair Park and focus on providing healthy, fresh food to surrounding communities in lieu of canned or processed food.

4DWN is a Dallas nonprofit devoted to providing healthy, fresh, perishable food to local food deserts every Sunday with the help of volunteers. Jubilee Park focuses on providing free, healthy meals to children and seniors in Jubilee Park, with special emphasis placed on increasing access to nutrition education in the surrounding areas.

With the help of mushroom enthusiasts like Angel, the State Fair of Texas and Big Tex Urban Farms plans to continue expanding the reach of this program in the coming years. The Farm's goal is to produce and harvest 100 to 150 pounds of mushrooms each week. To hear it from Angel, it's more personal: it's the ushering in of new generations of mushrooms by the dozens as he builds an upstanding family legacy of helping to feed the community with nutrient-rich food.

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