Peter's Warehouse Walkthrough
February 16, 2026
A couple weeks back, I was fortunate enough to take a little drive out to the Yamhill area to look at Yamhill County Mushrooms. It was a more unusual “Farm Tour” as the “Fields” were indoors. Driving up, one is not sure this is the place as there is a very small sign next to a locked gate. In the background were huge heaps of straw bales and just beyond that steam was rising in the background. Just as we were about to turn around, a car is spotted coming down the drive to let us in. Tyler Darm got us situated in no time. A little on the shy side, one gets the impression that to him growing mushrooms is nothing special. Being the third generation to operate the farm, he knows mushrooms.
That is Tyler standing holding the flashlight in front of one of the rooms where all the magic happens. When he opened the door a rush of steam came out and our noses were assaulted with the smell of compost. No one went into the room. You see the process takes several months to grow a shroom. First Tyler and his crew mix straw, chicken manure and other items to get a proper growing medium. From there it gets compressed and put on cedar wood “Trays”. This is further composted in that room with the steam for about a month.
The next step is to inoculate the compost with the mushroom mycelium. The “Trays” are put back in the dark rooms and allowed to grow for another month or so. It looks like everything has a white fuzzy carpet on the entire rack. The room still smells lovely by the way….
The next step is to compress the trays, adding peat on top. Guess what happens next? If you said the “Trays” are put back in a dark room for about a month or so, you would be right. This is when the mushrooms start to “Fruit” or become the mushrooms we know and love. Interesting to note, all the mushrooms are harvested by hand. Tyler has 6 people that can do this. They will reach all they way into the center of the “Trays”. They can be stacked to the ceiling. That is a lot of mushrooms to pick. Tyler stated that they get 3 pickings and then the process starts all over again. He spoke of the importance of the growing medium. If it is just a little off, there could be spots of Inky Cap Mushrooms instead of the buttons. It became very apparent that Tyler is in more of soil management position than that of a farmer.
On a different note, Inky Caps are considered a choice mushroom to eat. My dad LOVED them. I, on the other hand, do not like them. 2 things to know about an Inky Cap. First is that it immediately starts to break down as soon as you pick it leaving you a black mass. Second is to not consume alcohol 3 days before or after eating them. They contain Coprine which interferes with alcohol metabolism in the body.
Here is a small display of what is available in the mushroom world currently. Before you go ordering fresh Morels for the menu, know that those are dried. There are so many different dried and frozen mushrooms available. Let me know and I can send you the list.
Gold kiwis, like the ones here, (33053-16/1 lb) are descendants of kiwi varieties native to China. The fruits were exported from China to research stations worldwide in the 20th century and were notably used in natural kiwi crossings in New Zealand and Italy. In Italy, Soreli was bred in 1997 and released in the early 2000s by the University of Udine, and Dori was developed by the University of Bologna and the University of Udine in 2000. The fruits grow on deciduous climbing vines that scale walls, trellises, and fences and hang from the vines until hand-picked. Gold Kiwis are lower acid and thus sweeter than the green Kiwi.
Got some cute little Baby Bananas (Gas- 20180-15 lb, No Gas- 24257-15 lb). These are the Baby Bananas that are warmed up for several days to trigger the ripening process. Banana and avocado ripening is more art than science. One batch could take a week to ripen and still need more time. The next batch, you could look at sideways and it will be ready to eat. This batch looks lovely.
Forgive me for the low light on this photo. The Shishitos (22024-10 lb, 22023-1 lb) are very large. They are fun peppers that eat great once blistered in a hot pan. They are usually mild but it seems that currently they are blazing hot. That is what a chef let me know they were the hottest Shishitos he ever ate. Usually, they average 100 to 1,000 SHU on the Scoville scale, these blew that out of the water.
