Mycoremediation, the practice of using mushrooms to break down or isolate pollutants in the soil, holds promise for West Virginia. But with the concept gaining traction, it’s also become a successful promotional strategy for one Charleston area businessman, who declined to answer The Food Section’s questions about his “Mineland to Farmland” claim.
After The Food Section emailed George Patterson of Hernshaw Farms to ask, among other things, how exactly how his operation turns mineland to farmland, he didn’t show up for a previously scheduled Zoom interview. Four days later, he sent an email to The Food Section’s publisher with the subject line “Request to Hold Off on Story,” citing concerns that coverage might “unintentionally misrepresent our mission and values.”
Patterson did not respond after learning The Food Section planned to proceed with its reporting.
Patterson—the son of attorney George Patterson III, who specializes in oil and gas, coal, and commercial real estate law—founded Hernshaw Farms in 2018. Initially, the farm grew mushrooms in shipping containers on a former mine site, as documented by West Virginia University. According to the company’s website, “After our mushroom blocks go through their flushes we use them to make compost. Then we use that compost to turn old mineland into farmland.”
It is unclear if that work is still underway, or if those efforts made measurable changes to soil quality at the mine site. None of the press coverage unearthed by The Food Section delved into the specifics—or results—of Patterson’s composting experiment. In 2022, he shifted operations to the old Memorial Tunnel off the West Virginia Turnpike.
Beyond its alleged environmental rebuilding efforts, Hernshaw Farms sells mushrooms to West Virginia restaurants and in its online retail store and Etsy shop, where it also peddles hats and socks and Haunted Mushroom Tunnel Tours.
Since its launch, Hernshaw Farms has been featured in media outlets across the state, including Charleston Gazette-Mail, Coal Valley News, and WOWK-TV. Patterson has repeatedly touted his intention to reclaim land polluted by coal mining. As recently as last year, Virginia Local News reported that “Hernshaw Farms uses [mushrooms] to make compost to fix the ground and other environmental hazards.”
While Patterson was reluctant to discuss the specifics of his agricultural methods, mycologists around the world are indeed using mycoremediation to benefit the environment. Mushrooms have been used to clean up oil spills in Ecuador, pollution stemming from boat fuel in Denmark, and toxic ash—the charred remains of hazardous building materials, chemicals, and electronics left behind after forest fires—in California.
In all of these cases, mushrooms are being used to break down polymers, the large molecules found in everything from DNA to fossilized plants such as coal.
A leading mycoremediation specialist wasn’t able to answer The Food Section’s questions on deadline, but mycologist Dietmar Schlosser, who studies how fungi can break down environmental toxins, told Fast Company in August 2024 that fungi are excellent degraders.
Even though Hernshaw has sucked up much of the media oxygen fueling mushroom farming in West Virginia, there are at least two other mushroom operations in the state aiming to invigorate Appalachian entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector, albeit on a significantly smaller scale. At Peasant’s Parcel in northeastern West Virginia, mushrooms sprout from inoculated logs on an off-grid, solar-powered farm. And near the Mason-Dixon line in Morgantown, Mon Valley Mushrooms has outgrown its garage roots, using tractor-trailers to expand production.
Co-founders Sharon Briggs and Lisa Maginnis of Peasant’s Parcel met more than 20 years ago at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia. (Coincidentally, the WVDNR fungi collection is housed in the campus herbarium.)
While Briggs pursued a degree in psychology and human services, she experimented with mushroom cultures using Petri dishes and lab equipment from her part-time job at a wastewater treatment plant. Originally from Hampshire County, she always dreamed of starting a farm or permaculture-centered business in the area. In 2020, she and Maginnis joined forces to launch Peasant’s Parcel, an off-grid, solar-powered mushroom farm in Capon Bridge, West Virginia.
The farm mainly grows mushrooms on inoculated logs outdoors, but the women also have a full-scale mycology lab where they make dowel spawn for grow-at-home mushroom kits. Briggs says Peasant’s Parcel always has at least five varieties of fresh mushrooms in rotation, and they also sell mushroom salt, dried and powdered mushrooms, and a line of tinctures.
The duo divides its time among the farm, the lab, and the community.
”A good bit of time is spent meeting people, providing education, and selling our product,” Briggs said.
From spring to fall, they set up at Washington, D.C. markets, about two hours away, and at regional festivals and events. In addition to educational presentations and interactive workshops, Briggs and Maginnis offer a property-walking service through which they teach homeowners about fungi on their land and strategize where they can incorporate new fungi growth.
In Morgantown, Mon Valley Mushrooms—named for the Monongahela Valley of north central West Virginia—is still in the startup stage, but owner Lucas Sieber and his business partner Jamie Brown are steadily expanding.
Longtime friends, they took the leap into mushroom farming after working on a landscaping project together. They started the business in 2022 in Sieber’s garage; now his driveway houses two tractor-trailers full of mycelium.
Mon Valley Mushrooms grows 13 varieties of mushrooms, which they sell in fresh, dried, powdered, and tincture form in addition to mushroom seasoning salt, mushroom meat rub, mushroom tea, and grow-at-home kits. They sell their products at Morgantown Farmers Market, Bridgeport Farmers Market, and other local agricultural outlets. They’ve also sold their mushrooms to 18 local restaurants over the past two years.
Additionally, Sieber and Brown supply mushrooms for the Mountain Harvest Farms CSA and Mal’s Fresh Produce Stand.
So far, they have received three grants facilitating expansion. Although the business is currently operating in the red, Sieber says he expects to be profitable in the business’s third year. He allows that they’ve sometimes put community before revenue, making donations to local food banks and churches, attending mutual aid fairs, and donating products to silent auctions.
“We want our products to be accessible,” Sieber says.
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