[Capri] Neither plant nor animal, the edible members of the kingdom of fungi are as fascinating as they are delicious.

Whether cultivated... [woman] This mushroom is the cheapest health insurance you'll ever buy.

[Capri] ...or wild harvested... [woman] I literally think I see one.

Wow, that one's beautiful.

[Capri] .

..the mycologically minded citizens of southeastern Pennsylvania are putting them to incredible culinary use.

This is mushroom heaven.

Appreciate what's around you and take it all in.

And then take it all back and eat it, right?

Take it all back and eat it.

I'm Capri Cafaro and I'm on a mission to uncover the incredible stories of the foods we grow... ...harvest, create... ...and celebrate.

Beautiful, amazing meal.

So, I'm traveling America's backroads to learn our cherished food traditions from those who make them possible... Look at that.

...and are helping keep them alive.

There is so much more to learn.

Whoa!

[Capri] On "America the Bountiful."

[announcer] America's farmers have nourished us for generations, but today they face unprecedented challenges.

American Farmland Trust works with farmers to help save the land that sustains us.

Together we can work to keep America bountiful.

[Capri] One of the most simultaneously loved and hated foods in the world.

Mushrooms hold a special place in the hearts of Pennsylvanians.

Whether farm cultivated or wild harvested, the joy of cooking with and dining on these fantastic fungi is on proud display throughout the state, but especially so in Chester County.

Kennett Square, a town of just 6,000 people, has become known as the mushroom capital of the world.

With the roughly 65% of all U.S. cultivated mushrooms being grown in that area, roughly 100 million pounds of those come from Phillips Mushroom Farm under the leadership of General Manager Jim Angelucci.

I love mushrooms, so I'm in the right place in the mushroom capital of the world.

And here at one of the oldest and original farmhouses.

How did it become this mushroom capital of the world?

It started in the late 1800s when a carnation grower's son saw wasted space under his father's carnation beds and decided to do something about it.

So, he took a steamship to Europe when they were growing mushrooms in Paris and he brought back the seed, what we call spawn.

That would just start as a very small industry and just mushroomed from there into what it is today.

And mushroomed from there.

Now, we are at Phillips.

Yes.

Which is one of the oldest establishments growing mushrooms here in this region, right?

Yes.

It was started by Willian W. Phillips who is the patriarch of the Phillips Family.

Started growing mushrooms in 1927.

This is The Woodlands at Phillips which is our retail store.

It's a restored farmhouse.

And anything that has a mushroom on it, in it or looks like a mushroom can be purchased there.

Oh my goodness.

You are not joking.

This is absolute mushroom heaven.

Look at all this stuff.

This is the third generation of the Phillips Family.

What do you think your grandfather would think if he were here to see how things have evolved over the last 100 years?

I think he'd be pretty proud.

I think he'd be pretty proud.

And there's women running it.

Well, I mean, you know, girl power and it looks like you all are very engaged in this business.

And how much do you produce in mushrooms a year here?

We're close to 100 million pounds.

Hundred million pounds, that's a lot of pounds.

You all have a mycologist on staff.

Mycologists are basically mushroom scientists, right?

They're a fungi geek.

Fungi geeks.

[Capri] Resident Fungi Geek Tina Allor is the Technical Director at Phillips and oversees cultivation of nearly a dozen varieties of mushrooms including common agaricus varieties like Crimini and White Button which grow on substrate and cement buildings called mushroom singles and doubles.

So Tina, tell me, just to give me a good sense of what do mushrooms need to grow in this kind of facility?

Well, first of all, this mushroom, if you found it in nature, it would be found in soil or out in a field.

We sort of make our mushroom compost of all kinds of agricultural and food waste.

So in the compost you have horse manure, straw bedded horse manure, cotton seed hoes, cotton seed meal, a lot of straw, poultry manure out of the Delmarva.

So really mushrooms are the premiere recyclers.

And then not only are we recycling all this agricultural waste and making this wonderful food, but everything goes back into agriculture.

So, chances are if you get potting soil for your garden, it's mushroom compost.

[Capri] The substrate is brought into the grow room and injected with mushrooms spawn causing a root-like structure of fungal threads called nycilium to populate the beds.

Once the beds are fully colonized, they drop the temperature, vent in fresh air and begin to add water.

You take it gently, give it a little twist, pop it out.

Look how perfect that looks.

That beautiful mushroom.

And this one doesn't have much to trim off but then of course they would be trimmed.

Okay.

And there you have it.

And there you have it.

What kind of like health qualities does this mushroom have if I were to eat it up?

This mushroom is the cheapest health insurance you'll ever buy.

So the equivalent of eating one button mushroom a day, and one not even this big, can reduce your risks of developing breast cancer by over 50%.

Wow, there's a lot of really incredible properties in this mushroom that many of us eat and integrate into our diets on a regular basis.

But you have some real specialty mushrooms here at Phillips as well.

But they're not grown in here.

Right.

Can you show me those?

Absolutely.

[woman] These are Yellow Oyster Mushrooms.

[Capri] Yellow Oyster Mushrooms.

[woman] All the specialties we grow are found on wood in nature.

This is Pete Gray; he's in charge of-- [Capri] Hi Pete.

--all things specialty mushroom growing.

Good, I guess we came to the right place.

Now, these don't look like trees.

So, what's going on here?

Yeah, we actually do try and mimic you know a tree stump.

[Capri] And what's in this bag?

[Pete] Cotton seed hulls and wheat straw.

How do you plant the mushroom in this?

What we do is we have a big mixer and it drops into an auger and we add the spawn.

It sits in a spawn run room for about 14 days and then another week to pick.

Okay, so what on here might be ready to be picked?

These are ready.

These are flat and open kind of like what I have in the box here already.

Now I know that these have some pretty impressive health benefits too.

They do.

And these mushrooms, in particular oyster mushrooms, their super power is lowering cholesterol.

So the same cholesterol lowering benefits as the statin class of drugs but without the liver toxicity and side effect.

Unbelievable.

These aren't the only specialty mushrooms you're growing here, right?

No, they're not.

We have three other varieties, and we can go down the hall and see them.

First one we're going to take a look at are the maitake.

[Capri] Okay.

[Pete] Now these are-- If you'd like to hold that.

Yeah.

So, this is the way they're harvested.

These are ready to be harvested.

Okay.

These are slow growing mushrooms, but they probably are the most flavorful of all the mushrooms that we grow.

These take about 65 days from the day the bag is made until we're picking mushrooms.

On the other hand, the Lions Mane, these only take about 18 to 19 days from the day the bag is filled to the day we pick.

What kind of health properties do these actually have?

The tag line for Lions Mane, nature's nutrient for the neurons.

So-- Well, it kind of looks like a little brain.

Yes, it does.

So, anything to do with your nervous system, there's been some good human trials on reducing the symptoms of dementia, Alzheimer's, even Parkinson's.

Interesting.

Yeah, it's very good for your brain.

Next we have Shiitake logs.

And that looks a little bit different.

It's not in a bag like the other ones.

Correct.

This actually started in a plastic bag and it was taken off.

And when that bag comes off, we adjust the conditions in the house to kind of create this fake bark.

[woman] Shiitake mushrooms best known as a great anti-viral.

And there's still more.

These are your favorite right?

Yeah.

These are, it's another type of oyster, believe it or not, pleurotus eryngii or king oyster.

That looks so neat.

[woman] And these are sometimes called poor man's porcini because they have the texture of porcini mushrooms.

I could see that.

[woman] They're really a great texture.

There's an extract of this that they make to give to athletes that are training hard.

It prevents them from getting upper respiratory tract infections.

So, you know, we're calling these specialty mushrooms but they seem to be gaining in popularity at least in some places.

Why do you think these different types of varieties are catching on?

In the rest of the world, this is part of the farmacopia.

So, the rest of the world has been onboard with this for a long time and we're just getting onboard.

And I think we're just at the beginning of it.

Glad we're catching on.

Absolutely.

[Capri] While most of the mushrooms from Phillips are distributed nationwide, they reserve a significant amount for the residents and dining establishments of Kennett Square.

As the name suggests, Portobellos is known for its mushroom centric menu.

Chef Brett Hulbert and his wife and partner Sandra Morris selected this location in part for the opportunity to work with such fresh and diverse fungi.

This is a dream come true for me because I love mushrooms, and here I am sitting in a restaurant named after a mushroom in the mushroom capital of the world.

I am thrilled and you all have to be thrilled to be able to work with mushrooms that are grown right in your back yard to put them into all of these dishes.

Yeah.

I've been cooking for decades and I've never truly had a fresh mushroom.

I thought I was getting fresh mushrooms until I came to Kennett Square.

Little did you know.

Little did I know.

And they cut one right out of the bed and I tried it and it changed me.

And it is completely different when you can cook them this fresh.

Tell me what we have here before I start digging in.

So, the soup, we use a white mushroom.

They're roasted and pureed.

We flavor it with a little bit of roasted garlic, little bit of thyme, tiny bit of sage.

I just use a little bit of herbs just to brighten it up a little bit.

I like to taste exactly what it is that the main ingredient is.

All right well, I'm going to do that next.

[Sandra] So, you actually get all the flavors there.

This is mushroom heaven.

I'm just going to keep eating this because it is super fresh.

And I definitely, the sage and the badara come through, but the mushrooms it's nutty, it's earthy, and all of that comes through.

Mmm.

Now what about this?

this looks really different.

I can't tell what's going on here.

It looks like a fritter of some kind.

So that's a pompom mushroom fritter or lion's mane mushroom.

Very simple.

So it is ginger, cilantro and a little bit of lime and-- [Capri] Ginger.

[Brett] --we finish it with a citrus aioli.

Very simple, very clean, very light.

It's great on a salad.

It's wonderful on a pasta or a noodle.

Mmm.

That brightness of the lemon, that citrus, brings out the ginger.

And the lions mane, I've never really had it, but I can't say that I've had a lion's mane or pompom mushroom.

And it is interesting.

It is a little bit like a seafood, like a crab cake.

It is very similar to crab meat.

A little bit sweet.

What do you love about working with mushrooms as part of your craft making all of these dishes?

The one thing I take the most pleasure out of is getting people that don't like mushrooms to like mushrooms.

Its kind of my goal.

-They're out there.

-They are.

I don't understand them.

They are out there.

I don't understand them but I know they're out there.

So, it's nice to expose people to really well cooked, very, very fresh mushrooms.

And it's amazing the percentage of people that convert and they say, "We now like mushrooms."

[Capri] Brett and Sandra aren't the only restaurant owners in Kennett Square to get creative with the bounty of the local product.

Noelia Scharon of La Michoacana Ice Cream has found a place to put them where they have never been seen before; in an ice cream bar.

I understand that you have a mushroom popsicle.

[Noelia] Yes, we do.

[Capri] This is something that I absolutely have to try.

[Noelia] Whoo.

I'm probably going to need a napkin.

So, tell me before I chomp into this, how do you make this?

[Noelia] Okay, so we use local mushrooms and we put it in our vanilla mix.

We use vanilla ice cream mix and we just add the mushrooms to it.

Would you like to try some chili?

[Capri] Yes, of course I do.

Try some chili with the mushroom.

So that's going to be sweet, spicy.

That is my absolute favorite.

I love a little sweet and I love a little heat.

And I love mushrooms, so we'll see.

That is surprisingly good, as I'm making a huge mess.

We make over a thousand of them during the Mushroom Festival because they do sell out during the Festival.

Yeah.

Would you like to try the top seller here?

Absolutely.

Which is the corn ice cream.

That's our number one seller.

See, yet another unique flavor.

This is the corn.

And it's very popular with cinnamon or chili powder.

I love sweet corn and I love sweet corn ice cream.

[Noelia] My favorite flavor is the Sweet Memory.

[Capri] That sounds fantastic.

Can I try that too?

[Noelia] Sure, would you like to try?

[Capri] Sure.

[Noelia] It has vanilla cake, strawberry and a cocoa base.

I can see why that is your absolute favorite.

It's very strawberry forward and very fresh.

That's very good.

And the coconut.

I come up with that flavor because when I was little my daddy used to buy strawberries and cream ice cream and coconut cake.

And you put them together.

And I used to mix it.

So, that's how I came up with the Sweet Memory.

I was going to say, that's your sweet memory.

It's my sweet memory.

Oh, I love that.

From my childhood.

[Capri] All of these flavors have just been so incredible.

I mean, you can't beat spending some time tasting a bunch of ice cream.

So, thank you so much.

You know what, I'm going to take this mushroom one to go because I have more mushrooms to taste here in the mushroom capital.

Okay, very good.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

[Capri] While southeastern Pennsylvanians are incredibly proud of their cultivated mushroom industry, they know that not all mushrooms could be easily farmed.

Such is the case with the highly sought after Morel Mushroom which because of the symbiotic relationship it has with trees, has never been cultivated commercially at scale in the United States.

Which means foragers like Drew Zimmerman, also known as Uncle Fungus, has been wild harvesting the mushrooms with his family for years.

So, I've seen a lot of mushrooms in Pennsylvania, most of which have been grown indoors.

But this is different because we're out in the wild trying to forage for mushrooms, Morels in particular.

What are we looking for?

Well, what I'm looking for is trees, old growth trees.

And in my area, I find a lot of Morels associated with the root systems of elm trees.

Okay.

And we see some of those out here?

Yeah, there's plenty out here.

There's one right back behind us.

There's one up here that I see.

You see the bark is starting to fall off of it.

[Capri] Ah, so you know it's on its way out.

[Drew] Yes, yes.

[Capri] Which means mushrooms are on their way in?

Yes exactly.

Yeah, when the tree dies, a host tree dies, the morels, you know, they loose nutrients or they feel like they're running out of food so they try and reproduce.

I see.

Now that makes some sense.

Starting to get a little bit better of an understanding of, Yeah, and they hide-- --how this is different.

They hide in plain sight too, which is pretty remarkable.

Actually, here's one right here.

Oh, my gosh.

That's big.

See if we can pull it up.

There you go.

Wow!

Beautiful, large morel mushroom.

This is amazing.

I don't think I've-- I have seen morels before, but I've never seen one quite like this.

Yeah.

So this is how you tell that this is a morel as opposed to a different type of mushroom.

It's very unique.

[Drew] Yes, it is very unique.

The texture, you see they actually sporulate on the whole exterior of the mushroom.

Is it good enough to eat?

I would eat it.

Should I throw it in?

Yeah, throw it in.

Now, that's just one.

-Yes.

-You've got to find a few more.

Yeah.

How are we going to be able to do that?

Well, we're going to have to get low to the ground and just kind of get eye level with them.

Okay.

And then we're also going to check around this tree, this dead elm tree right here.

Where there's one there's probably more.

Okay.

Well, I'll follow you.

All right.

[Capri] Okay, I literally think I see one.

[Drew] Yeah, I see it right there.

-Straight ahead.

-Wow!

Wow, that one's beautiful.

[Capri] That looks perfect.

[Drew] That is a perfect morel.

Some Morchella Americana.

Morchella Americana.

That's the technical genus species name.

Yes, that's the Latin terminology for the species of mushroom.

Wow, it's beautiful.

So, do you mind if I pick this one?

Absolutely, you found it.

Alright.

This is unbelievable.

Can I throw this one in then?

-Absolutely.

-Alright.

How many more do we need to be able to make a meal?

I would say like five or six.

That's a good number.

Alright well, lets keep hunting.

Alright.

[Capri] After collecting half dozen or so morels and another species of wild mushrooms called chicken of the woods, Drew's ready to cook one of his favorite springtime meals.

This is quite a spread and some fruits of our labor from going out foraging.

What do you have cooking today?

Well, we're going to do a Ramp Ricotta Stuffed Morel Mushroom.

Yum.

We're also going to do some rib eye steaks that I marinated in some morel scheakoje overnight.

Oh, wow.

And then we're also going to do some scallops and we're going to sear them off and then use the scallop butter as a cream sauce for the morel.

That sounds like a delight.

So we're going to start with cutting the stems off these beautiful morels we picked today.

All righty.

All right.

All right, show me how this piping is done.

So, I got this ricotta ramp cheese right here.

I use the fresh ramps-- Another foraged.

Yes another foraged item.

I'm going to actually take it, see the morels are hollow.

Oh my goodness.

Okay, this is something I did not realize.

And we're just going to pipe it in.

And we're going to kind of alternate between the ramp ricotta and these small mozzarella balls.

All right so now we can, we're going to do the morels in the pan and get some beef tallow.

Okay.

And you do all of this stuff yourself.

It looks like you've made so much of this stuff from scratch.

Yes, I actually, I rendered out my own beef tallow.

Awesome.

And you know we can also throw in this chicken of the woods mushroom as well.

Look how pretty this is.

This is like nature in a pan.

It is.

Look at those colors.

All right so we got the steak, we got the scallops.

All right.

Let's salt the scallops now.

Morels are cooking.

I'm going to tend to those real quick.

Yeah so I'll just do a little bit of tamari in there.

That's going to really bring out some umami flavor.

Alright.

Get these steaks on.

[Capri] That is quite the sizzle.

We're going to put the scallops in, sear them off, and then we're going to add, with the scallop butter, we're going to add some light cream and we're going to make like a scallop butter cream sauce.

That sounds amazing.

[Drew] Yeah.

I mean, you've obviously spent a lot of time studying mushrooms to get out there and know what you're doing.

Is there anything that stands out to you that really kind of blew your mind when it comes to mushroom knowledge?

Yes.

You start looking at mushrooms in the wild and then you start noticing these connections between mushrooms and plants and then you start noticing these plants also have another aspect.

So, it kind of sends you off into this wormhole if you will, just like figuring out all these different things about your environment which I think is really important.

And people are so disconnected from the environment these days.

I think it's really important to get people out in the woods.

And that's why I love educating people about how to forage for mushrooms and that's how I got into nature fully invested, you know what I mean?

Well, you certainly have educated me that's for sure.

[Drew] Going to pull these steaks off.

[Capri] All right.

Could not be more excited for this.

Cream sauce.

[Capri] Crème fresh?

[Drew] Yes.

In with the butter and all of the juices from the scallops.

That's right.

With that wonderful sea salt that you made too.

Yes.

This is going to be heaven.

You can come up with all kinds of good things from nature.

It's good to just go out there without serious intentions and just let it be as is, you know.

[Capri] I like that.

I like that.

I think that's one of the benefits of being out in nature and with nature.

It gives you an opportunity to slow down.

Slow down.

Appreciate what's around you and take it all in.

Yes.

And then take it all back and eat it, right?

Take it all back and eat it.

This is way too much food for just us.

I know.

Is your family coming down here?

Yeah, we're going to feed a couple more mouths.

What an incredible way to end a day.

Out here, beautiful family and a beautiful sunset.

It almost brings tears to my eyes.

I know it, I know it.

You guys are hungry, aren't you?

Yeah, let's dig in.

Yeah, let's dig in.

All right where do I start?

I start on the mushrooms.

You know.

All right, I got this morel.

There's morel stuffed with the ramp, those two complimentary flavors goes so well together.

[Drew] Yeah.

And then with the brown butter sauce incredible.

Earthy.

Now I've got to try this chicken of the woods.

This is something new for me.

Interesting texture.

More mild than I expected.

It's similar to the scallop honestly, texture wise.

[Capri] You know, it is.

[Drew] Indeed, yeah.

Scallops are perfectly done.

Wow!

You're one lucky woman.

I really am, and as you can see, I can't slow down.

I'm always the first one done with all of my food all the time because it's always just too good.

[Capri] This is fantastic.

What a way to end the day from going out and finding this food in nature and then celebrating with all of you and your family.

Thank you for including me in this special day.

Oh, absolutely.

Thanks for being here.

To new friends.

To nature and new friends.

Cheers.

Cheers, kiddos.

Cheers, kids.

I got you.

[Capri] Whether you love them from the moment you tasted your first or you're ready to let a skilled chef show you what you've been missing, there's no denying the growing list of health benefits associated with this fascinating kingdom of fungi.

We have a growing list of Pennsylvanians to thank not only for supplying us with the most delicious variety of mushrooms, But why take my word for it, when you can come experience it for yourself.

America The Bountiful... ...is waiting for you and me.

For more information visit Americathebountifulshow.com.

[announcer] America's farmers have nourished us for generations, but today they face unprecedented challenges.

American Farmland Trust works with farmers to help save the land that sustains us.

Together we can work to keep America bountiful.