BUFFALO, NY — Let’s talk about fungi — mushrooms to be exact. 

Multiple national publications and blogs are saying they will be growing in popularity this year. There are a number of reasons, including them being more eco-friendly to grow and package. They’re also a great substitution for meat, especially chicken.

Taking an even closer look, they are easy to grow in a city. That goes in tandem with another trend expected, which is urban farming.

What You Need To Know

  • Mushrooms, the kind you eat for food and not fun, are expected to be a trend in 2022

  • The fungi is known of a series of health benefits 

  • Buffalo's Flat 12 Mushrooms was ahead of the trend, and continues to grow 

  • Urban farming is another trend and mushrooms are the perfect crop 

Set up at 37 Chandler Street in Buffalo is Flat 12 Mushrooms.

“This retail space is a direct product of the pandemic,” Robbie Gianadda of Flat 12 Mushrooms said.

But to get Gianadda to the retail portion of Flat 12 Mushrooms, we have to pick up his story of where the mushrooms grow.

“We have two identical grow rooms,” he showed walking down the hall. “And in here there are a variety of mushrooms, we have things like Lions Mane here.”

It’s making headlines. It’s proven to help your brain and nervous system.

“It actually provides the building blocks to regrow the myelin sheath around your nerves,” Gianadda explained. “That deteriorates with old age and a lot of degenerative nerve diseases.”

It’s grown year-round here. The health benefits of mushrooms are certainly catching a lot of attention. But Flat 12 Mushrooms has been at the forefront of another growing trend: urban farming.

“It’s a movement that started with the field to fork movement like 12 years ago,” Gianadda said.

Since then, the interest has expanded from chefs to at-home cooking connoisseurs. Gianadda says there is just something about knowing where your food is coming from, how fresh it is and who touches it.

“We actually went out and counted the minimum number of people that have to touch your oyster mushroom when you buy it at a grocery store is 10,” Gianadda said.

There is some fungi fun that has taken Buffalo by storm that Gianadda says took them by surprise.

“People are really interested in foraging these days,” he said. I think that was a side effect of the pandemic.”

Flat 12 Mushrooms is actually certified by the state to buy and resale any foraged mushrooms. That’s on top of the roughly 600 pounds they harvest here each week, thanks to an expanding fascination people now have with the fungi.

“People are just more interested in the nuisance of it and the specifics of it,” Gianadda said. “To understand the life cycle and appreciate the beauty of it.”

Flat 12 Mushrooms has a number of classes you can take. You can even take mushrooms home to grow. 

In part two of our closer look at mushrooms and urban farming, we chat with a UB professor who shares some fascinating insight on how urban farming could be the key to fighting food insecurity across Buffalo and beyond. 

To see part 2, click here.