Black Trumpet Farm specializes in growing gourmet mushrooms

Farmer’s Markets 2026

North Asheville Winter Tailgate Market on Saturdays 8:00-12:00 at UNCA, Lot P34.
River Arts District Market on Wednesdays 3:00-5:30 at New Belgium Brewery.
West Asheville Tailgate Market on Tuesdays 3:00-6:00 at 718 Haywood Rd. Asheville NC.
Email blacktrumpetnc@gmail.com to pre-order for markets.

We offer a variety of culinary and medicinal mushrooms including:

Oyster (Grey, Phoenix, Black Pearl, Pink)
Pioppino
Shiitake
Lion’s mane
Chestnut
Enoki
Selection of seasonally foraged species

We also sell 2 oz. tinctures of Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Reishi, Maitake, and Turkey Tail.

Our mushrooms are certified USDA Organic by CCOF, Appalachian Grown, and Certified Naturally Grown.

Our Story

Jay and Gwen have been living in the Asheville area for 20 years. Our background is steeped in regenerative agriculture and agro-ecology.
Gwen began her farming career in 2006 with an apprenticeship at the Aprovecho Institute in Cottage Grove, Oregon. She then moved to Asheville to be closer to family. She has an M.S. in Horticulture, a B.S. in Biology with a focus on field botany and plant genetics, and certificates in woodworking and permaculture design. She is an Organic Growers School Farm Beginnings and Journeyperson graduate.
Jay grew up in Marion, NC on his family’s homestead. He has a bachelor’s in Photography from UNCA and an associate degree in Civil Engineering. He loves to design earthworks, water catchment systems, and efficient mushroom production spaces.
We both volunteer as mushroom identifiers at the Asheville Mushroom Club. Come out to a foray!

Our mission is to promote community food security by providing delicious, affordable, and nutrient-dense mushrooms.

Click here to Read the story of our transition to solar power

Expertly installed by Rhino Renewables

Mushroom Varieties

An image of a cluster of honey colored Chesnut mushrooms grown at Black Trumpet Farm against a light background. — Chestnut

(Pholiota adiposa)
Chestnut mushrooms, also called cinnamon caps, boast an earthy, nutty flavor packed with umami. They have a firm, crisp texture that holds up well under heat. Chestnuts pair nicely with pasta, rice, and red meat dishes.

Lion’s Mane

(Hericium erinaceus)
Lion’s Mane has a unique texture akin to crab or lobster. This mushroom has a savory and seafood-like flavor. Folks often use it to make faux crab cakes. It can be sautéed, roasted, or grilled.

Pioppino

(Agrocybe aegerita)
Pioppino, also called Black Poplar, is known for its nutty, earthy flavor. It has a firm texture and tender edible stems. Pioppinos pair nicely with risottos and pasta dishes, as well as pork, chicken, and fish.

Pink Oyster

(Pleurotus djamour)
Pink oysters are known for their bacon or ham-like flavor. This aromatic mushroom has a chewy texture. It work wells as a meat substitute. Fry it up and create a faux pulled pork sandwich.

Black Pearl Oyster

(Pleurotus ostreatus - hybrid)
Black Pearls are actually a hybrid between the oyster and king trumpet mushrooms. Black Pearls are more dense and meaty than your typical oyster but they have a similar flavor. You can slice the large stems into rounds to make faux scallops.

Grey Oyster

(Pleurotus ostreatus)
The grey oyster is a versatile mushroom with a mild umami flavor. They have a tender silky texture. Oysters are a great addition to pizza, pastas, or toast. Try slicing them thinly and allowing them to crisp up.

Shiitake

(Lentinus edodes)
Shiitake mushrooms are known for their silky texture and rich buttery flavor. Shiitake can also be slightly earthy and impart a moderate umami to your dish.

Chaga

(Inonotus obliquus)
Chaga is a medicinal mushroom used in teas and tinctures. Chaga has a long history of use in Russian and Siberian cultures. It is used to reduce inflammation, boost immune response, lower blood pressure and blood sugar, and slow aging by counteracting oxidative stress.

INSTRUCTIONS

Ready-to-Grow Kits

Recipes

Please click on the links below:
Lion’s Mane Crab Cakes
Mushroom Stroganoff
Bon Appetit’s 54 Mushroom Recipes So Good They’re Magic
New York Times Cooking
Mycopia Mushroom - Recipes

Fresh mushrooms will last 5-7 days after purchase. Store them in the fridge in a paper bag or open container. Do not use plastic bags!
Trim off the very bottom of the stem. Indoor grown mushrooms are generally clean, but if needed, use a vegetable brush or paper towel to gently brush off any dirt.
You can dry your mushrooms in a dehydrator or in the oven on low heat (100-175 F). You can also sauté, allow to cool, and store in the freezer.

Research & Collaborations

Building Soil with Wine-Cap Mushrooms: Our SARE Trial

Black Trumpet was awarded a Southern Agriculture and Research Education(SARE) grant to test whether that fungi can accelerate soil recovery after disaster and give small farms a low-cost path back to healthy ground.

Following Hurricane Helene, many Western North Carolina farms lost their topsoil entirely, stripped down to rock and sediment by flooding and landslides. Rebuilding that soil the traditional way with truckloads of compost can be slow and expensive. Instead, we're inoculating wood chips from downed trees with wine cap mushroom spawn, then letting the mycelium do the work of breaking down lignin and cellulose into rich organic matter, much the way fungi rebuild the forest floor after a storm.

We're running this trial across four cooperating farms in WNC, comparing mushroom-inoculated mulch plots with un-inoculated mulch.We’re then planting butternut squash directly into those plots. We're tracking everything from soil fertility and microbial activity to how the squash themselves perform, with leaf tissue sampling and visual crop scoring as our key measures. If it works, it offers farmers a faster, cheaper way to bring soil back to life using low-cost materials

Role of Colored Mulches on Soil Health & Organic Hemp

Gwen completed a Master's in Science at NC State studying how colored plastic mulches affect soil microbial communities and plant health in organic hemp production, under the direction of Dr. Jeanine Davis.

Organic hemp growers in the humid Southeast are challenged by heavy rainfall and aggressive weeds, with no approved organic herbicides to fall back on. Many turn to plastic mulches for weed and moisture control, but different mulch colors change how much heat and light reach the soil, with ripple effects on soil temperature, carbon cycling, and the microbial life underground.

Working across seven on-farm sites over two years, the research found that darker mulches (black, red, and green) ran noticeably warmer than white or silver, especially in summer, but that mulch color had surprisingly little effect on cannabinoid content or on the makeup of soil microbial communities themselves. What did shift soil microbial diversity was a more complex mix of season, sampling depth, and site conditions. It's the kind of research that helps growers make smarter choices about plasticulture, balancing short-term productivity against the long-term health of the ground they depend on.

Big thanks to our sponsors for this project:

Joining NC State's Collard Microbiome Project

Black Trumpet was proud to be one of several Western North Carolina farms participating in the Heirloom Collard Microbiome Project, led by Dr. Mallory Choudoir at NC State, in partnership with the Utopian Seed Project.

The project set out to answer a simple but important question: do different collard varieties recruit different communities of soil microbes, and does that change from farm to farm? We grew two varieties side by side, Champion, a widely used commercial standard, and Moses Smith, a heirloom variety stewarded for generations, and sent soil and root samples off for DNA sequencing.

The early results are fascinating. While broad types of microbes were similar across all the farms, the specific communities living in each farm's soil were distinctly different, and cultivating collards seemed to draw in more rare, unique microbes than bare soil alone. It's a small but meaningful reminder that every farm's soil has its own microbial fingerprint, and that the crops we grow help protect that hidden biodiversity. We're glad to have played a part in this research and look forward to seeing what it uncovers about the connection between heirloom seed-saving and the invisible life underground that makes it all possible.

Check out our Instagram for the latest happenings at Black Trumpet:

I’ve been abysmal at insta these last few years so we finally teamed up with our talented friend @camillacalnanphotography to create some farm photo magic. Thanks to her, I have some sweet photos to post for y’all, starting with our lil m

Black Trumpet Farm is proud to be a Pledged Living Wage employer through Just Economics of Western NC.

Just Economics calculates the actual cost of living in our region — housing, food, healthcare, transportation, childcare — and sets a

Kate has unlocked peak Chestnut mush! Recent clusters have been weighing in at 2.7+ lbs! Come find us at markets this week @westashevilletailgate @radfarmersmarket @northashevilletailgatemarket

#localfood #mushroomfarm #chestnutmushrooms #asheville

Hey big news, we’re adding another market this season! In addition to our regular RAD and Nortth Asheville tailgate markets, you can now find us Tuesdays from 3:30-6:30 @westashevilletailgate Kate and Jay will be at the first market tomorrow Ap

Ernie took some gorgepus photos of the Golden Enoki. Highly under rated variety in in my opinion. I love them in soups or just fried up on top of a rice bow!

#mushroomfarm #goldenenoki #harvest #asheville #localfood

Contact Us

Please contact us for pricing and seasonal product availability at blacktrumpetnc@gmail.com or use the form below.

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