European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 4, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Delectable fungus from Pennsylvania by Beth 0 Connell United press International Donald Phillips or Kennol Square. Pa., son of mushroom Farmer and Lal Scrol two mushroom growers has Only recently Houghl of his Obas exotic. Three generations o the Phillips family Nova worked in the Southeastern Pennsylvania mushroom business bul inc change in Outlook occurred a Mere Lour years ago when Philips 52, began growing a new Breed of the delectable lungs in a Cool dark mushroom House. Shiitake Phillips said pointing to the la shy stems growing out of a Damp log in a mushroom House on his farm. Ono of our exotic  Phillips and other area mushroom growers recently started cultivating the japanese Shn Lake mushroom and other exotic varieties 10 please the palates of gourmet restaurant diners and to bolster the american mushroom Industry. Shn Lake and other exotic mushrooms such As Comini and Oyster have a slightly gift event look and taste than the common while Button capped Seq tabla. And for american growers they provide a Way to compete in a dwindling Market. Nowhere Are changing tastes in mushrooms watched More closely than in Pennsylvania s Chaster county. This enclave of about 140 mushroom growers about 35 Miles South of Philadelphia is known As the mushroom growing Capilato of the United Stales. Each fall a mushroom festival is held in Kennett Square with recipe Cook offs Choi demonstrations a Lair and a mushroom Queen All to showcase their crop. According id the . Depar Lenl of agriculture. Pennsylvania last year accounted Lor 46 percent of the nation s mushroom crop of 516 million pounds. But in the last 23 years the a dependent american mushroom grower has been squeezed Oul by corporations such As Campbell soup co. And by growers in Taiwan Korea and now China who now virtually monopolize Tho canned mushroom business according Locharles Harris director of the Industry sponsored american mushroom Insh Lulo. Tho fresh Market is i to Only place loft Lor the american grower Phillips said. Twenty years ago we had 13 plants in the . For Canning mushrooms. Now to have five " according to Federal agriculture officials in 1967 75 percent of the crop was used Lor Canning and 25 percent was sold fresh. This year the statistics were just Tho opposite 74 percent went to Market and 24 percent to processing plants. For Chester county growers Harris said it has meant forming cooperatives and joint ventures or like the Phillips clan operating a full scale family run business thai takes the mushroom from us spawning bed to the supermarket shelf. There always been a certain Luro to mushrooms. Russian Czar Alexis Temple by a wild mushroom plucked a toxic one and died. In the 1960s, a generation hooked on psychedelic drugs discovered the hallucinogenic Psilocybin mushroom. Chase Church the son of former us sen. Frank Church was caught trying to grow the hallucinogenic Veggie m Pennsylvania s mushroom county last year. Europeans have always gathered wild mushrooms growing on tree stumps. Bul growers say poisonous mushrooms Otten Are so much like the edible vegetable they advise against mushroom picking in the Woods. The while mushrooms also known As Agaric us bosporus Are commonly sold in supermarkets. They grow in Damp windowless Cinde Bloch houses with peaked roofs where the temperature is maintained at 60 degrees. In Southeastern Pennsylvania the mushroom crop is tended by migrant workers mostly from Mexico and puerto Rico. Dairy Farmers in Pennsylvania first started growing mushrooms As a Winter crop in the 1890s. My father grew up on a Dairy Larm Donald Phillip displaying exotic japanese mushroom variety known at thl Takt. And started growing mushrooms when no was a teenager Phillips said. Later in lha 1930s he was one of the first ones to grow mushrooms in the summer using refrigeration to cod the houses in those Days it was like getting strawberries in the  Afler graduating from Penn state University with a degree in agriculture in 1957, Phillips started his own business and was eventually joined by his brother Marshall their wives and now their grown children. The Philips is operate 37 mushroom houses irom which they grow package Market and deliver the crop. Alaska s Salmon so Salmon cargo jets t Page 16 the stars and stripes by Lisa Levitt Ryckman associated press he passengers aboard Cape. Kevin Earp s flight out of Yakutat Alaska tonight Are cold and cramped. Many of them arc crabby Allol them smell. Just a few hours ago they were floating happily somewhere in the Gull of Alaska. Such is the life of 23,000 pounds of Dungeness crab and Sockeye Salmon. In less than 24 hours they will be ensconced in restaurants in Seattle or san Francisco or los Angeles or in route to Chicago or Boston or new York ii will be All Over bul Tor the melted butter. This is right out of the Ocean right into the packing plants right into our air planes right Down to Seattle and right into the Market Earp said As he Man Vered the Boemig 737 known in these parts As a Samon-3q Salmon in Honor of its Lasly cargo Down the runway and up Mlo a Brilliant alaskan night. His aircraft is Ideal for the task. By Day. The Alaska airlines b-737-200s Fly passengers and cargo out of Anchorage to Nome Kotzebue. Prudhoe Bay. Cordova Yakutat and Juneau. Towns with no connecting roads and too Little passenger business to Rale wide body service by night their 111 scats arc pushed out and sunday. October 4,1987 replaced by up to six fiberglas containers known As igloos tilled with fish or Reighl. American demand Tor fresh fish Salmon halibut and crab that go from sea to supper in a matter of hours has exploded creating a Market virtually i known just a decade ago. Say the people committed to meeting the need. The Scal Ood consumer has begun to demand a High Quality  said skip Ryman. Alaska airlines station manager in Yakutat. A fishing town of about 700 inhabitants. They Don t want a product that s a Day older than they were promised they d gel  by Early september processors had shipped 3 million pounds of seafood out of Vakula alone More than one third of that Trosh. That compares with the 375.000 pounds shipped during last year s live month summer season the whole nature of the Market has changed  said left Otness fresh seafood coordinator in Yakutat for Silka sound seafood a medium sized processor. When i started Selling fish seven years ago. I had to convince someone to try Iresh they d say Why would i want fresh Whon i be got this Nice Frozen Styli Over Here no one would even try  now cargo carriers try 30,000 pounds of fresh seafood Oul of Yakutat everyday. Otness said. What