As the Mushroom Capital of the World, Kennett Square mushrooms are famous for both their agricultural value and cultural popularity, writes Kalena Thomhave for The Keystone.
The seemingly common grocery product become so significant to the region that there is a yearly festival, the Mushroom Festival, held in its honor.
This global recognition is largely due to Kennett being one of the first regions in the U.S. to cultivate a commercial mushroom production site. In the late 1800s, a Quaker florist made use of the empty space beneath his greenhouse benches by cultivating mushrooms with a mycelium colony imported from England.
Other growers soon began producing mushrooms as well. The industry continued to expand in the 1920s when an influx of immigrants from Europe brought European mushroom farming methods to the region.
In 1955, the American Mushroom Institute formed in Kennett Square. Today, the region grows over two dozen mushroom species across 2,000 growing houses. One growing house, Phillips Mushroom Farms, has been in operation since 1927 and offers visitors fresh mushrooms, a small mushroom museum, and mushroom-themed merchandise.
Now, both locals and tourists can enjoy the town’s long history of mushroom farming through restaurants like Portabello’s, attending the yearly Mushroom Festival, and seeing the annual New Year’s Eve Mushroom Drop.
Read more about Kennett Square and the town’s history of mushroom farming in The Keystone.
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