LCBO Food & Drink Autumn 2015

SPOT LIGHT BY CYNTHIA DAVID  •  PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES TSE

MICKY WYLIE, WYLIE MYCOLOGICALS LTD. GEORGIAN BLUFFS , ONT. Up on the Bruce Peninsula, just north of Owen Sound, Bill and Micky Wylie produce exotic mushrooms in a rainbow of colours from pink oysters to ochre-banded reishi for making medicinal tea. In bright growing rooms, these cer- tified organic varieties burst from blocks of sterilized saw- dust along with shiitake, beech, lion’s mane, nutty-tasting cinnamon caps and more. Among the wild mushrooms he cultivates outdoors, Bill continues to work on taming the prized morel. The Wylie’s DIY kits make it easy for anyone to grow specialty mushrooms at home. FANTASTIC FUNGI An article in Harrowsmith magazine introduced Bill to the magical world of fungi and inspired him to begin producing his own at home. With their kids grown, the couple sold their home and moved north more than 20 years ago to establish Wylie Mycologicals Ltd. Micky still works as a law librarian in Toronto. HIGH -TECH ’ SHROOMS You’ll often find Bill and Micky in their lab, cloaked in white, preparing mushroom spawn for their 23 (and counting) varieties and inoculating blocks of red oak sawdust. The blocks are sold to other commercial growers or transferred to their own climate-controlled rooms where the mushrooms mature.

GROW YOUR OWN Mushrooms generally prefer cooler fall weath- er to the summer’s heat, but Wylie’s indoor kits grow any time of year and make great gifts. “It’s not demanding,” says Micky, “and you can’t get much fresher than a mush- room you’ve harvested from your kitchen counter ready to sizzle in the pan.”

WHERE TO BUY Buy the Wylies’ mushroom kits online at www.wyliemycologicals.ca Look for their specialty ’shrooms at farmers’ markets in the GTA.

168  FOOD & DRI NK AUTUMN 2015