If you look at Sydney Victor’s life now, it’s hard to believe that she grew up not liking mushrooms as a kid. Now Sydney grows and sells a wide variety of mushrooms at the Columbia City Farmers Market. Sydney is from the Midwest and didn’t get a lot of exposure to different types of mushrooms growing up, but as she got older and tried different varieties, she realized just how delicious and versatile they can be.  

Sydney’s fiancé, Jeff, had a brother-in-law who introduced her to foraging, and Jeff's brother-in-law had a company that sells mushrooms to grocery stores. He has since passed away and now Jeff runs that same family business. Through the business, they also became close with a mushroom farm in Vaughn, Washington, where they learned how to properly inoculate mushrooms, so they had lots of support as they took on the journey of turning their mushrooming hobby into something bigger. 

Atlas Mushrooms is currently a side project for Sydney while she continues to work full-time as a social worker. The company is still so new, but Sydney is excited about the possibility of expansion in the future. Currently, the flowering room, where the mushrooms mature and grow into what they sell at the market, is at their home, but the inoculation process happens on the mushroom farm in Vaugn, so Sydney and Jeff make weekly trips there to pick up bags of mushrooms and move them to the flowering room.  

The inoculation of new mushrooms happens about once a month, and it’s an intense process. They begin by compressing sawdust into bags and heating it at about 212 degrees for 6 to 8 hours. Then they can take the mushroom spawn and keep it in a warm room before eventually bringing it to the flowering room.   

Like any other crop, mushrooms are sensitive to their environments, and can’t handle extreme weather conditions. Last summer’s heat wave killed many of the mushrooms Sydney had been cultivating. The wild morels they forage also struggled in the heat but have been thriving in this year’s extremely wet conditions.  

Sydney loves to utilize mushrooms in a variety of dishes, especially pasta and soups. She also makes a homemade mushroom stock, which is a great hearty vegan alternative to meat-based stocks. The different varieties all have unique flavors that can best be highlighted through different dishes.  

You can try Atlas Mushrooms for yourself at the Columbia City Farmers Market, Wednesdays from 3-7 pm!