Marvelous Mushrooms

In Northeast Louisiana, Rod Milliman is celebrating the wellness of this savory superfood by growing two potent variants from substrate bags to fully sprouting bodies and sharing his grows with his community.

Mushrooms have played a prominent role in literature and pop culture, often inspiring images of bulbous, candy-apple red caps, dotted with white spots, a bite away from taking you on the ride of your life. Considering the psychedelic properties of psilocybin, their “magical” reputation should be no surprise. For example, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice eats a mushroom that causes her to increase and decrease in size, in the animated world of The Smurfs, the blue woodland creatures make homes of toadstools and use them for potions, and in the video game conglomerate Super Mario, a myriad of mushrooms are responsible for boosting strength and speed. But the benefits of mushrooms far exceed their folkloric hold on our culture. The over 1.5 billion species of fungi on the planet have a few crucial roles in our lives, including breaking down organic matter, acting as agents of fermentation, and providing humans with a food source in the form of their fruiting bodies, which we call mushrooms. Considering these benefits, many are discovering the marvelous world of functional mushrooms. In Northeast Louisiana, one such individual is celebrating the wellness of this savory superfood by growing two potent variants from substrate bags to fully sprouting bodies and sharing his grows with his community.

Rod Milliman was born in Abbeville, Louisiana, a suburban community located at the heart of Cajun Country. “My grandparents couldn’t speak English,” he says. As a teen, he moved to Northeast Louisiana from Thibodaux, living in the area for three years. He met his future wife in high school, and after graduating from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, formerly known as the University of Southwestern Louisiana, he returned to Monroe, took her out, and a couple of years later they were married. “I gotta live where the boss lives,” he says, mentioning that they have been married for thirty years.

Before taking off on his mushroom journey, Milliman was in the hemp business. “I was in distribution and had my own product,” he says. Drawn to its anti-inflammatory benefits, he mainly worked with athletes in need of recovery assistance. For a while, the CBD boom “took everybody by storm,” many considering it the “new savior product.” But the product is expensive to produce, spiking its retail price. After a while, Milliman found himself having to reconceptualize his retirement project. “I started seeing mushrooms, especially Lion’s Mane mushrooms, have a huge impact on inflammation,” he says. He began by researching how mushrooms are grown, mushroom supplements, and how supplements are made. He found two steam barrels for substrate sterilization. Then, his big find led him to Mobile, Alabama where he bought a high-end flow hood meant to complete his small operation. The more things came together, the more challenging it became to run things on his own. That’s when Caleb Antley showed up: “He’s always wanting to learn, and I’m always wanting to learn, so we’ve been together for probably close to a year and he runs this whole shop.” As a result, Milliman was able to focus on sales readily establishing Milliman Mushroom Farm.

The first step in the mushroom-making process begins with Antley creating the growing medium which consists of mixing wood and soy pellets, hydrating the bag, rolling it up, and sterilizing it for 14 hours at 205 degrees. “So we put them in there and just let it run overnight. In the morning, we grab them and put them in the Lab to cool overnight,” says Milliman. In the Inoculation Room (Lab), the Grain Spawn is added to the substrate for growth. The ventilation system keeps each grow bag from becoming contaminated while being inoculated. Additionally, after each production, the tables are wiped down with alcohol. You can contaminate the whole thing and you don’t really know it till two weeks later. We’ve had very little of that. Caleb does a wonderful job on that,” he emphasizes. After a few weeks in the Incubation Room, a room where half a dozen storage shelves are kept at around 75 degrees, the bags are moved into the Grow Room where it takes up to 10 days to Harvest.  The minute the mushroom heads push themselves out (pinning) of the plastic bag, the resulting fully-grown mushrooms create a lively mushroom forest of specific colors and textures.

“I don’t like mushrooms. I hate mushrooms,” laughs Milliman, more specifically referring to button mushrooms. “They’re mass-produced, number one, and the texture is too tough.” Of course, the minute he took the mushroom road, he knew tasting his own grow would be inevitable. Of the two varieties he currently grows, he decided to start with the blue oyster, known for its mild, earthy, and nutty taste. Not to mention, they are loaded with important nutrients and contain antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds. Scouring Pinterest, he found a recipe for fried oyster mushrooms. He anticipated the unpleasant chewiness he avoided in button mushrooms. Instead, the blue oysters melted in his mouth and tasted like chicken. Milliman also suggests using this kind of mushroom on pizza or added to risotto.

Though his aversion to mushrooms was temporarily assuaged, his second variety was a little intimidating to try. Lion’s mane is a large, white mushroom with shaggy, thin tendrils resembling brain coral or a lion’s mane. Widely used as a seafood alternative by many vegans, it has a taste similar to lobster or crab and contains a wide range of health benefits including brain, gut, and immune support. Though it can be enjoyed cooked, dried, or steeped for tea (dehydrated), one of Milliman’s favorite recipes, which is posted on the business’s Facebook page, is a lion’s mane fish sandwich.

Another significant aspect of the business is the products made in-house. Due to its potent medical attributes, Milliman began to extract the bioactive compounds in lion’s mane into a tincture using a dual extract process. The tincture is made with fresh dehydrated Fruiting Bodies from the lion’s mane mushrooms grown on his farm. “Lion’s mane is a big deal,” he affirms. Customers can also opt to grow their own by purchasing a grow kit, his top-selling product. The kits are easy to use and include a spray bottle, instruction sheet, and a small substrate bag. Each bag has the capacity for two grows. 

“We sell about 100, 150 pounds per week,” says Milliman of his mushrooms which have made their way to a few regional stores including The Back Alley Market, For His Temple Foods, Fiesta on Eighteenth, and Gibsons Fresh Grocer in Ruston. Chef John Peters at POUR by Char 19 has been receiving a few bundles of lion’s mane and blue oysters. Recently, Milliman dropped a truck full of blue oysters at Monroe’s Food Bank thanks to the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program. “They distribute it to the people they deal with like the churches and the nonprofits,” he informs.

“I think this is all a large plan that the Lord has led me in this direction and I look forward to bringing these gourmet mushrooms to our community,” says Milliman who considers himself a “God-fearing man.” His distinct passion for growing and creating goods is aimed at improving people’s overall health. And though many of us have yet to venture outside the grocery variety of mushrooms, Milliman invites us to taste the result of carefully grown mushrooms in a state-of-the-art facility, right smack in the quiet backroads of West Monroe. Not only does he take great pride in his process, but his mushrooms are of the highest quality. 

Follow Milliman Mushroom Farm on Facebook or visit their website (www.millimanmushrooms.com). Keep an eye out for a new and exciting product launching in January 2024—Oyster Mushroom Powder!