Daniel Smith has fond memories of hiking on his grandparents’ farm and discovering the abundance of nature right before his eyes. He took a particular liking to those small umbrella-shaped growths he spied on the ground.
“Our region is really conducive to fungi … it’s wet, never completely dries out, and with all the hills, there are always cool spots for them to grow,” said Smith, who lives in West Portsmouth, Ohio.
That fondness for fungi continued throughout Daniel’s life and led to the creation of Appalachia Unveiled – a gourmet mushroom-growing business he operates with his wife, Bailey.
“This is something being done across the country and around the world, but we didn’t have anything like it here,” Daniel said of the business that launched officially in April 2023. “I’d been reading about it for years, watching videos. Finally, in 2020, we bought our first grow kits.”
From those kits, they grew their first batch of Lion’s Mane, a mushroom that has been used in traditional medicine for centuries and typically grows on trunks of dead hardwood trees, such as oak. The Smiths got a great response from that first attempt and decided to try to make a go of the business. The couple both have degrees in natural science/biology and work full-time at Shawnee State University.

The name Appalachia Unveiled comes from the region, of course, and the veil part of a mushroom - the thin membrane that covers the cap and stalk and helps to identify what type it is. Having the business name start with an A is also helpful because it gets the business near the top of every list, and the initials AU are the same as the symbol for gold. “Mushrooms are the hidden gold of Appalachia,” Daniel said.
Mushrooms are grown in nearly every state, with Pennsylvania accounting for about 60 percent of total U.S. mushroom production. Mushrooms are nutritious - all mushrooms are high in vitamin D. They are also fat-free, low-calorie, nutrient-dense, low in sodium and contain natural antioxidants.The Smiths continue to grow Lion’s Mane but have added a slew of other gourmet varieties – all with interesting and colorful names, including Yeti’s Breath, Blue Oyster, King Trumpet, Chestnut, Black Pearl Oyster, Nameko, Pioppinio and Pink Oyster (which Daniel says  tastes
identical to bacon).
Logistically, the mushroom farming business is tricky. The product is perishable and has a short shelf life – some varieties just a few days. Growing is a completely indoor operation – the shrooms like cooler temperatures. “Our energy bill is the lion’s share of our expenses,” Daniel said. The couple bought their home specifically to grow  mushrooms. They use the 900-square foot garage exclusively for their business; inside is a 256-square-foot fruiting chamber where a lot of the action takes place.

Mushrooms grow in beds of composted agricultural material. The process starts with a culture that is placed on grain (whole oats in the case of Appalachia Unveiled) and allowed to expand on the high protein content until it is fully colonized. From there, it is put into bags that are steamed and pressurized. Then, a masters mix of soybean hull pellets (which add nitrogen, an important component), hardwood fuel pellets and water helps bring the spores to the final stage – ready to fruit. Mushrooms are all harvested by hand at the end of this cycle.The Smiths grow about 50 pounds of mushrooms per week but would like to double that. They sell their product regularly at the Chillicothe farmers market and provide them to stores and restaurants, including the Wild Ramp in Huntington, Flock Dining in Adams County (Ohio) and
Oddfellows in Portsmouth – where they are used in the popular wild mushroom and goat cheese-fired pizza. A quote from Appalachia Unveiled’s Facebook page: “We strive to bring fresh gourmet mushrooms (to the region) and become an oasis in our food desert.”
The most common questions they are asked by customers: How do I cook these? “We are working on cookbook; it should be finished this year,” Bailey said. All the recipes will feature mushrooms and the book will explain terms, such as “weep a mushroom,” which means to take out water and put in fat.
They also sell DIY kits with everything provided to grow your own mushrooms at home. In thefuture, they would like to offer foraging experiences to show people how to find mushrooms and other treasures in their own backyard.
“Things are not as they seem around here – in Appalachia – we want to show off our local nature and help people to explore. There’s so much to find,” Daniel said.
For more mushroom info: Follow Appalachia Unveiled on Facebook and InstagramPhone: 740.443.9796
AppalachiaUnveiled@gmail.com