Dylan Brogan
Bonus: Cooking tips for fungi not typically sold in stores.
Chances are you’ve eaten a mushroom grown by Diane and Jamie Ramsay. They supply mushrooms to a myriad of Madison restaurants including the Old Fashioned, L’Etoile, Graft and Salvatore’s Tomato Pies. The Ramsays have also operated a stand at the Dane County Farmers’ Market for over two decades. At their family farm in Merrimac, the couple grow shiitake, lion’s mane and king trumpet mushrooms, as well as yellow, gray, brown and pink oyster mushrooms.
The couple often act as ambassadors for those unversed in fungi.
“You have the gray and brown oysters, which are mild and sweet. Then there is the yellow oyster, which is more intense, like the shiitake,” says Diane.
The Ramsays are happy to answer questions about how to cook and prepare mushroom varieties that usually aren’t sold in stores.
Dylan Brogan
“The lion’s mane, texture-wise, is different than most mushrooms. It has a wonderful flavor. We describe it as almost lobster-like. It really absorbs whatever you cook it in,” says Jamie. “The king trumpet is a real meaty mushroom. When you cook it, it doesn’t cook down like a typical mushroom. It tends to retain its texture and size.”
What’s the question the Ramsays field most?
“Do you have morels?” says Jamie with a chuckle. “Morels are only around a few weeks a year, and you can’t cultivate them. We get that a lot from people who don’t really know mushrooms.”
So be a savvy mushroom buyer: Don’t ask about morels.
