Stalker was chatting with a former first rate mushroom grower from Tyrone at the end of September.
This grower has been out of the game for several years now, but not so long that the mushrooms are distant memories.
Stalker asked if he missed the whole mushroom growing scene – the grower chortled and said categorically not.
Not that the grower had any bad memories of his time as a mushroom maker, but more so, because of all the gloom and doom that surrounds the industry at the moment. He said that the things that used to annoy him would be that factors outside of one’s control would, in the end, determine whether a unit was viable or not. You could be doing a fine job and then currency differentials or the price of compost or perhaps disease could just blow you out of the water.
The ex-grower also lamented the very rapid cessation of contact with other growers. He said that when you’re working at the mushrooms, there were always calls from this grower or that grower, looking to check out the latest equipment that was installed on farm, or wanting to know if you had a solution to a problem. He said though that very soon after quitting the mushroom scene there exists little contact with the network of growers that are still out there.
Perhaps an ex-growers club could be arranged – or even an online forum where former mushroom men and women could congregate and chew over the days of old – all the ups and downs that happened. And even discuss the fortunes of the growers that are left within the industry today.
Then again maybe not – better to let sleeping dogs lie, and let bygones be bygones.
