Stalker was struck recently by a factoid, not from outer space, but from the corridors of academia.
A wee nugget buried in an up and coming thesis, mentioned heretofore, made Stalker stop and reminisce. Here goes:
“There is hardly any written information about mushroom growing in Ireland before the 1980s. The first commercial mushroom farm in the South of Ireland was built in Shanagarry, Co. Cork, in 1935 (Department of Agriculture and Food, DAF, 1969). In 1956 national annual output amounted to 500 metric tons, hardly the production of an average farm 50 years later.”
It’s hard to believe that the mushroom industry in Ireland is effectively 75 years old. Surely there should have been a party!
