Science, technology and Mycelium
Owner Chris Pacheco shows Basil Gooden, undersecretary of USDA Rural Development, left, how to harvest shiitake mushrooms on Monday, April 1, 2024, at Seacoast Mushrooms. (Carrie Czerwinski/The Day)
By Carrie Czerwinski, Special to The Day
Stonington ― Chris Pacheco spends his days farming king oysters, blue oysters and golden oysters, but he is not an oyster farmer.
He is a mushroom farmer.
In what looks like a big blue warehouse with several shipping containers out back, Pacheco, the owner of Seacoast Mushrooms, and his seven employees grow oyster mushrooms along with several other types of flavorful fungi at the company’s new 12,000-square-foot Taugwonk Road mushroom farm.
Pacheco grew up planting trees for his family’s apple orchard in Rhode Island, where he learned to hate farming in rocky New England soil. He got an engineering degree to get away from farming.
His time in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Hartford brought him to the area, and when he got out of the submarine service, he stayed in the area working in the corporate world. Fifteen years later, in 2015, the challenge of growing mushrooms brought him back to his roots.
Gooden announces $279,000 federal Rural Energy for America Grant to help purchase and install a solar energy system for the farm.