Pennsylvania is the mushroom capital of the world

• Scott LaMar
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

Scott LaMar talks with Gale Ferranto of the Mushroom Farmers of Pennsylvania.

Airdate: January 10, 2023

Pennsylvania leads the nation in the production of mushrooms. Mushrooms have an economic impact of $1.3 billion and employs some 9,400 people in the state.

During this Pennsylvania Farm Show week, Gale Ferranto, Committee Member of the Mushroom Farmers of Pennsylvania and President of Buona Foods, joined us on The Spark Tuesday to discuss Pennsylvania mushrooms, “Most of our farmers are fourth, fifth generation, some sixth generation family farms in Chester County, Berks County. But I think what made it unique initially and yes, you can grow them in other parts of the country, but you need a certain ag byproduct for the growing material, the growing medium. I mean, growing mushrooms is very scientific at this point. You need horse bedding, you need straw, you need cocoa hulls, so you need certain ag byproducts. We take the recycled materials from other ag byproducts and that’s part of our growing medium in our growing rooms. So not everywhere had horse compost, but straw bedding. But we did here in the Northeast because when things started to really ramp up, there were a lot of racetracks in Pennsylvania. So I think that’s what made it, you didn’t have far to go with transportation. So, I think they were pretty smart back in the early thirties, forties and fifties to say, let’s keep it local because we don’t have to go too far. We didn’t have the transportation. But then as things grew on, refrigeration, we could take the hauling of the fresh mushrooms and we could start to go from Boston down to Florida. So, technology really has helped accelerate our industry.”

Ferranto was asked what people like about mushrooms,”I think it’s some of of three things. Actually, I think it’s the nutrition profile, which is the health benefits. Yes, I think it is that unami flavor that you will sometimes get, which is that next sense that, you know, oh, my God, I love that taste of mushrooms. You know, it’s like a home grown tomato, that second thing. But also the third thing is, you know, eating mushrooms is still very interesting. It’s very unique. There’s nothing like it. It’s not a fruit. It’s not a vegetable. It’s a fungi.”