A year into the mushroom business, Christian Brown of Mush Love Farm in Mathews sees a bright future for the edible fungus in the county.

“The geography of the land, the amount of rainfall, the humidity, the morning fog, all contribute to making Mathews a perfect mushroom environment,” said Brown. “I want to see Mathews become a hub for mushrooms.”

Brown is growing mushrooms the natural way—on logs on his heavily-wooded four-acre property near downtown Mathews. There are around 2,000 logs in stacks under the trees around his house, separated according to the type of mushroom being grown—blue, golden, white, grey, and Italian oyster; shiitake, nameko and lion’s mane; chestnut, bear’s head tooth, and turkey tale.

Since he began in January, Brown has purchased the spores needed to produce his mushrooms from commercial suppliers in blocks of sawdust. The logs they grow on have come from a private property owner who needed some trees cleared and offered them on a “you-cut-and-haul...