Chad Shifflett has been fascinated by the world of fungi for years. “The fact that mushrooms have been here longer than almost anything in this world and we’re more closely related to them than anything else, it really intrigues me,” he said.
Shifflett’s business — SEK Mushrooms — was started in March 2023 as a means to get others interested in the health benefits of mushrooms.
His business started in Independence, Kan., and he moved to Iola just two months ago. “It was getting increasingly harder to make sales with mom and pop shops in Independence,” he said. “I can be more centrally located to everything in Iola.”
The small business is currently operated out of a greenhouse and garden in his backyard.
AS A SPECIALTY crop grower, Shifflett has always had a passion to feed people. He grows gourmet, high-end mushrooms in addition to other produce.
“It’s not going to be what you find at Walmart,” he added. “These are going to be healthier mushrooms and they all have different medical benefits.”
He has grown around 200 pounds of mushrooms a week. His next goal is 400 pounds a week, and then eventually 1,000 pounds for wider distribution.
There are 23 different strains that he grows, including Lion’s Mane, Blue Oysters, Chestnut and Black Pearl Oyster. “They are my four main ones that I can grow all year long,” he said.
He also sells a tincture alternative for people who don’t particularly like the taste of mushrooms. Tinctures are a concentrated extract that can be added to a drink or into a recipe to get the same health benefits.
“Once I started growing mushrooms and realized the medical benefits, it really pulled me in.” Shifflett says some people have claimed his mushrooms have given them relief from nerve damage or pain from fibromyalgia.
The passion for gardening has been a lifelong one for Shifflett. “I’ve gardened my whole life with my family,” he said. “I fell down the rabbit hole of growing mushrooms years ago and I eventually went on to take commercial growing classes.”
He has recently been working with the Kansas Department of Agriculture to do training with farmers around Kansas.
WHEN IT comes to his business in Iola, Shifflett has big long-term goals in mind. He is working with the Kansas Rural Center (KRC) and K-State to develop food hubs across Kansas.
“Anywhere from Salina to Kansas City — KRC is working on a food hub to establish picking and dropping off food to all these locations,” he said. “There’s a lot of steps to this. I’m working on making a food hub and distribution center here in Iola.”
This long-term goal would aim to bring local growers together to have a central hub for delivering food and processing it. “The big goal, eventually, is to start a processing kitchen — an incubator kitchen that can be rented out,” he explained. Shifflett says such a development would help bring sustainability to the local community.
In order for a producer to get their items on grocery store shelves, they have to have a food processing license or food safety plan, he explained.
