It was an e-mail that just screamed to be spiked. It came from an African country; it mentioned something about a "lottery;" it hinted that there was a wonderful, enriching opportunity to be had.
But Homestead, Fla., farmer Gabriele Marewski didn't delete the message. She read it. It wasn't a scam; it was the world working in mysterious ways.
"Those scam e-mails go right into the spam box. But this one had that first sentence that was intriguing," Marewski says. "It said, 'I won the lottery to come to the United States." The other ones say, 'You won the lottery, give us an account number.'"
She went from intrigued to hooked when she got to this line: "I can show you how to grow oyster mushrooms."
"This was too bizarre; so bizarre I had to respond."
And now, Benjamin Masopeh, an agricultural scientist from Ghana, is working at Marewski's Paradise Farms. He's the go-to guy for oyster mushrooms.
"They're distinct, very good to taste," say Masopeh, 44. "They're easy to grow in a lot of substrates. In Ghana, we grow them in sawdust."
It's a different story at Paradise Farms.
"Here we use mulch, then we use bagasse - waste from the extraction of sugar cane," he says. "Then we also use coffee chaff." The bagasse comes from Belle Glade, Fla., the mulch from Calder Race Track and the chaff - fluffy light-brown flakes - from a local coffee roaster.
From this dry, brown mixture - first heated for pasteurization, then stuffed into clear plastic bags and "inoculated" with mycelium (the fungal equivalent to seeds) - grow oyster mushrooms.
It's a gorgeous sight - and creepy, too. Plastic bags lie on their sides, stacked onto floor-to-almost-ceiling shelves in a dim "grow room." The fleshy, brownish gray mushrooms grow horizontally from the bags, reaching out like velvety human hands. The "pod people" from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" come to mind.
The mushrooms come in colors, too: yellow, blue, bubble-gum pink.
"They come out like beautiful flowers," Masopeh says. "Even more beautiful than roses sometimes."
Oyster mushrooms are the latest addition to the inventory of organic produce Marewski grows for high-end restaurants. She sells them at the Coral Gables Farmers Market, too, and shares them with the chefs who cook for the elegant Dinner in Paradise series she hosts at the farm.
And here's the "mysterious ways" part of the story, what Marewski calls "the divine intervention thing:" Before Masopeh came into her life, she had been trying for quite a while - and without success - to grow oyster mushrooms.
"We spent a lot of money building the entire infrastructure to grow the oyster mushrooms and had several people come to try to make it happen - and it just wasn't clicking," she says.
"They had good intentions, but they didn't have the experience to make it happen. We were attempting and attempting and attempting and we weren't getting any production."
Masopeh knew none of this when he sent that e-mail. He, too, had been attempting and attempting - to get a green card to come work in the United States.
He was born in Accra and grew up near the beach there.
"Our grandfather was a farmer - a big farmer. He grew cassava and corn and raised goats in the countryside," Masopeh says. "My father was a teacher of meteorology, but it was all 'agriculture" in the house. He encouraged me to do it."
Masopeh graduated from the University of Cape Coast with a degree in agriculture and a diploma in education. Under Ghana's national-service requirement, he taught science for a year in the upper-west region of the country. He returned to the east and taught in a Methodist high school, then a Catholic vocational school before returning as a teacher in 2003 to the secondary school from which he had graduated.
The married father of two also had a side gig - growing mushrooms at home and selling them to the big hotels and restaurants on the beach in Accra.
Last year, he decided not to bother pursuing a U.S visa.
"But on the last day of the lottery, my wife came home from work and said, 'Let us go and try again."
With no computer at home, they went to an Internet cafe and put in an application for the green-card lottery. In March, he received the news he never expected: He was a winner.
Now what?
"None of my relatives in America were in a position to help me," Masopeh says. "I sat down and thought how to come to America. And I thought, 'I know how to grow mushrooms.'"
"I went to the Internet and started browsing and saw Paradise Farms. I made contact with Gabriele, and it clicked."
Masopeh had only seen images of Miami on TV and in the movies before he arrived on June 3. During the drive from the airport to Paradise Farms, Masopeh says, Marewski "was talking to me about mushrooms. I was stunned, I was so much surprised at the beauty of the streets, the water, the trees, I was just looking around and couldn't concentrate on the conversation"
And the farm: "Very quiet, dark, mosquitoes were around," he says, "I'm used to mosquitoes. In Ghana they carry malaria; here, they just bite."
In eight months, Masopeh has settled in on the farm, where he both lives and works. But there still is one hole in his heart. He desperately wants his wife and children to join him.
Again, the kindness of strangers has flowed forth. A Dinner in Paradise patron has donated the money to bring Masopeh's family here and another, attorney Lorna Owens, has volunteered to help untangle the red tape.
"I was standing right beside someone who said 'I will help,' and for me that was the clincher," Owens says. "Anything I could do to continue the story, I would do it."
Masopeh already has experienced one miracle. Why not two?
MINI MUSHROOM MAC 'N' GOAT CHEESE
Build a meatless meal around this fresh take on a standard with sliced tomatoes and sauteed spinach.
4 ounces (about 2 cups) uncooked cavatappi pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound assorted mushrooms (portobello, crimini, shiitake and/or oyster), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
6 ounces fresh goat cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta according to package directions.
While pasta cooks, heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add a single layer of mushrooms and cook, without stirring, for about 5 minutes or until mushrooms become red-brown on one side. Flip and cook about 5 minutes more, until other side colors.
Melt butter in a large saucepan and stir in flour. Cook for a minute or two to slightly toast flour. Whisk in salt and milk. Bring to a low boil, stirring occasionally, until sauce is slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove sauce from heat. Whisk in cheeses, rosemary and thyme and stir to melt. Stir in mushrooms and pasta.
Divide mixture among four 1-cup ramekins. Place on sheet pan and bake until cheese bubbles around edges, 15 to 20 minutes. Let rest about 5 minutes before serving. Makes 4 servings.
Source: mushroominfo.com
Per serving: 558 calories (55 percent from fat), 34.5 g fat (20.2 g saturated, 9.9 g monounsaturated), 83.1 mg cholesterol, 26 g protein, 37.9 g carbohydrates, 2.4 g fiber, 533.1 mg sodium.
CUMIN PORK ROAST WITH WILD MUSHROOM SAUCE
Jalapeno pepper gives this flavorful dish some heat. Serve with mashed potatoes, sauteed carrots and a fruity zinfandel.
3 1/2-pound center-cut pork loin
Salt and pepper to taste
4 teaspoons ground cumin, divided
3 tablespoons butter, divided
14 ounces oyster mushrooms, halved
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon chopped shallots, divided
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
4 teaspoons finely chopped jalapeno pepper (with seeds), divided
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons finely chopped oregano
14 1/2-ounce can low-salt chicken broth
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dry sherry
Cilantro sprigs
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Rub 3 teaspoons of the cumin over pork and place in roasting pan. Roast pork until meat thermometer inserted into center registers 150 degrees, about 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute mushrooms, 1/2 cup shallots, garlic and 3 teaspoons jalapeno until mushrooms are very tender and beginning to brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in cilantro, oregano, 1 teaspoon cumin and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Transfer pork to platter and tent with foil.
Pour broth into roasting pan and scrape up browned bits. Transfer to a saucepan. Whisk the flour, sherry, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon shallots and 1 teaspoon jalapeno into broth; bring to a boil, whisking until smooth. Stir in mushroom mixture and any pork juices from the platter. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Slice pork, garnish with cilantro sprigs and serve with sauce. Makes 8 servings.
Source: Adapted from
epicurious.com.
Per serving: 336 calories (33 percent from fat), 11.9 g fat (5.1 g saturated, 3.9 g monounsaturated), 134.5 mg cholesterol, 43.1 g protein, 11.2 g carbohydrates, 1.8 g fiber, 158.4 mg sodium.
(Nancy Ancrum writes about the South Florida food community. Her Web site is www.joinusatthetable.com.)
