-Farm News photo by Lori Beglund
Tanner Faaborg, center, and his parents Tammy and Rand Faaborg stand inside the 1100 Farm’s former cattle barn. The family has transformed their former hog operation into a mushroom farm, which they believe will offer sustainability for the future.

RADCLIFFE — Thousands of hogs have come through these barns over the years. One thousand, one hundred at a time — the capacity of the barns — the hogs were cared for in the finest family farm tradition. It was hard, dirty work, but it put protein on the table across the Midwest. In time, the family was ready to make a change, to do things differently.

The hogs are gone. The lagoon that once held their waste has been scrubbed out and is being transformed into a fish pond. There is no sound of clanging feeders as the hogs fill their stomachs.

Instead, mushrooms grow silently in a closely monitored atmosphere, blending just the right amount of light and humidity for optimum performance.

The “1100 Farm,” named for the capacity of those aging hog barns, will never be quite the same. Rand and Tammy Faaborg raised their family here. Today, sons Tanner and Tyler are transforming the farm into an operation they believe will offer sustainability for the future.

“It’s been a long process,” said Tanner Faaborg. “It was a combination of things that started with my parents wanting to get out of the pig business that they had been in for a long time.”

-Farm News photo by Lori Beglund
Tanner Faaborg is shown with a few lion’s mane mushrooms in one of the greenhouses.

But just “getting out” isn’t always simple.

“They were making decent money from it, and already had a large investment in the infrastructure of the hog barns,” he said.

At the same time, Tanner Faaborg, who lives in Des Moines, was active in the nonprofit group, Urban Ambassadors, which encourages sustainability in any walk of life. After a long journey of research and planning, brothers Tanner and Tyler Faaborg now both work on the 1100 Farm. Tanner focuses on the business side, while Tyler is hands-on every day in the operation.

All of the Faaborgs agreed that they wanted to keep the family farm in the family, but they needed a new way to accomplish that.

“We noticed a lot of family farms around here being bought up and torn down,” Tanner Faaborg said. “I didn’t want that to happen. I don’t think anyone wanted that to happen, but we needed to figure out a way to put those barns to use that would make money.”

They never dreamed that the answer might be found in edible and medicinal mushrooms.

In the process of brainstorming alternatives over a few years, the Faaborgs found a group known as “The Transfarmation Project.” This group partners with family farmers to find new ways of growing a living with the natural resources available in their particular operation.

Many of the participating farms have transitioned from confinement animal agriculture to specialty crops, ranging from mushrooms to hemp, produce and flowers.

Tanner Faaborg credits Transfarmation with being very helpful in researching new ideas and making the transition possible.

“They helped pay for consulting fees to keep that brainstorming going,” he said. “I stumbled upon mushrooms, and fell in love with mushrooms. I’m learning more about them every day.”

The pens of the old confinement system are long gone, now replaced with interior greenhouses and sophisticated humidity control systems.

“We grow specialty mushrooms focusing on their medicinal benefits,” Tanner Faaborg said. “We cultivate those, harvest, and then we make products out of them, again focusing on the extraction of medicinal qualities.”

The farm is specializing in both Reishi and lion’s mane mushroom varieties, long used in oriental medicine for benefits ranging from cognitive clarity to digestive health. The lion’s mane is so named for its shaggy white growth that some say resembles a lion’s mane.

Using a dual extraction process, the mushrooms are first dehydrated, then soaked in alcohol before the mixture is boiled and simmered in the second phase to capture the medicinal properties. This lengthy process results in a tincture, which can then be consumed by the droplet, or put in coffee, juice, or water.

“The tincture comes in a one-ounce dropper,” Tanner Faaborg said. “It’s highly concentrated.”

From the growing process to harvest, to extraction and then preparing the finished product for consumers, it’s a long journey, but the Faaborgs are finding it very rewarding.

“What’s amazing is that right now we are getting so many testimonials coming in from strangers that are telling us all the different ways that our tinctures and coffees are making them feel better,” Tanner Faaborg said. “That’s rewarding and exciting to hear.”

In addition to the tinctures, the 1100 Farm has its own coffee line that blends medicinal mushrooms with locally-roasted beans. For those who don’t care for a tincture or the taste, the blended coffees are a popular choice.

“Our coffee is a great tasting coffee from a local roaster, and then we add in the dehydrated, pulverized mushroom,” Tanner Faaborg explained.

In addition to the medicinal mushroom market, the Faaborgs are working on edibles for the restaurant and food retail market. They are hoping to grow this side of the business in the future, experimenting with oyster mushrooms as a popular food choice.

“Right now, it’s a capacity issue,” Tanner Faaborg said. “This is a pilot project, and we’re in phase one, so it’s still a learning process.”

In the future, they hope to offer oyster mushrooms to restaurants and retail food outlets.

The Faaborgs put emphasis on learning as they go, and sharing what they have learned with others who might want to make similar changes on their own farm. As part of their transformation effort, they are becoming a hub to serve as a farm where others can come to learn and explore new venues for the future.

“We’re not just transitioning the hog barn, we’re transitioning the entire farm and changing it into a demonstration hub, so there’s a lot of conservation efforts going on,” Tanner Faaborg said.

One of the biggest conservation efforts has been the restoration of the former lagoon.

“There was 30 years of crud that we had excavators clean out to get to the clay base,” Tanner Faaborg said. “We’re also reshaping it so it’s conducive to habitat, and we installed a filtration system to have clean water so we can go swimming on hot days.”

His dad is looking forward to stocking the pond and creating a fun place for family to fish.

“We’re fishing people, so we’re anxious to have some fish down there,” Rand Faaborg said. “I’ve been battling that pit for years, so this is just a fantastic change.”

Other environmental changes they have made on the farm include a pollinator garden, waterway restoration, and tree plantings.

“We’re in the middle of planting trees to create a riparian bumper strip along the creek and the pasture,” Tanner Faaborg said. “Next we are doing an oxbow restoration for the creek.”