SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) –A lot of farmers grow corn or soybeans, but the man you’re about to meet is not your typical farmer. He grows a certain kind of crop that many others do not.

A lot of the upscale restaurants in Sioux Falls and surrounding areas buy his products and serve them to their customers.

“No one else in Sioux Falls was doing it, so I saw it as a good business opportunity,” Dan Rislov said.

Dan Rislov is growing his business, literally.

“I was doing community gardens awhile back and I was researching how to grow vegetables and I stumbled across a mushroom farmer on YouTube,” Rislov said.

From there it just kind of mushroomed into a full time business venture. Welcome to Dakota Mushrooms and Microgreens.

Although he’s been in business for eight years, Rislov admits he’s not rich.

“Not yet, but I have hopes it’s a lot of work trying to get a day off,” Rislov said.

Rislov has been growing his mushrooms and microgreens in this one thousand square foot building near Tea.

“As you can see there isn’t any growth yet, but in about two weeks it’ll look like this,” Rislov said.

Growing mushrooms is a six step process that’s a little too complicated to try to explain, but Rislov has it mastered.

He says the length of time it takes to grow mushrooms varies.

“It depends on the variety, my quickest variety takes about three to four weeks, that’s the pink oyster, some others take quite awhile,” Rislov said.

Like three to four months.

“This summer I’m growing about 200 to 3,000 bags a week,” Rislov said.

Now he’s been supplying restaurants, farmer’s markets and retail stores in Sioux Falls and surrounding areas with a variety of mushrooms and microgreens.

Customers like Crawfords, Minervas, R Wine Bar, Morries, and Maribellas.

“A lot we go through about 30 pounds of mushrooms here,” executive chef Adam Schumacher said.

Adam Schumacher is the executive chef at Marribellas. He uses Dakota Mushrooms regularly in a lot of his menu items.

“We actually use mushrooms in our risotto and it also goes on our short ribbed dish,” Schumacher said.

“and we also throw it in one of our pastas.”

“They are very very consistent, the quality is always consistent, I’ve never had any issues with them,” Schumacher said.
To grow mushrooms, everything has to be just right, including room temperature, humidity and air circulation, which is why you see so many fans.

The temperature has to be right around 65 degrees and 90 percent humidity. Mushrooms thrive in that.

“Peak season spring and fall I’m doing probably right around 10 varieties,” Rislov said.

And his most popular mushroom?

“I’d say the oyster, everybody loves the oyster,” Rislov said.

Rislov’s business recently expanded. He now has nine part time employees and he also makes and sells other mushroom products; like a candy bar, jerky, and his own mushroom spice.

So the next time, you’re dining out, and you get an order with mushrooms, there’s a pretty good chance they were grown and harvested right here.