Don’t Try It
’til You’ve Nocced It
Growing your own mushrooms gets a boost in Saxapahaw By Maria Johnson
58 O.Henry
W
earing the knit headband and sun-kissed cheeks of an avid outdoorswoman, Jeanne Verrecchio traces her mushroom obsession to the COVID pandemic. Last summer, she spent some of her down time watching the Netflix documentary Fantastic Fungi. “I said, ‘This is what I want to do. I want to learn about mushrooms,’” says Verrecchio, her Brooklyn accent underlining her earnestness. She slipped down the fungal slope quickly. She read up on edible mushrooms. A friend up the street gave her a growing kit for Christmas. In January, when Verrecchio retired from her job as an oncology nurse at Duke University Medical Center, her colleagues threw her a going-away party in The Art & Soul of Greensboro
