Louis Lescarboura, Mushroom Magnate

Louis Lescarboura, Mushroom Magnate: From Oloron in the South of France to Oxford in the South of Pennsylvania, Fred Kelso, Hengwrt Publishing Co., Oxford, PA, 2009, ill., 32 pp., eBook only

Modern mushroom cultivation began in the U.S. around 1905, after Florence Patterson and Benjamin Duggar of the US Bureau of Plant Industry successfully perfected pure culture mushroom spawn in the sterile environment of their laboratories. Louis Lescarboura was one of the earliest successful users of this spawn. He eventually moved to southern Chester County, Pennsylvania to join the rapidly growing industry around Kennett Square. Over the course of his career he helped to start trade organizations; was awarded several patents; owned mushroom plants, spawn plants, and canning plants; and overall left a lasting positive mark on the mushroom industry and on his adopted hometown of Oxford. The mushroom business was really a second career for this talented man, who was trained in his native France as a chef, and who indeed was once named one of the greatest chefs in America.

This would make a great gift for anyone interested in mushrooms, the mushroom industry, culinary history, agricultural history, Oxford, or Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania!