Growing successful spores: Leader in mushroom production has a lasting impact
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Media Contact: Sophia Fahleson | Digital Communications Specialist | 405-744-7063 | sophia.fahleson@okstate.edu
Redefining local agriculture, Virgil Jurgensmeyer used his personal experiences to create a farm-to-table success story.
Now, his company, J-M Farms, is considered a national force in mushroom production, growing more than 500,000 pounds of mushrooms a week.
Yet, the journey from spore to supper is anything but simple, said Curtis Jurgensmeyer, chairman of J-M Farms and son of the late Virgil and Marge Jurgensmeyer. With a master’s in agricultural education, Virgil Jurgensmeyer began his professional career as an industrial arts teacher in Elden, Missouri, he said.
After teaching, Virgil Jurgensmeyer went to work for Ralston Purina in St. Louis, where he managed a turkey processing plant.
“Ralston built several locations around the country,” Curtis Jurgensmeyer said. “Eventually, they moved my father back to their corporate office in St. Louis, and he remotely oversaw all the mushroom farms east of the Mississippi River, and his co-worker, Daryl McLain, oversaw the mushroom farms west of the Mississippi River.”
The two worked together at the Ralston Purina corporate office. After working in a corporate environment, the pair felt managing mushroom facilities from a remote location no longer satisfied their career goals, Curtis Jurgensmeyer said. The pair left Purina in 1979 and purchased land in Miami, Oklahoma.
“They started construction in 1979,” Curtis Jurgensmeyer said. “They picked their first mushrooms in March of 1980. The farm was designed to grow 40,000 pounds of mushrooms a week. We’ve had multiple expansions to get where we are now.”
In May 1987, Senate Bill 187 was signed into action, setting in motion development of the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center and envisioning an Oklahoma trade program to enhance the marketability and processing of Oklahoma products, said Roy Escoubas, the FAPC director.
“Virgil was a charter member of the center’s Industry Advisory Committee,” Escoubas said, “and he became one of the 15 people who were appointed to serve.”
The committee oversees the center’s prioritization, internal operations, business programs and much more, Escoubas said. Virgil Jurgensmeyer started as a committee member in 1997 and retired from his seat in 2020.
“After Virgil’s retirement, I recruited Curtis Jurgensmeyer to become a part of the Industry Advisory Committee,” Escoubas said, “He has held this position for five years now, following in his father’s footsteps.”
The Jurgensmeyer family felt it was time to give back to the FAPC, Escoubas said. After much discussion, the Jurgensmeyers decided to donate $250,000 in 2011 for an endowed professorship within the FAPC and focusing on food safety research.
At the time, the OSU Board of Regents would match any monetary donation toward an endowment. This opportunity led to the creation of the Virgil and Marge Jurgensmeyer Endowed Professorship.
“Once it was launched, we held a competition for the professorship here,” Escoubas said. “It was only for faculty members in the FAPC. Currently, Ravi Jadeja, associate professor, holds the professorship.”
Today, J-M Farms employs more than 400 people. All mushrooms at J-M Farms are harvested by hand, and a new mushroom crop grows every day. Picking and harvesting are conducted 365 days a year, which is necessary to ensure the highest quality of mushrooms, Curtis Jurgensmeyer said.
“We are a fully integrated company,” Curtis Jurgensmeyer said. “We make our own compost and grow, harvest, package, and distribute mushrooms to customers. We do it start to finish.”
J-M Farms is equipped with more than 33,000 beds for growing, Curtis Jurgensmeyer added. The beds are 4 feet by 6 feet and filled with homemade compost. The compost includes wheat straw, chicken litter, gypsum, urea and cottonseed meal.
“We bring in the raw ingredients ourselves,” Curtis Jurgensmeyer said. “We use on average 60 tons of wheat straw a day and gather chicken litter from local producers in the area, so our compost is environmentally friendly.”
When the compost is no longer being used, J-M Farms pasteurizes it. Not only will it kill any of the mushroom strains left behind, but also it diminishes any mold it could’ve grown during the process, he added.
After pasteurization, the remaining product is sold to people for potting soil. J-M Farms also practices sustainable agriculture by capturing water used for the mushrooms, Curtis Jurgensmeyer said.
“All water is captured, which means we don’t have any water runoff,” Curtis Jurgensmeyer said. “We also irrigate with wastewater to try and reuse as much as we can.”
The varieties grown by J-M Farms consist of white button, cremini, and portobello mushrooms. Trucks at J-M Farms distribute to corporate grocery store chains, including Walmart, Homeland, Safeway and United Supermarkets, he added.
“Deliveries are made to the Walmart distribution centers across Oklahoma,” Curtis Jurgensmeyer said. “We have trucks deliver roughly four times a week.”
Besides wholesaling, J-M Farms mushrooms are a menu staple to many restaurants, including Hideaway Pizza. J-M Farms has developed the perfect size for Hideaway’s famous fried mushroom appetizer, Curtis Jurgensmeyer said.
“The primary sizing spec is smaller than button size, so they can batter, fry, and serve them as a delicious appetizer,” Curtis Jurgensmeyer said, “I always order them when I go to Hideaway Pizza.”
A food distributor guarantees all Hideaway Pizza locations receive mushrooms from J-M Farms in a timely manner, said Balay Hartman, director of marketing and branding at Hideaway Pizza. The proximity of using local products aligns with Hideaway Pizza’s initiative to serve freshness and quality, she added.
“Hideaway Pizza is very atmosphere-driven,” Hartman said. “Our competitors are more take-out driven, so the more family fun and the higher quality of the product, the better.”
Hideaway Pizza receives two different varieties of mushrooms from J-M Farms: button and cremini.
“We have worked with our food distributor and J-M Farms throughout the years to cultivate the perfect small to mid-range mushroom for frying,” Hartman said. “We look for a good ratio of batter to mushroom in our famous appetizer.”
Hideaway Pizza incorporates sliced cremini mushrooms on the menu for toppings and specialty pizzas, Hartman said. The connection between J-M Farms and Hideaway Pizza has been active for more than 20 years, she added.
“The connection started at a Made in Oklahoma event,” Curtis Jurgensmeyer said. “This is when Hideaway Pizza was a younger company, and they wanted to know if we could grow this particular size.”
J-M Farms and Hideaway Pizza are both members of the Made in Oklahoma Coalition.
With time and innovation, Virgil Jurgensmeyer used his professional and career experiences as a gateway to build a family-owned operation. As J-M Farms continues to expand, the impact left by Virgil and Marge Jurgensmeyer remains embedded in the daily farming operations as well as the FAPC.
Fast Facts
- The original farm was built to produce 2 million pounds of mushrooms a year. J-M Farms now produces 25 million pounds.
- Mushrooms do not need sunlight to grow.
- J-M Farms picked the first mushroom crop March 13, 1980, and made their first delivery the next day.
- One cup of mushrooms has only 15 calories.
- The company was originally named J&M Farms but was later changed to J-M Farms when Virgil Jurgensmeyer purchased Daryl McLain’s interest in 1982.
- In 1991, the J-M Farms facility increased by 50%.
- Mushrooms double in size every 24 hours.
- Mushrooms are more closely related to animals than plants.
- The average American consumes roughly 4 pounds of mushrooms each year.
- When harvesting, pickers will
cut the stem of the mushroom. They then sort them by size into different containers. - Fungi breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.
- Certain varieties of mushrooms contain compounds that can help boost the immune system.
- Worldwide, button mushrooms are the most commonly consumed variety.
Sources: The American Mushroom Institute & J-M Farms
Story by Emma Farmer | Cowboy Journal