Mushrooms a blessing for Mepkin Abbey

The Berkeley Independent — He eases down a narrow walkway between 60 columns of oyster mushrooms that hang like fragile punching bags.

In his square-shaped glasses, trucker hat and blue-collar jumpsuit, he may not look like it, but Brother John Corrigan is a monk . . . and a farmer, a business manager, and Mepkin Abbey’s mushroom-growing expert.

Later he will don his monk vestment – a white and brown robe with a hood – and enter the chapel for Noon prayer.

But not before a morning’s worth of work in one of eight former tractor-trailer containers that grow oyster mushrooms, and a hangar-shaped building where rows of shiitake mushrooms grow on shelves.

The monks and other monastic guests must work to cover their daily expenses, according to Mepkin Abbey Communications Director Mary Jeffcoat.

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