CIC Alum Micah Garrison Featured in Charleston Magazine

Photo credit: Rachel Doblin

Congrats to CIC alum Micah Garrison, for taking the first class that DHEC certified for mushroom foraging and founding a company to sell his foraged mushrooms, Palmetto Mushrooms. 

"For almost a decade, seeking wild mushrooms was strictly a hobby for Garrison, who’s also the full-time director of food and beverage at Middleton Place, where golden chanterelles grow in droves. The property’s plethora of the nutty, apricot-scented ’shrooms inspired him to start foraging back in 2006, but Palmetto State law forbade him from selling or serving his finds. In fact, South Carolina was one of only three states in the country whose health codes were distinctly fungophobic. The laws reflected serious safety concerns—eating the wrong fungi can be lethal—but given that live oaks are the perfect hosts for chanterelles, they also meant a major local food source was untapped. 'It was heartbreaking to see a remarkable culinary resource go unutilized,” says Garrison, “especially in the dining mecca of Charleston.'”
Read more here.