Two Iowa farmers have transformed their family's former hog operation into a speciality mushroom business, turning infrastructure once built for thousands of pigs into spaces for growing lion's mane and oyster mushrooms. The Faaborg family, which once raised about 8,000 hogs a year, ended its animal-farming contract in October 2022 after decades in the industry. Their operation, now called 1100 Farm, has repurposed half of a 200-foot hog barn into mushroom-growing and processing space, while a former manure pit has been converted into a freshwater pond. With support from the Transfarmation Project, the family has expanded into value-added products including mushroom tinctures, flavoured salts, coffee and hot chocolate.
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