84 CHESTER COUNTY PRESS - MUSHROOM GUIDE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015
For most, the mushroom business is a family business. But Chuck Bartoli chose to enter the highly competitive industry on his own. He started out helping his friends as they worked on mushroom farms, and learned every aspect of the business. More than a decade ago, he purchased nearly 100 acres and designed his ideal mushroom farm. Bartoli had...
A vision for success By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer Chuck Bartoli’s introduction to the mushroom industry came when he was a youngster growing up in the Mushroom Capital of the World. “I went to Kennett High School,” Bartoli explained, “and all my friends were in the family business—mushrooms.” By the time he was 12 or 13, Bartoli was putting in long hours on those mushroom farms. “All my friends were hard workers,” he explained. “We worked after school and on weekends. We picked mushrooms. We cleaned up. We did a little bit of everything.” That hard work continued through high school. By the time Bartoli was ready to embark on a career, he knew that he wanted to enter the mushroom business. Bartoli knew many of the families that operated multigenerational mushroom businesses—the Bascianis, the Guizzettis, the Valloranis. “We all grew up together and we all worked together,” Bartoli explained. “A big part of it is, when you go to school together and you’re friends first, then you do business together.” By working at different mushroom farms and doing virtually every job that a person can do, Bartoli learned the basics of the business. One particularly valuable lesson was learning how to grow a good product. “There is a skill to growing,” he explained. “I learned early on how to make compost. Compost is necessary for good growing. Your production gets better and more consistent with good compost. It’s just like how a plant will grow better in good soil.” After graduating from high school, as Bartoli embarked on
Photo by Steven Hoffman
Chuck Bartoli started his own mushroom business on a farm in Penn and Londonderry townships. CT Bartoli Mushrooms produces 400,000 pounds of mushrooms each week.
Courtesy photo
CT Bartoli Mushrooms is situated on approximately 100 acres on the border between Penn Township and Londonderry Township.
Courtesy photo
Construction of the mushroom farm took place between 2003 and 2004.