Dawlish Warren's Forest Fungi business is well-known among top chefs and restaurateurs for its specialist, organically grown gourmet mushrooms – and among local residents for the wonderful breakfasts available at its café.

But what may be less widely known is how the enterprise came into being.

You might think this kind of business would be set up by a passionate 'foodie', or perhaps a sharp-witted entrepreneur who'd spotted a lucrative opportunity. But in fact, Forest Fungi's owner Scott Marshall got interested in mushrooms because of their medicinal properties, not their marketability.

How some mushrooms boost the immune system

Before he started the business Scott was doing a well-paid job with a furniture company, but then, he was diagnosed with cancer.

He said: "I had to go through chemotherapy, which made me quite ill, so after chemo I was looking at how to get my immunity back up – I was catching flu, and everything that was going around – and mushrooms kept coming up as a great way to repair your immunity, so that's what sparked the interest.

"There's a host of compounds in Shiitake mushrooms, Reishi and Maitake, that help to generate white blood cells, which is what get smashed during chemo."

After reading internationally-recognised research on the medicinal benefits of these mushrooms, Scott incorporated them into his diet. His immune system improved, and he made a good recovery. But one unexpected side-effect was the inspiration for a complete change of career.

"During that process, I tasted a fresh Shiitake mushroom. The supermarket mushrooms are generally grown in China, part-dried and imported. I tasted a fresh Shiitake and thought it was phenomenal, and then I started to research growing mushrooms.

"It looked commercially viable as well. I was walking away from a very well-paid job but I think with the diagnosis, it was 'I really want to do something I want to do'."

After 'loads of trials and errors', Scott and his wife Becca undertook their first commercial Shiitake mushroom growing operation in 2013. It was a success, and the business has been expanding and developing ever since.

Today, the company is run by a close-knit group of friends and relatives, and grows up to eight specialist mushroom species at any one time, including King Oyster, Yellow Oyster, Grey Oyster, Hen of the Woods, Nameko and Lion's Mane.

Celebrity chefs among the customers

It supplies chefs including Michael Rignall and Michael Caines, along with many restaurants and farm shops, delivering directly to 60 to 70 customers, as well as selling the mushrooms through its shop and website.

This year Forest Fungi was featured in celebrity chef James Martin's show Highlands to Islands. The programme was screened just as lockdown began, so the shop was not open to customers, but online demand rocketed, causing the website to crash for a week.

Visitors to Forest Fungi can take a guided tour, seeing how the mushrooms are grown organically in climate-controlled rooms replicating the conditions in which they would grow wild. "We create a Japanese autumn," said Scott. He explained that no chemicals are used, and the farm and shop are both carbon neutral, using minimal electricity. None of the shop or farm waste goes to landfill.

Forest Fungi is located at Timaru Gardens, Dawlish Warren, and the shop and café are open daily, working within the Government guidelines on social distancing. For further information visit the Forest Fungi website