In a John Deere hat, flannel shirt, and sturdy work boots, he looks like a typical farmer. But Tom Rhodes' farm is anything but typical. The crop is grown in cramped spaces about the size of a dorm room, the farm sells almost all of its production to just one customer, and the whole operation is in the midst of the University Park campus.

Rhodes manages the Mushroom Test Demonstration Facility and the Mushroom Research Center for the Department of Plant Pathology. Located in two nondescript buildings on the north end of campus, Penn State's mushroom farm is low-key, low profile, and high production. If you've eaten in a dining hall or The Nittany Lion Inn, you've probably consumed a portion of the 1,000-pound average weekly bounty of button Agaricus mushrooms produced by Rhodes and his employees.

As manager of mushroom operations since 1992, Rhodes oversees daily production in the Mushroom Test Demonstration Facility (MTDF). Despite its rather official-sounding name, the building is primarily a small-scale mushroom farm. "Most people aren't aware we even grow mushrooms on campus," Rhodes says, "but the plant pathology department has been doing research on mushrooms since the 1950s. I enjoy doing my part to help the scientists and researchers reach their goals.

"One of the biggest misconceptions about mushrooms is that they have to be grown in the dark," Rhodes explains. "Many visitors think we all work out here wearing miner's lamps. The fact is that mushrooms don't need light to grow, but the growing environment does require air-conditioning, so most growers don't use lights in order to save on utility bills."

Aside from his production duties, Rhodes also functions as a scientific partner to researchers in plant pathology, food science, and agricultural engineering. All mushroom experimental work is done at the Mushroom Research Center (MRC), another small facility a short jog down the road from the MTDF. In his research role, he can be asked to infect crops with pathogens or introduce diseases that would have commercial growers screaming with anxiety.

"We all wear surgical gloves at the MRC and sanitize our shoes and clothes every time we enter a crop room," Rhodes says. "If we get cross-contamination in any of the rooms, it can ruin whatever experiment we're working on, and I hate to see hard work wasted."

"Tom is an integral part of our research mission and our service to the mushroom industry," says plant pathology department head Elwin Stewart. "He's Penn State's mushroom grower, and he gives us a real-world perspective right here on campus."