PINE RIVER — Sunday is Fun(gi)day in Pine River.
Strictly Mushrooms, a local gourmet mushroom business, opened a new vendor market early this summer. The market is open 10 a.m.-3 p.m. every Sunday at their farm in Pine River. Strictly Mushrooms is run by Robert Prekker, Rachel Ingberg and 10-year-old Selah.
“My goal starting this,” Prekker said, “was a place for small businesses to come together and do things together and support each other, and a place for the family to come on a Sunday to be able to relax, hang out, eat, shop, get some beverages, check out a mushroom farm, play games.”
The goal was accomplished on the first day, Prekker said.
“We had our entire parking lot packed. They were parking at the neighbor's property. I had over a third of a mile of cars parked on both sides of the highway for three hours.”
The initial success caught Prekker off guard.
“It was overwhelming and awesome to see how happy everybody was. We even had some of our regular customers who we’ve known for years literally have tears in their eyes to just be like, ‘Have you seen what you’ve done?’”
They weren’t the only ones getting a bit emotional. The turnout was felt by Prekker, too.
“No lie, I seriously teared up probably six or seven times.
From woodwork and metal work to treats for dogs — and treats for humans — the market offers a variety of goods. During the market, customers can also visit the Strictly Mushrooms building. In it, they can peer into the growing rooms and pick up a range of products: fresh mushrooms, mushroom teas, mushroom spices and more.
“It’s a place that you come for an hour-and-a-half or two hours and just sit, maybe do some shopping, maybe eat some lunch, maybe just socialize with the vendors,” Prekker said. “You meet friends, you meet family.”
The market also includes a food truck, coffee truck and plenty of picnic tables. Sprawled around are different games, like giant Connect Four and cornhole, for kids — and adults — to play with.
“My favorite part is how family friendly it is,” vendor Barbara Bingham said. “How many kids I see playing with the games that he’s got going around.”
The market offers classes as well. Every first Sunday of the month, people can do some outdoor yoga. Growing your own mushrooms, how to cook and store mushrooms, and a beginner sourdough class hosted by a vendor are also offered.
This is all part of creating Strictly Mushrooms’ vision of a vendor market.
“I told everybody from the beginning, I’m not doing a farmers market,” Prekker said. “Every town has a farmers market. I’m not doing another one.”
The market is hosted midday Sundays. That’s when they felt the community needed it, as Pine River and the surrounding areas lack things to do on Sundays, Prekker said.
“Downtown Brainerd, you can’t even get an ice cream cone in August on a Sunday morning.”
As a vendor market, Strictly Mushrooms has put an emphasis on building a community between the vendors.
“Part of the reason,” Prekker said, “was to let small businesses get together and work together to create bigger and better things.”
Some vendors now provide baked goods to a food truck operator who needs baked goods for events, Prekker said. A T-shirt graphics vendor is making shirts for a local author who read at the market on National Kids Day. And others are just learning from and supporting fellow vendors.
Strictly Mushrooms started in 2019, after a comment from Ingberg about growing mushrooms. The comment led to some research, where the two realized mushrooms weren’t limited to what you can buy at the local grocery store.
“Gourmet mushrooms actually have flavors, textures, colors,” Prekker said. “They’re very different. They’re not canned button mushrooms.”
They started growing their own mushrooms and selling their products. In 2021, they took a jump and moved their operations to an over 8,000-square-foot facility.
Despite the growth, the business is still completely run by Prekker, Ingberg and Selah. Their products are all made on the farm.
“We designed all our labels, we print all our labels, we do all our own packages,” Prekker said. “We even grow our own herbs hydroponically to mix up the mushrooms for seasoning.”
In 2026, they decided to take another jump and start the Strictly Mushrooms Vendor Market.
The idea for the market had been tossed around after they hosted an open-door event last year. They invited the public to their facility to see how it worked.
With only three flyers and a Facebook post for the event, over 100 people came. They hosted another open-door event before the school year, with the same community response.
The fact that so many people would come out for mushrooms alone got Prekker thinking. If that many people came just for Strictly Mushrooms, what would happen if there were food, games and other vendors?
In April, they reached out to 12 vendors about selling at the market. Within a week, they had a food truck lined up every weekend and 30 vendors signed up.
The market now has 56 vendors signed up. Some come each week, and others come on a varying schedule. Other than the initial 12, the rest of the market vendors approached Prekker.
“I heard from other vendors how successful they were being here,” Bingham said. “So, I reached out to Rob and asked him if he had any other vendor space.”
Prekker said this is a testament of how the community views Strictly Mushrooms.
“People just believed that we would be able to put something together that was good in a short time.”
