Publications explaining how to grow mushrooms

He landed a job as a University of Minnesota researcher, exploring alternatives to fossil fuels as oil prices spiked. But as oil prices stabilized Doyle guessed the federal funding for alternative fuels research would decline and he'd soon be out of a job.

He remembers stepping into an office lobby as he waited for a friend to join him for lunch and leafing through a National Research Council journal he found on a nearby table devoted to economies in developing countries. There along with the other articles was a short chapter on mushroom growing.

Doyle says his curiosity led him to other publications explaining how to grow in mediums made of straw and sawdust, both abundant in Minnesota.