The gift of a grow-your-own mushroom kit has spawned the beginning of a gourmet mushroom farm in inner-city Brisbane.
Key points:
- A Brisbane couple started their own mushroom farm after receiving a grow-your-own kit
- They grow exotic mushroom varieties out of shipping containers in their inner-city backyard
- COVID-19 forced them to diversify from restaurant trade to online workshops and home deliveries
Amy Christensen and Mickey Pascoe grow exotic mushrooms inside shipping containers in the backyard of their West End home.
"I got a grow kit as a gift one Christmas and to be honest, we didn't do anything with it straight away, it was just something we put on the shelf for later," Ms Christensen said.
"When we did grow it, it was just amazing."
At the time, Mr Pascoe was teaching business and Ms Christensen was working as a graphic designer.
Both were keen to ditch their desk jobs.
From that first foray into growing a few mushrooms of their own, it wasn't long before the couple decided to try and make mushrooms their meal ticket.
"We actually pulled down an air conditioner from our own bedroom to cool down a room to allow mushrooms to grow while we sweated upstairs," Mr Pascoe said.
"That helped us to know what we can grow and what we can't, and now we focus on oyster [mushrooms] but we have branched out to a lot of different varieties that are weird and wonderful."
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From mushrooms called "lion's mane" to pink, blue, gold and orange varieties, Mr Pascoe and Ms Christensen are now fully immersed in the fascinating world of fungi.
"When we ate the oyster mushrooms, it was just a completely different flavour and experience to the traditional button mushrooms that we had both grown up eating," Ms Christensen said.
"Then we discovered there were more species and they all had their own flavour and textures.
"It wasn't just something that you added to bulk out a meal; it became like the hero of the meal."
'Mushrooms wait for no-one'
Once they felt confident in their ability to grow exotic mushrooms, they started sounding out local chefs to see if there would be a market for their produce.
"Exotic mushrooms, like enokis and oysters and king mushrooms, are mostly all mass-produced in overseas farms," Ms Christensen said.
"In the restaurants, they're mostly coming from Korean farms, so they're being shipped a really long way and that wasn't really well known.
"When we were putting a box of king browns in front of a chef, they could snap them in half they were so crisp and fresh, whereas the ones that have travelled for a few weeks on a ship, they were almost a bit rubbery, so it was almost like a different mushroom to them and it got them excited about using our fresh produce."
Social media helped to grow a local appetite.
The more unique mushrooms are a food photographers dream.
"Just before COVID-19 we were doing around about 120 kilos a week, 95 per cent of that through the restaurants in Brisbane and a small amount through the markets," Mr Pascoe said.
As mushrooms double in size every 24 hours, they need to be closely monitored to make sure they're harvested in the perfect picking window.
"Mushrooms wait for no-one, they keep you on your toes," Ms Christensen said.
"We do a check in the morning and assess what needs to be picked and then we'll do another check before we leave in the afternoon."
"If anyone asks us, 'Do you want to come out tonight? Want to go do something?', we're always saying, 'No, we've got to pick mushrooms,'" Mr Pascoe said.
"The mushrooms never stop growing and we pick them at their top premium level."
Finding a market post-COVID-19
Like every business that relies on restaurant trade, the farm has been heavily affected by COVID-19.
The forced closure of eateries prompted a reduction in their market for fresh mushrooms by almost 85 per cent.
"Luckily, we'd pivoted at the end of last year and started diversifying with home deliveries and also into teaching people to grow mushrooms and grow-at-home kits," Mr Pascoe said.
Most recently, the pair have been working to move their "mushroom masterclass", which is usually presented in person, online.
"Being able to teach people how to grow their own food has been a real joy to both Amy and myself," Mr Pascoe said.
"Just sharing that joy and seeing how people can use recycled materials to grow their own food, in their own home, relatively simply and fast."
Watch this story on ABC TV's Landline at 12:30pm or oniview.