Growing gourmet mushrooms

F2F: Growing gourmet mushrooms A mushroom farm in Baden, Ont. is growing thanks to a surge in interest in gourmet mushrooms.

Mushrooms can make or break many dishes and as more consumers look to buy local, an operation in Baden is looking to fill that gap.

The Caring Mushroom Co. grows gourmet mushrooms to be served at local restaurants and on community farms.

Eric Cyr-Smith runs the business from a rented space at Two Calves Standing, a farm in Baden.

“[We grow] Lion's mane, Shitake, and Blue Oyster mushrooms,” Cyr-Smith said.

Cyr-Smith uses growing tents and a unique set up mixing lighting and humidity to produce the gourmet mushrooms. A humidification reservoir blows a fog into the growing area and an H-Vac system, electricity and water is used so mushrooms can be grown year round.

"I've got a HEPA filter and a bunch of pre filters to make sure that the air quality going into the tent is clean and my harvest areas are clean," Cyr-Smith said.

The mushrooms are grown in bags known as blocks, which can produce two or three yields of mushrooms per block. Cyr-Smith said the whole process is quite sustainable, as once the blocks can no longer be used for food they're then donated to local farmers for compost.

Cyr-Smith started growing mushrooms at home as a hobby about seven or eight years ago. At first, he was more focused on the psychedelic aspects of the fungi, but realized how good he was at growing and started selling for food about three years ago.

Taking a true farm to table approach, one of Cyr-Smith's main customers is Janet Lynn's Bistro in Kitchener, which orders from him every month.

"They're good mushrooms, everybody loves them," Nelson Zepeda, Chef and Owner of Janet Lynn's Bistro said. "Most of the time I get like five pounds of each [mushroom variety]."

Most of Cyr-Smith’s yields go to Community Supported Agriculture, where community members invest in a farmer early in the season and receive a share of the crop.

One of those farms leading that process and using his mushrooms is Fertile Ground Farm in St. Agatha.

"People are very excited about the mushrooms. Sometimes I'm a little bit jealous because they seem more excited about the mushrooms than their vegetables," Angie Koch, Lead Farmer at Fertile Ground Farm said. "About 25 per cent of our customers get the mushrooms as an add on to their shares. So it's about 80 households a week.”

Cyr-Smith also just started a subscription service for home deliveries or pickups through Legacy Greens in downtown Kitchener. He’s also started a program giving to the Food Bank of Waterloo Region.

While he's been in the business of selling gourmet mushrooms for nutrition for three years now, Cyr-Smith hopes to expand his operations and explore the world of wellness related to certain types of mushrooms in the future.

"It's a long procedure and that would be something I'd be interested in getting into," Cyr-Smith said.