How are your mushrooms grown?Updated 7 months ago

By us! Did I mention that?

MYCRO has two farms, one in Osborne Park in Western Australia and one in Ballarat in Victoria. The farms are sealed off from the outside world and allow us to create a mushroom paradise.

A mushroom paradise consists of cool, fresh air and humidity. Like a forest. This environment is a continual balancing act powered by a heap of solar panels on our roof.

As for the organic "substrate" ingredients, unless otherwise stated (e.g. for Cordyceps when they are in stock):

We use Australian sawdust. Our sawdust is a waste-product from the timber industry. The tree species can vary, but its always natural and has never been treated (the mushrooms wouldn't like that).

We add lupin hulls for a cellulose and nitrogen kick. This is how we get the huge clusters you'll see on our Instagram. Lupins are nitrogen fixers, so they don't need fertiliser and thrive in dry sandy soils. WA is the largest producer of them in the world and they're grown in SA, Vic and NSW too.

We steam sterilise the substrate blocks to remove anything that could compete with our mushrooms (molds, bacteria, other mushrooms) and then we add in some grain spawn (like a starter culture).

The next few weeks to months, depending on the species, involve moving the blocks from different rooms or "climates" to mimic their life in nature.

No pesticides, no fertilisers, no herbicides and certainly no fungicides are used at any point. Just some water to create humidity in the grow room.

The mushrooms have a great life and so do we getting to work in a very clean and cool environment.