lated is on sale, they have a genuine story to tell consumers about their produce; edible fungi grown organically and with a passion. And, in true American fashion, Far West Fungi offers a whole range of branded merchandise; books, clothing and other gifts. The plant in Moss Landing consists of the old farm the family first rented for nine years, and which they acquired a year ago. The state of upkeep of the farm leaves something to be desired and now that son Kyle Garrone has taken charge of growing, plans are afoot to optimise the complex.
A sawdust mix consisting of 50% American red oak is used to make the wood-based substrate, and it is split into coarse and fine particles. This dry sawdust blend is moistened and mixed to ultimately achieve a moisture content of 60%. The wetting and mixing rinses the acid out of the oak, so that the mushroom mycelium can colonise it more easily. This is followed by the traditional process of filling, autoclaving, sterile inoculation and development. On a daily basis, 3000 bags are filled with substrate and autoclaved, then cooled and inoculated the next day with spawn multi- plied by Far West Fungi itself. After colonisation, the substrate bags are placed in the various growing rooms on the site. Following the tour of the farm, we concluded the day in the Garrone’s garden with drinks and tasty bites to eat.
Amycel Spawn in San Juan Bautista At Amycel we were warmly greeted by John Kidder (vice president) and Chuck Nyland (pro-
“The growers we visited during this trip were all enthusiastic about speed spawn.”
duction manager). Nyland is in charge at the San Juan Bautista location, one of two production sites in the USA. Together with his 30-strong team, he ensures that 10-12 batches of 2000 litres of spawn are produced each day. Three products are made here at the moment: grain spawn, casing spawn and so-called speed spawn or synthetic inoculum. Our group of ‘specialists’ was particularly interested in the latter. Using speed spawn should reduce the spawn run time by a few days, as it develops faster in the com- post than spawn on a conventional grain-based carrier. The mycelium carrier for speed spawn is not grain, but a blend of nutrient-enhanced organic matter and an inert carrier material. As the material is finer in structure and resembles the nutritional value of compost more closely it should spawn faster in the compost and produce more inoculation points. The mushroom growers we visited during this trip were all enthusiastic about the product. In practice a time gain of two to three days was noted compared with conven- tional grain spawn. The production process is rather more complicated, as the end product is a more sticky and nutrient-rich material than
Ò
Pink oyster mushrooms at Far West Fungi.
MUSHROOM BUSINESS 29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
