At most supermarkets mushrooms are grown for uniformity and shelf life, and might travel long distances - even from overseas - before they end up on tables around Australia.
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But at the back of the artist studios at the old Molloy Timbermill in Bulli on the NSW south coast, there are blooms of weird and wonderful oyster and shiitake mushrooms which can land on plates within hours of being harvested.
Rory Robinson and Michael Degnen set up their new enterprise, Illawarra Mushrooms, a couple of months ago, and are determined to grow hundreds of kilos of exotic fungi to supply to grocers, markets and eateries around the region.
The pair started growing their own gourmet mushrooms at home separately a few years ago, but during the pandemic, they started looking at ways they could turn their hobby into a business.
They started growing at their local Cringila's Green Connect farm and then, with so much rain around at the end of last year, decided to set up a proper lab and warehouse at Bulli.
"So far, it's being received really well - everyone is loving the mushrooms and giving us really nice feedback," Mr Degnen said.
"We're passionate about growing sustainable food, locally and trying to inspire other people as well to grow a little bit at home, so we can get people more connected to their food and where it's grown."
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"This is actually not the "ideal environment" to grow mushrooms, but the thing for us was to try to bring food producing into the city and be urban food growers.
"We've even been thinking about trying to find a place in Wollongong, right in the centre, to show people that you can produce food on a small scale in the city. It doesn't have to be miles and miles away."
At the moment, the two men are mainly growing shiitake and a wide variety of oyster mushrooms, and have been enjoying the detailed and sometimes unpredictable process - which produces fungi with a much wider shape and colour profile than most people are used to.
Their mushrooms are organic and grown without the usual pesticides or preservatives that might be used in supermarket mushrooms to keep them fresh for weeks, and as a result, the men say they have a much richer flavour.
"A mushroom that's picked today is very different from a mushroom that is five days old - so we've been harvesting and getting them out to people straight away," Mr Robinson said.
"I think a lot of people haven't really tasted an oyster mushroom like that - the difference is immense and we're excited to be able to give that to people."
Their mushrooms are being sold through local businesses.
"We'll be approaching local grocers, maybe some IGAs and then we've just applied for Wollongong's Foragers Markets to test the waters," Mr Robinson said.
"We sold some to Opus cafe in Wollongong today, and we'll also approach some of the restaurants that really focus on local food."
The operation is as organic and sustainable as possible, and - in a time of high fuel prices and climate change - is designed to help residents and eateries cut down on their food miles.
"Our mushrooms are grown on a waste product of other industries - so sawdust and soy hulls are inside out blocks," Mr Robinson said.
"Just in this small tent that we have set up here, we can probably grow about 150kg of food each week - so you can imagine what we could grow in the whole warehouse."
The pair, who have become engrossed in the process of growing mushrooms and hope to experiment with a wider variety as they expand their business, also plans to set up some growing workshops and mushroom kits to sell in the future.
Mr Degnen says being able to share the process with the community has been the most rewarding part of his new enterprise.
"We love the process - being able to wake up in the morning and coming here doesn't feel like work, it's quite a pleasant experience because we enjoy the process," he said.
"But then actually thinking, we're growing food, we're feeding people - it feels good and feels really satiating for your soul."
They hope to see more food growing businesses spring up in the coming years.
"In the new few decades we're going to have to completely rejig the way we produce food - there's problems with food miles, issues with topsoil and soil degradation - and just bringing it back to a local level is going to be unavoidable," Mr Robinson said.
"So if we can get these systems put in place sooner rather than later, it's going to be better for everyone."
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
