Fergus Brown and Michael Townsend have spent many nights sitting together on the porch musing about life and business, hypothetically roadtesting entrepreneurial ideas.
Then the opportunity arose to invest in some mushroom growing equipment. Neither of them knew how to grow mushrooms but $10,000 and a grow course later Fergus says the door cracked open and they were “completely infatuated”.
The friends became business partners and forged Mr Brown and Towns.
In a cold, industrial complex at St Leonards, formerly home to Killafaddy meat works, they’ve rapidly scaled the urban mushroom farm over the past five years.
Their weekly yield has grown from a humble 20kg to 400kg.
Fergus says when they started out, they were piece-rate tree planting together each day.
“It was a really good precursor to small business; carrying 30kg on your back, walking up mud slopes in the middle of winter,” he says. After seven hours in the field, they’d start painting, cleaning and fitting out the “blank canvas” space.
Armed with a thick (and somewhat outdated, as they later realised) encyclopaedia of black and white fungi photos, they began.
Michael says they soon discovered an established community of mushroom growers in the United States on YouTube, from whom they’ve garnered many tips on creating time-efficient processes.
From the DIY measuring and bagging system that fills grow bags with sawdust pellets and soybean hulls, to the upcycled hot water cylinder with an artificial float valve used to sterilise and pasteurise them, the pair have created a streamlined, “bootstrapped” operation.
As we speak it’s a Friday morning, and kilos of their vibrant, freshly harvested mushrooms are being packaged for the weekend’s Harvest and Farmgate markets.
Aside from public sales, Mr Brown and Towns supply restaurants and cafes across the state with five different oyster mushrooms, plus five exotic varieties.
Fergus says within this hyperlocal market, they’ve fostered quality relationships with chefs across the state.
Over the whirring of fans, Michael explains their growing process, which he says is a fun mix of farming and science.
Pasteurised grow bags are cooled in the laboratory/incubation room then they add mushroom mycelium (rye berries sourced from a lab in Melbourne).
In the 20°C space that replicates an underground environment, the blocks incubate for a minimum of two weeks before moving to the fruiting room.
The fruiting room sits at a noticeably cooler 12°C, filled with racks upon racks of grow bags at different stages.
Michael explains how making an incision in colonised mushroom bags kick-starts growth.
“There’s light, there’s humidity in the air and there’s fresh air and that’s what triggers the mycelia to produce the fruit – the mushroom is the fruit of the tree, in essence.”
In Tasmania, little interference is required to create the ideal growing temperature and relative humidity.
Bags are rotated through the fruiting room over the course of a month, with each block providing two ‘flushes’ of fungi, two weeks apart.
The remaining matter is sold to a local landscaping supply store as mushroom compost.
The pair fill the building’s bleak interior with an unmistakable passion and energy for what they do.
The venture ticked a lot of boxes from the outset – market, opportunity to scale, financial viability, suitable skills – but Fergus says ethical and sustainable practices are the final and most important criteria.
“The moral comfort that you have in your job is gradually rising to the top of my list. This job ticks that one well and truly.
“It’s an industry that I feel good to be part of,” Michael adds.
“If you have the capacity to do the right thing, you should and not because you’ll get called out but because it’s the right thing to do.
“It brings a joy into your job.”
Five years in, they’re outgrowing the space and still not meeting the demand in Tasmania.
Fergus says thanks to a government grant they can expand into a vacant area next door, doubling their capacity, which would have otherwise been a pipedream.
Fergus and Michael are teaming up with fellow local growers from Tunnel Hill, West Tamar Fungi, Hillwood Fresh Food Co, 24 Carrot Gardens and Big Heart to present Fungi Festival Tasmania throughout June.
@fungithefestival fungithefestival.com.au
This article first appeared in Lume magazine issue 16, June 2024.
Comentarios