We’ve moved all of the mushroom supplies from the basement on Hill St to our farm building at 333 Second Ave. Building permits have been requested, contractors are lined up, and temporary grow tents have been erected. We are in business!! What an incredible journey this has been. Years of playing around with “what ifs…” and all it took was the right nudge to turn dreams into realities.
Myceliating Mushrooms!
One of the final steps for growing mushrooms is allowing the mycelium to colonize the substrate. The bags in this picture have had fungi spreading through them for weeks now. As soon as we have our humidification systems set up we will be seeing various mushrooms fruiting! We have shiitake, Maitake, Lion’s Mane, and a few different types of oysters all ready to go!
We brought in a few more donations outside of GoFundMe bringing the total raised to nearly $7,000, and we finally heard back from the NYS Attorney General’s office about accepting investor capital. Several friends and family have graciously dedicated larger sums to help us get off our feet and will become partial owners of the company. I really am overwhelmed by how quickly all of this has moved. We are cleared for takeoff and gaining speed!
Our next steps are all dependent upon the dominoes currently being set up. Once we have the building permit, construction can begin, once we’ve begun construction we can schedule the Good Agricultural Practices inspection and the grand opening / ribbon cutting. Once we get the G.A.P. certification we can begin writing contracts for wholesale deals to restaurants. For now, we can secure spaces in farmer’s markets and sell the mushrooms we are growing in our temporary tents! Our wheels are rolling down that runway! We are about to take flight!
September Competition Winner:
September’s Competition had no submissions. (Post a picture of a colored coloring book page.) but here are a few pages Avery was able to color:
Mushroom of the Month
Hen of the woods (Grifola frondosa)
A great shot of Amy with two giant (and hence beyond ripe) Grifolas found during a foraging walk.
Amy whipped up an incredible dish with the maitake and cauliflower. Baked steaks of cauliflower, and sauteed maitake and onions served on a bed of riced cauliflower cooked with herbs and onion. Garnished with dill fronds. It was delicious!
Coming Soon:
During the month of October we will be harvesting oysters; these are the mushrooms in our stock with the fastest turn around from inoculation to production. We will begin fruiting lion’s mane, and shiitake, but they may not ripen before the end of the month. We are days away from securing our building permit, so construction should start next week on our sterilization and grow rooms.
We are not really open for business yet, but if you’d like to swing on in and take a look at what’s going on we are generally at 333 Second Ave weekdays from 10am to 3pm.
Collar City Mushrooms 