Mushrooms are a favourite food of Canadians, and at 2.8 kilograms Canadians enjoy one of the world's highest levels of per capita mushroom consumption.

France was the first to cultivate mushrooms on a commercial basis in the late 19th century. There are 2,000 different species of mushrooms eaten throughout the world, but the most common variety cultivated is the button. Since the beginning of recorded history over 4500 years ago, mushrooms were an important staple in the diets of aboriginals. Mushrooms were also very popular in the civilizations of China, Egypt, and Greece. Egyptian Pharaohs and Roman Emperors actually went as far as to forbid commoners from eating mushrooms; strictly reserving them for nobility only!

Mushrooms have been called the "Vegetarians Beefsteak" because no other vegetable comes closer to the taste and texture of meat. Romans, convinced of their strengthening powers, fed mushrooms to their soldiers to prepare them for battle. In ancient China, Egypt and Greece "wild mushrooms" were believed to have magical healing powers. In France King Louis XIII loved mushrooms so much he arranged for 2,400 kilometers (500miles) of earth covered compost beds to be created in caves outside of Paris.

"We don't keep our harvesters in the dark" Mushrooms do not require light to grow because they do not contain chlorophyll; our harvesters work in well lit, air conditioned picking rooms. We harvest 250,000 lbs of mushrooms per week and 13 million lbs per year, and are constantly applying new technology so we can mushroom even more! Our mushroom farm is unique within the industry because our growing rooms contain 3 floors instead of 1 or 2, so more production can occur within a smaller area of land. Our founder's love of gardening and his experimentation with our spent mushroom compost has resulted in many healthy, green lawns and gardens in the National Capital region. Continental is a family owned and operated second generation business.

Take the tour of the farm and we will show you how we grow the mushrooms from Composting, Pasteurization of Compost, Spawn Growth, Cultivation, Harvesting, and Post-Harvest.

You see them under trees, in the meadow or even on your front lawn, those funny – looking fungi that we call mushrooms! They seem to pop –up everywhere but these marvellous miracles are very difficult to grow commercially. From preparing the growing medium to shipping them to your neighbourhood grocery store, the process is labour intensive with many variables that can determine the outcome.

These "finicky fungi" need highly enriched compost in order to mushroom. Compost ingredients can vary with supply but the end result must be the same. Most of the compost ingredients are from the earth, a large quantity of hay or straw, corncobs and corn stalks that are purchased from local farmers.

Cocoa bean shells, cottonseed hulls and soybean meal are added and the mixture is formed into long aerated rows, which are flipped every second day to re-mix and add water. Every other day the rows go through this very large machine which again mixes the compost, adds water and forms it into rows on our aerated concrete floors. When the temperature of the compost in the middle of the rows reaches 80 degrees C and the degree of composting is sufficient it is ready for the pasteurization tunnels.

When the temperature of the compost in the middle of the rows reaches 80 degrees C and the degree of composting is sufficient it is ready for the pasteurization tunnels. The tunnels are a large building that houses six rooms that are 3 meters high, 3 meters wide and 84 feet long. The compost is then transferred to the tunnels by a very large conveyor and front end loader: First, the compost goes through a levelling process. Then, it heats up on its own and enters the pasteurization stage. Once pasteurization is complete, it then undergoes a conditioning process for approximately one week. The air temperature, percentage of oxygen and ventilation are monitored and adjusted by computers. This results in aerobic, homogeneous compost that the spawn (mushroom mycelium) is delighted to grow in and all organisms that could be harmful to the crop have been eliminated.

The pasteurized compost is now ready for the mushroom spawn that is added to the compost as it is removed from the tunnels and transported to the mushroom growing buildings. Our farm has 34 growing rooms that are 20 ft. wide and 80 feet long. There are 4 growing beds per floor and three floors per room resulting in a total of 280,840 square feet of growing space.

Once the spawn compost is transferred to the growing rooms, the growing phase begins. The spawn threads it way through the compost similar to the veins in the human body. After the threads are throughout the beds, usually about 2 weeks, a casing layer is added to the growing beds. The casing layer consists of 1.5 inches of long fibre peat moss, which can hold an enormous amount of water that is needed to grow our healthy crops. During this phase the temperature, humidity, airflow and CO2 are closely monitored with computers and adjusted as needed

The next step in the growing cycle is to change the threadlike material in the beds into 'pins" which are baby mushrooms. This is accomplished through a rapid cooling of the rooms, introduction of fresh air, forcing the threadlike material from a vegetative state to a reproductive state, where the "pins" pop up through the casing layer. A mushroom doubles its size every 24 hours, so in 10 days after the pinning process, the first break of mushrooms are ready to be picked

"We don't keep our harvesters in the dark" Mushrooms do not require light to grow because they do not contain chlorophyll; our harvesters work in well lit, air conditioned picking rooms. We harvest 250,000lbs of mushrooms per week, and are constantly applying new technology so we can mushroom even more! Our mushroom farm is unique within the industry because our growing rooms contain 3 floors instead of 1 or 2, so more production can occur within a smaller area of land.

Our harvesters are similar to magicians – their hands are quicker than the eye! All our yearly production of mushrooms is picked by hand, so the harvesters undergo intensive training. They must be able to differentiate when a mushroom is ready to be picked or can stay until the next day. They also must grade the mushrooms and be very gentle in their handling of them, as they bruise very easily.

After the mushrooms are picked they are transported to the packing building where they are rapidly cooled in a machine called a vacuum cooler. They are then further graded, weighed, wrapped and cooled again to ensure Quality and Freshness.

We deliver 7 days a week, in refrigerated trucks, so our customers enjoy the finest quality and freshness year round

A mushroom house is harvested for 21 – 25 days when the yield is the greatest. After harvesting is finished, the growing rooms are pasteurized with steam for about 12 hours at 155 degrees F. The compost in the beds is then emptied from the growing room and the whole cycle begins again.

The spent compost (that the mushrooms were grown in) is wonderful for the lawns and gardens. The highly enriched compost that is needed for the mushrooms is a terrific soil amendment and fertilizer. We take our compost ingredients from the Earth and give back to the Earth to keep it green and productive.