Continental Mushrooms :: Fun-gi Facts and Fables

France was the first to cultivate rnushrooms on a commercial basis in the late 19th century.
There are 2000 different species of mushrooms eaten throughout the world, but the most common variety cultivated is the white button.
Since the beginning of recorded history, over 4500 years ago, mushrooms were an important staple in the diets of aborigines.
Mushrooms were also very popular in the civilizations af China, Egypt and Greece. Egyptian pharaohs and Roman emperors actually went so far as to forbid commoners from eating mushrooms; stricty reserving them for nobility only!
Mushrooms are a favorite food of Canadians, and at 2.8 kilograms, Canadians enjoy one of the world's highest levels of per capita mushroom consumption.

CONTINENTAL'S CHALLENGING CULTIVATION CYCLE OR "HERE A MUSHROOM, THERE A MUSHROOM"

[Photo - Fresh Mushrooms] 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 marvelous miracles are very difficult to grow commercially. From preparing the growing medium to shipping them to your neighbourhood grocery store, the process is labor intensive with many variables that can determine the outcome.

These "finicky fungi" need a 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. [Photos - Making the Compost] Cocoa bean shells, cottonseed hulls and soybean meal are added and the mixture is formed into long rows, which are flipped, every second day to re-mix and add air. Every other day the rows go through this very large machine, which again mixes the compost and forms it into the rows. 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" is a large building that houses six tunnels that are 3 meters high, 3 meters wide and 84 feet long. The compost is transferred to the tunnels by a very large conveyor machine and front-end loaders. Here the compost undergoes a conditioning process for one week. The air temperature, percentage of oxygen and ventilation are monitored and adjusted by computers. [Photos - The Tunnels] This results in an aerobic, homogeneous compost that the spawn, (mushroom seeds) are delighted to grow in and organisms that can be harmful to the crop will not have survived.

The finished compost is ready for the mushroom spawn (seeds) that are added to the compost as it is removed from the tunnels and transported to the mushroom growing buildings. Our farm has 32 growing rooms that are 20 ft. wide and 80 ft. long. There are 4 growing beds per floor and three floors per room resulting in a total of 264,320 square feet of growing space in the farm.

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