Canada’s first vertical mushroom farm is sprouting in Nisku

Inside a misty growing room, meat hooks hang what look like punching bags, covered in pink oyster mushrooms.

By Lisa Johnson
Edmonton Journal
Jan 2, 2019
(Must see. Mike)

Excerpt:

“We’re creating an artificial tree for these mushrooms to grow on,” said Rachel Gruger, who co-owns Gruger Family Fungi with her husband, Carleton Gruger.

The Nisku operation is the only indoor vertical mushroom farm of its kind in Canada. It specializes in tree-loving mushrooms, so you won’t see any regular grocery store portobello or button mushrooms growing here.

“These ones have a smoky, bacon-like flavour. And they’re starting to show their gills, so they could be harvested right now and put into a stir-fry,” said Rachel Gruger.

In just three years, the Grugers went from farming their first mushrooms in a converted shipping container to producing about 12,000 pounds of mushrooms per month in their Nisku facility.

“What we can do in a day on our farm now took us a whole season then,” said Gruger.

The startup came from a desire to produce food and to start fresh.

Read the complete article here.