The establishment of Epicurean Food Group’s (EFG) multi-million-dollar, vertically integrated mushroom production facility has Adelaide poised to become the exotic mushroom capital of Australia.

The first of its kind in Australia, the facility aims to provide more than 20,000 tons of exotic mushrooms to the consumer retail sector per annum.

EFG is a producer of a large range of exotic fungi as well as low allergen and gluten free food. Most of its products are based on oyster mushrooms and include vegan friendly mushroom burgers and sausages, which it provides to supermarkets around the country.

The company says it wants to significantly reduce Australia’s reliance on imported exotic mushrooms, which are becoming increasingly popular due to taste, versatility and health benefits.

The facility is currently set on 4000sqm, and comprises of six growing rooms spanning 20 metres long and 6 metres high.

Before the end of 2024, the facility is set to expand to occupy to 35,000sqm, where thousands of Oyster, Shiitake, Enoki, King Oyster and Lion’s Mane mushrooms will grow in columns up to 13 metres high in specially designed growing rooms.

Source: Food and Drink Business

Kyle Davey is a man with many hats. He's been a sheep farmer, a builder, a beekeeper and the local postman.

Two years ago, he decided he needed a winter off - but with all those skills under his belt, it's no surprise he got bored.

But an idea was sprouting, and by happy coincidence, eventually some pretty fungi turned into a serious horticultural enterprise.

I thought 'I've got to find something to do while I'm at home," Kyle says. "I saw some ready-to-grow bags and got addicted from there." Kyle says he's always been interested in mushrooms and simply got carried away.

He and his wife Cath live up one of New Zealand's longest no-exit road - Waitotara Valley Road in Taranaki. It's where the couple have landed since meeting in Australia where Cath worked as a theatre nurse.

Source: RNZ.co

The targets for a mushroom farm are amongst others:

• Meet market requirements
• Good quality at the lowest possible harvesting costs

To meet the market requirements the farm needs about the same amount of mushrooms every day, seven days per week. Maybe a bit more on one day than the other depending on sales. This means generally picking seven days per week.

The home screen on your smartphone or tablet isn’t just a place where your apps live. You can also add shortcuts to websites. Having a shortcut on your mobile eliminates the need for you to go to your browser and search for the link or typ the website link. So, in a nutshell, a shortcut makes it quicker for you to open the website and it's always right there when you 'need' it!

Here's how to create the Mushroom Matter 'App' on your device, allowing you to access the shortcut directly from your home screen.

For iPhone/iPad

• Open Safari
• Go to www.mushroommatter.com
• Tap the Share button at the bottom (with the iPad at the top). It's the square icon with the arrow pointing up
• Tap Add to Home Screen
• Optionally, tap the name of the site and type a different name
• Tap Add

For Android

• Open the Chrome browser
• Go www.mushroommatter.com
• Tap a three-dot icon at the top right
• Tap Add to home screen
• Give the site a recognizable title or leave the default name
• Tap Add and optionally Add again

That’s all there is to it. From now on you’ll be able to go straight to Mushroom Matter on your mobile, with just a single tap.
Oh, and before we forget, we have kept the home screen very minimalist. Just select your preferred pages by clicking on the icons!

Mycelia could form the architecture of future computer brain interfaces

Wetware: the concept of merging hardware and software with living tissue. It has been science-fiction fodder for decades. We've seen it in TV shows like Star Trek with the blind character Geordi La Forge's visor that allows him to see and in video games like the Deus Ex franchise, where all sorts of electronics can be fused to those who can afford it.

Much of science fiction is just an imaginative extension of scientific reality -- wetware is nothing new. Neural interfaces and other devices have been in development for decades. Some of them even work to an extent. A primary obstacle has been getting solid-state components to communicate with organic material. The two are so dissimilar it's challenging to create a way to translate one to the other, but what if electronics were made from organic matter?

That's what researchers at the Unconventional Computing Laboratory (UCL) at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) want to discover. The scientists there have developed a mushroom computer.

Source: Techspot, by Cal Jeffrey

e-nema is very happy that the Mushroom Days can finally take place again after this long break. e-nema is pleased to be represented there with a stand. The mushroom market is developing very dynamically and so does the demand for biological plant protection products. With their nematode products, Sciarid flies and Phorid flies can be effectively controlled in mushroom cultivation. You can find more information on the use of their nematodes on their website or at the Mushroom Days at stand 25. e-nema looks forward to a personal exchange.

  

GROTIME invites all partners and customers (current and future) to visit their stand at the trade fair during Dutch Mushroom Days 2023. They welcome especially anyone who wants to increase picking productivity with modern solutions in the form of mushroom picking lorries and adaptive solutions for installation in existing trolleys!

Mushroom Days will be organized in the Brabanthallen in Den Bosch, on Wednesday 10, Thursday 11 and Friday 12 May, 2023. The Dutch Mushroom Days is the biggest international tradeshow for mushroom industry. Their stand will be here:

ChampFood International is located in Vierlingsbeek, North Brabant. They produce ChampFood, a natural and organic mushroom supplement, which is available worldwide.

Their company was founded in 1990 by Toon Donkers and Jan Baltussen and has since then been active as producer, supplier, and distributor of ChampFood supplementary food for the mushroom industry.
From the start, the founders worked on higher productivity - and therefore bio-efficiency - of the fully grown compost, by developing an improved type of supplement.
In addition they developed a specific treatment that ensured that the added proteins were released even more equally during the flushes.

In 2008 the company moved to its current production location, enabling further growth and innovation. In addition, the team was reinforced with the arrival of Eric Vernooij, who has enriched the sales team with his knowledge of mushroom cultivation.

Technological development
Through the continuous use of the latest technology in terms of absorption requirements and based on in-depth nutritional and practical knowledge of composting and cultivation, ChampFood has become a market leader with a leading product; ChampFood now supplies a wide variety of products for supplementing the cultivation of white and brown mushrooms and other mushroom exotic species all over the world.

An important part of their success is the good relationship with their customers. Intensive cooperation with their customers enables them to adapt customised supplement compositions to the type of compost/recipe. Their customers let them know that they appreciate that flexibility. As a result, they have developed a large number of customized recipes for their customers over the years.

Challenge
A rapidly growing world population that demands more food is a difficult issue. Because the mushroom sector is relatively flexible and can therefore respond well to these problems, ChampFood sees many developments in mushroom cultivation. Fortunately, a lot of knowledge is shared within the mushroom industry, often originating from Dutch roots.

The production of mushrooms is possible with raw materials such as straw, horse, and chicken manure and the harvest can take place both manually and mechanically. Innovative hand harvesting systems are increasing, although they require high investments. The costs of raw materials and energy are also increasing. It is therefore important that the harvest produces enough to compensate for investments and costs.

The importance of efficiency
In the future, the viability of a production company will no longer be determined solely by the maximum number of kilos of mushrooms per m2, but also by keeping the costs per cultivation area as low as possible, so that the highest possible return can be generated. This requires the highest possible bio-efficiency of the substrate. Supplementing the substrate will therefore become even more essential. It now appears that the worldwide production of mushrooms is 15% to 20% higher when using a supplementary substrate. ChampFood is convinced that supplementation will therefore play an even more significant role, especially since the cost of supplement is less than 5% of the total costs per m2 of cultivation area (not even taking into account energy and labor costs). This makes the application of supplements a very healthy and solid investment.

ChampFood would like to welcome you during the Mushroom Days at their stand number 53.