Growing

23,000 tonnes of waste products from other food industries goes into making our compost every week, including 275 tonnes of wheat straw and 170 tonnes of chicken litter. That’s enough waste to fill 2.3 rugby fields! Combined at our purpose-built compost facility, it makes 1,200 tonnes of Phase 1 compost each week.

Mushrooms are one of the world’s most natural, resource efficient crops, taking just six weeks to grow from ‘seed’ to plate and using hardly any water. Just 20 litres of water is required to produce 1kg of mushrooms - that’s compared to 280 litres for 1kg of potatoes, 500 litres for 1kg of wheat, 800 litres for 1kg of apples and a whopping 2,500 litres for 1kg of rice.

Mushrooms also use minimal land space, thanks to their vertical growing method, and produce one of the biggest yields per hectare (ha). A 15ha site yields 38ha of cropping area and produces nearly 10,000 tonnes of mushrooms per year.

Find out how mushrooms can save the world.

After our compost has fulfilled its mushroom-growing duties, 100% of the used compost is recycled. Some goes to farmers and other crop growers to use as fertiliser, while some is used to grow the organic matter for future compost.

Spent compost is heat treated at the end of the mushroom cycle, so contains no weed seeds or disease when it’s introduced back to the earth. It helps improve soil structure, water properties and microbiota, and provides valuable nutrients including Phosphorus, Potassium and slow-release Nitrogen.

Continual investment in farm technologies has resulted in significant water efficiencies. These have been achieved through capturing and using rain water, growing system enhancements, as well as capturing and reusing the run-off water from the compost making process. Called ‘goody water’ in the mushroom business, it’s rich in nutrients and micro-organisms that are essential for fermentation.