Ground Breaking Mushrooms - Living up to its Name

Matthew Williams selling to Aria at the Farmers Market on Sunday.

Ground Breaking Mushrooms hit the New Plymouth food scene with a spring debut at the Taranaki Farmers Market just a couple of weeks ago. The social enterprise is in partnership with Bishops Action Foundation, and they are working together to build food security and divert coffee grounds from local cafes that would otherwise go to landfill, with one major point of difference: no plastic bags are used in the process. Residents of Taranaki can now enjoy a fresh, locally grown supply of grey oyster mushrooms which are not only restaurant quality, but also great for gut health and tasty on the bbq.

Our aim is to remove an ever increasing amount of coffee grounds from the waste system.

Grower and founder, Matthew Williams uses a uniquely sustainable approach that sets his method apart from other New Zealand and global oyster mushroom growers by omitting the standard single-use plastic tubes to hold his substrate and his spawn. He instead swaps the bags for food-grade Fonterra buckets, up-cycled and then filled with coffee grounds. The result: beautiful, nutritious and otherworldly fungus. Just follow him on Instagram to see some images of his glorious mushrooms.

To go further, all of his inputs are carefully sourced from local suppliers.

The glass Agee jars used to sterilise the grain for the starter spawn are purchased from New Plymouth Op shops; the coffee grounds are from local cafes Ozone Coffee Roasters and The Public Catering Company; and the soy bean hulls used to supplement the coffee growing medium are from BHL Feeds in Bell Block. The entire ‘farm’ is housed inside a repurposed insulated shipping container. These decommissioned refrigerated containers are perfect for growing mushrooms as the climate inside is very stable. The container is also off-grid, using gravity-fed humidity control through evaporation of water, and natural air currents to maintain a flow of oxygen. The decomposition of the medium provides the heat needed to keep the container warm in winter.

With sustainability at the heart of his growing and sober consideration for the future of New Zealand’s food scene, Williams collaborates with Francis Douglas Boys College and science teacher Charl Van De Hever, to help the students learn to grow their own mushrooms. With the school’s own shipping container fully loaded with their first mushroom logs, they should be able to harvest in 3 weeks to a month’s time.

Just frying them up with some butter in a pan is very tasty and can be eaten like a protein…on a bun, on top of some rice or as a side dish.

Bishops Action Foundation notes the positive impact that Ground Breaking Mushrooms will have on “New Plymouth’s thriving café scene” and how it will mitigate “the consequence of a burgeoning level of used coffee grounds, much of which ends up in landfill.” This means that his business model will remove coffee grounds from the waste system, and the result will be organic, sale-able mushrooms with a bi-product that can be reused for a third time as really great compost.

Formerly Hurworth Mushrooms, as some may recognize the name from Hoko Loko a few years ago, Williams began the sale of his mushrooms from the humble Hurworth Cottage in rural Taranaki. Prior to that, his journey began in Oaxaca (wah-HAH-kah), Mexico, on a Mexican pipeline surfing work exchange. This opportunity to volunteer on a mushroom farm, high up in the brisk hills, gave him the understanding of cultivating in a “Lo-fi” way, and the idea to use compostable and reusable materials where possible.

The Mushroom enterprise is not new to the Taranaki region. Some may remember Chew Chong, who collected Wood Ear fungus from the clearing of the native bush in the 1870s. He found a very lucrative Asian market where he exported the chewy, ear-like fungus overseas. Therefore, the global market is wide open and the local market is benefiting from the emerging socially responsible artisan growers’ scene in New Zealand.

Given Taranaki’s ideal growing climate, the increased awareness around taste and health benefits of mushrooms, and a newly prioritized local market which elevates food security, Ground Breaking Mushrooms is likely to live up to its name. His grey oyster mushrooms can be found on the Shining Peak and Meat and Liquor menus, and customers can purchase them from Down to Earth and the Sunday Farmers Market. Keep tabs on his Instagram for successfully grown Shitake, Lions Mane, and Turkey Tail mushrooms.

Read more about sustainable food, find local growers, and learn ways to support food resilience in our region.