More than a mushroom: Growing a local food movement

Mushrooms are high up on the list of superfoods, as they are packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants while being low on the caloric scale. There are thousands of different species of edible mushrooms worldwide, and a quick online search for mushroom recipes will churn out scores of mouth-watering dishes, much like the delicious, spicy jerk oyster mushrooms, topped with condiments to balance the heat, that were served as samples by The Happy Planet Organic Farms at a recent pop-up event.

Brand manager Shanice Webb told Guardian Media oyster mushrooms have a very meaty texture and are higher in protein than regular types of mushrooms. But, she said, some people are turned off by them because of how they look – something Happy Planet is working to change.

“The versatility of the texture is quite unique, and oyster mushrooms are also considered to be the preferred meat replacement option,” she said – good news for vegetarians.

A subsidiary of AP Scott Ltd, sales manager Shane Scott said the company grows its own mushrooms and supplies a number of local restaurants and small street food businesses.

“We’ve done things with 12 by Rishi, Aioli, Tommy’s, Kapok Hotel, 277 Restaurant, Chapter 4 and Ahmarina’s in Valpark. There are 20 or so different restaurants that we could highlight that are big, active mushroom users; they really believe in the quality of our mushrooms. A lot of the chefs are world-trained chefs and they’re familiar with the ingredients as well, which works for us.”

They’ve also worked with street food vendors who create dishes such as the jerk mushrooms, and as an addition to bake and shark toppings.

“We actually just started to work with a doubles man in Aranguez who is giving an alternative to aloo pie. So he’s doing a minced mushroom kind of pie. And we’re working with him to try and see if he’ll do mushrooms and channa for doubles. But that’s definitely more on the ambitious side of things. We are doing partnerships with pretty much every restaurant or food business that will let us.”

Another good option, he said, was pickled mushrooms, as they have a long shelf life when processed in things like salt brine and canned.

Happy Planet grows its mushrooms in a 5,000-square-foot controlled indoor facility in Aranguez. Scott said while oyster mushrooms are native to Trinidad, it’s more of a wild version that can be found particularly in the North Coast, where there’s a lot of moisture.

“You will see a lot of mushrooms growing on trees. They might not be the exact gene that we are growing right now, but they will be very close in appearance and texture. It’s the same strain of oyster mushroom, it’s just a different genotype.”

He said what started as a simple agricultural project has resulted in the expansion of the mushroom market in Trinidad and Tobago to a commercial scale.

“We noticed that there was a large desire for mushrooms in T&T, but there was not a large supply. In fact, we saw that most grocery shelves were about 60 per cent imported mushrooms.”

Fortunately, a lot of the inputs needed for mushroom farming is available locally – among them rice, corn and pimento stalks.

“Because usually those type of plants, after the harvest comes, the farmers chop all the plants down. But those plants and the stalks are actually full of fibre and nutrition; all that mushrooms need to grow on, particularly oyster mushrooms. We eventually reached out to one farmer and we agreed to help him clear his land in exchange for taking what he would be pruning to then grow mushrooms on.”

Scott explained that technically, the mushroom is a flower that grows from mycelium – the hidden, root-like network of tiny thread-like strands called hyphae that forms the main living body of a fungus.

“So the same way a rose farmer farms the plant that then grows the rose, we farm the mycelium that then grows the mushroom. We just tweaked it slightly using our lab to create a

strain that would be a lot easier to grow in T&T. We took the natural process of the environment that grows these mushrooms, and we’ve been able to recreate that environment consistently in our farm,” a process he said Happy Planet is willing to share with the next generation of farmers.

“Right now, we’re doing a lot of educating, and we’re actually reaching out to a couple of schools to see if they would allow us to do some mushroom farming programmes with them as extracurricular activities.”

Jamaican Jerk Mushroom

Ingredients

16 oz oyster mushrooms (torn or sliced thick)

2 tbsp Jamaican jerk seasoning or marinade

1 tbsp barbecue sauce

1 tbsp coconut oil or olive oil

2 sprigs fresh thyme

2 cloves garlic (minced)

1/2 onion (chopped)

Pinch of salt and black pepper

Cooking Steps

Clean and prep the mushrooms by gently wiping them clean and tearing large ones into thick, meat-like strips.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.

Sauté the garlic, onion and fresh thyme in the hot pan until fragrant (about 2 minutes).

Brown the mushrooms in the pan, stirring occasionally, until they release their moisture and get nicely caramelised (about 5 to 7 minutes).

Mix the jerk seasoning and barbecue sauce together in a small bowl.

Coat the mushrooms by pouring the jerk mixture directly into the skillet, turning the heat down to low, and simmering until the sauce clings to the mushrooms.

Serve warm alongside sides like coconut rice and peas or fried plantains.