SUMMERLAND — After working in the restaurant business for over a decade, Brian Callow realized mushroom farming is a niche that the Okanagan hasn’t tapped into it. So he started the valley’s only mushroom farm called What The Fungus.
All the mushrooms grow on wood chips. Callow partnered with an arborist so he’d have plentiful access to wood.
“Most mushroom businesses that grow on wood, they’re going to be around a sawmill,” said Callow. “We’ve designed our business based on a local resource.”
The Summerland farm produces up to 700 pounds of mushrooms each month, selling to 20 restaurants in the south Okanagan.
Callow grows indigenous and exotic mushrooms.
“I’ve collected mushroom strains for about four years from all over the world. I’ve just connected with a lot of growers, so we do trading. But I’ve also purchased commercial strains,” explained Callow.
But next year, Callow hopes to tap into the Kelowna market.
A second lab is being built and four new greenhouses will be added to the property by the end of 2018.