Shining the spotlight on culinary fungi

They are delicious, sought-after, and grown in the dark in a backyard shed. McCrae Gourmet Mushrooms is a suburban micro-farm raising high-quality culinary fungi using a clever blend of cutting-edge technology, common-sense ingenuity, and sustainable principles.

It’s the brainchild of former hairdresser Tania Brennan. A fine cook, Tania became interested in growing mushrooms during COVID. She had previously toyed with growing hydroponic chillies, but a research rabbit hole led her to the mysterious world of fungi. “I love cooking with mushrooms, and the more I read and researched, the more I became enthralled with the idea of growing them commercially,” Tania says.

With her husband Terry, Tania fitted out the back shed with insulated sandwich boards to create a compact urban micro-farm inside their shed. Here she raises a large selection of high-quality, high-value fungi, including different varieties of oyster mushrooms, shiitake, king oyster, and the very delicate and delicious lion’s mane.

The process starts with preparing the growing medium. “We source compacted sawdust logs made with 100 per cent pure native hardwood.  We love it because it is sustainable, made without additives, and adds a lovely rich flavour to the mushrooms.” The logs are soaked and turned into a spongy substrate. This is then carefully heat-sterilised. “Any wild fungus spores could contaminate the production, so I am scrupulous about hygiene.”

Commercial mushroom spores are mixed into this substrate and packed into square plastic bags, which are placed in a warm, dark room for a few weeks to allow the fungus to germinate and grow. The bags become filled with a mass of fuzzy, root-like mycorrhizae. Tania points out that this is, in fact, the fungus, and the mushrooms are their fruiting bodies.

Then the fungus is moved into a cooler room to simulate the fall of autumn, when fungi naturally reproduce. In this room, the mushrooms start to form and emerge from holes in the plastic. They grow and swell over a period of weeks or months, depending on the type of mushroom, and are hand-harvested.

Very popular are the brown-topped shiitake and the different coloured oyster mushrooms – some white, some pale yellow, others in a pleasing shade of light blue, and one particular variety in a retro-looking dusky pink. Tania also grows the phoenix oyster mushroom and the large, meaty king oyster.

McCrae Gourmet Mushrooms feature on the menu at Trofeo Estate winery in Dromana, where they are made into a rich ketchup with black garlic and served with a mushroom tartlet with sun-dried tomatoes. Down at Pebbles Restaurant at Moonah Links Resort, they serve up a stuffed king mushroom with fried enoki, porcini purée, and fermented rice dressing – the epitome of a flavour bomb. “Chefs appreciate the fine flavour and extreme freshness of our product,” Tania says. “We can grow and harvest to order.”

Tania used to have a hairdressing salon at the front of her home; it has been remodelled into a farm gate store and is only open a few hours each week. Tania offers a few other suggestions on how to cook her truly beautiful mushrooms at home. “I chop them, place them in a heatproof metal tray, add a little butter, salt, and pepper, and put them in the Weber for 15 minutes.  They have a lovely earthy and smoky flavour.” Alternatively, she suggests cranking up the gas barbecue and cooking them on a hotplate with a little oil until golden, flipping and repeating. “My mushrooms also love being washed down with a local beer or a Peninsula pinot noir,” she adds with a laugh.

McCrae Gourmet Mushrooms are sold at farmers' markets and at the farm gate, 24 Austin Ave, McCrae, each Thursday from 10.30am-3pm.  Visit the website at www.mccraemushrooms.com.au

RICHARD CORNISH