Holy Shiitake: mastering the science of gourmet fungi

Mushroom production is inherently the practice of expanding mycelium. But since wanted and unwanted fungi flourish under the same circumstances, a mushroom farmer's biggest challenge is ensuring the right fungi prevails. Lindi Botha reports on Rory Brooks' learning curve.

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Rory Brooks, founder of mushroom farm Holy Shiitake, has an origin story not unlike many other gourmet mushroom farmers.

"I bought a mushroom growing kit to try my hand at producing my own mushrooms, had success on that small scale, and thought, 'this is easy, let's scale up and start selling mushrooms,'" he laughs.

At that time in 2017, Brooks had a business producing cannabis oil. Recognising the growing interest in alternative medicine, he decided to pivot towards mushroom production, since the awareness about the medicinal value of mushrooms was increasing. But he quickly realised producing for one's own kitchen is very different from large-scale commercial production. What followed was ample school fees, but many valuable lessons that today stand him in good stead. "For a whole year we went through a trial and error process to see what worked and what didn't. We eventually found the winning recipe and were able to scale up production."

Holy Shiitake, situated near Randburg in Gauteng, produces around 400kg of gourmet mushrooms per week in the warehouse-like facility. Varieties include reishi, lion's mane, oyster, turkey tail, chestnut and cordyceps.

One of the earlier learning curves was in realising that by just focusing on fresh mushrooms, income would be limited. Holy Shiitake today therefore offers a range of products, from fresh gourmet mushrooms to medicinal mushroom supplements, cosmetics, and dried mushrooms. They also produce an umami seasoning made from mushrooms, and supply grower kits and inputs for other mushroom producers.

'MUSHROOM FARMING REQUIRES VERY SPECIFIC EQUIPMENT THAT COMES WITH A BIG COST'