Amy Christensen and Mickey Pascoe are the brains behind hyper local Little Acre Gourmet Mushrooms, supplying some of Brisbane’s best fine dining restaurants with their vibrant harvest. Christensen spills the secrets to her spectacular ‘shrooms, saying the journey began when their combined interest in urban farming collided with a mushroom growing kit they were gifted at Christmas. “We started doing some mushroom cultivation courses and just basically became obsessed with ecology and mushrooms and delved very deep into that world,” she said.
Urban farming has always been a dream for the couple, but without access to expansive land, the vision shifted to incorporate a city friendly crop variety. “Mushroom cultivation requires a very small amount of space and you can do it indoors. We had an idea that we wanted to do it in shipping containers and that’s sort of where it all began.”
A few Instagram posts and a flood of likes later, the pair were inundated with messages about their quirky looking mushrooms. Little Acre quickly became highly sought after in Brisbane’s fine dining scene, with big players like ARC Dining at Howard Smith Wharves and Spicers Balfour in New Farm adopting the thriving fodder.
“There was a demand for local gourmet mushrooms and we were producing a really high quality product that chefs were after.” Virtually selling themselves, the only problem became keeping up with demand. “We took samples to some of our local cafes and then we eventually got to the point where we were growing enough to supply to all these fabulous restaurants. One of the things the chefs love so much is that we work directly with them. I personally deliver the mushrooms every week, talk with the chefs and build a relationship.”
Christensen believes the West End community, where sniffing out and supporting local producers is akin to breathing in oxygen, is the perfect environment for their business to flourish. With a keen eye on the latest technology to run with the smallest footprint possible, these growers personally harvest, pack and deliver to their diverse range of clients. “The community space that we’re in is a whole group of people and businesses, all with shared values and all trying to achieve environmental awareness so it’s a really great space for us to be in.”
Christensen and Pascoe have big plans for the future to keep up with the ever growing demand for their five-star ‘shrooms. “We’d love to one day have a warehouse space where we can have the farm operating, but we can also run our workshops, conduct farm tours and have a hub for education around urban farming — that’s a dream of ours.”
For now, the pair sell their pink and gold folklore style fungi at the West End Markets in between hosting grow your own mushrooms workshops at Wandering Cooks.
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