November 7 Lab

The goals for this week were to:

• Go to the Monterey Mushroom facility in Madisonville

Monterrey Mushroom tour

Today we got to visit the Monterey Mushroom facility in Madisonville, TX and take a tour of their white and brown mushroom growing facility. Madisonville is located about 50 minutes outside of College Station, so it was a little bit of a drive to get out there. Once we were there they first took us to a meeting room to discuss the production process before going to show us. To avoid butchering they steps in the process, I'll post the steps per the montereymushrooms.com site:

How They Grow

Mushroom growing requires five steps, then packing, before Monterey® fresh mushrooms are shipped to customers.

Phase I

Straw bedding from horse farms, or baled straw, protein meal, gypsum and water are mixed together and kept outdoors to be biochemically converted into the preliminary food source for the mushroom by the tremendous heat naturally evolved.

Phase II

The compost produced in “Phase I” is mixed with vegetable oil and more water, then filled into wooden trays before “Phase II” starts. Once into the “Phase II” room, the compost is pasteurized to free it of weed molds and insects, then cooled down to room temperature so that the mushroom spawn can be added. “Phase II” requires six (6) days to accomplish.

Spawn Running

After the spawn has been planted, it will grow in thirteen (13) days to completely cover the compost that is now serving as a food source.

A Brief Description of Mushroom Production Case Holding and Growing

A mixture of peat moss, limestone, and water is applied to the top of the tray. The spawn starts to grow in the mixture and in a few days, carefully controlled environmental changes bring about fruiting or pinning.
The environment is controlled carefully to encourage the mushrooms to reach maturity. Size and quality are of utmost importance. The mushrooms are then picked skillfully, according to size and maturity, and hand sorted into baskets. The stump is trimmed and discarded. The crop is actually picked for up to four breaks, or 28 days, and then dumped and replaced with a new crop.

Packing

The harvested mushrooms are immediately placed in a cooler, chilled, then packed in a film-wrapped container or bulk boxes and moved into the finished product cooler. Very strict quality control checks are used to assure a high quality product. The boxed product is then placed in refrigerated trucks and delivered to the markets within 24-48 hours after harvest.

The progression of straw as it goes through the compost process.

The large machine they use to pack the wooden beds with compost.

A conveyor belt that takes compost into large storage rooms for further processing.

The compost being deposited into one of these large storage rooms.

Spawn and compost that has been placed into a wooden tray to develop and grow.

Stacks of trays that will eventually house mushrooms.

Bags of the spawn. They bait seeds with spores to make distributing spores easier on the trays.

A close up of the baited seeds.

Mycelial growth in the compost.

A layer of peat moss mixture that has been placed on top of the compost/spawn mixture.

The start of mushroom growth!

Older mushrooms growing all over the tray.

Rows and rows of mushrooms growing.

Mushrooms are cut by hand and sorted by size.

In the center of the picture, an unwanted fungus that can take over.

Another example of a fungus that can take over. They call this one the spiderweb fungus.

The brown mushroom variety.

Bales of straw that will be converted into compost.

A large machine that rolls through and turns the compost pile.