MUSHROOMS are oft-times romanticised in fairy tale books with their colourful bulbous structures that take on mysterious effects.
Matthew Davis farms this type of mushroom, his produce are not found inside the typical grocery store.
His Harrisville growing rooms and retail store are set inside the town’s old bowling club.
That’s the thing about mushrooms, they grow in the darkened rooms and need little space because they can be stacked vertically in growing shelves.
Understanding how to care for the different species of mushroom is important and Mr Davis has spent a lot of time researching how best to care for his crops.
The decision to grow mushrooms was made in 2010 when his father died from pancreatic cancer.
The illness made him pause and ponder what foods could’ve made a difference to his quality of life.
He said his grandmother went on to develop dementia and having seen two significant family members suffer, he decided to action his research by starting a mushroom business.
“When I researched medicinal foods mushrooms topped the list,” he said.
“I was looking for additives that increase health and mushrooms are beneficial for reducing inflammation.“I now grow a Lion’s Mane extract which is beneficial to people who have neuro-degenerative diseases like Parkinsons and Alzheimers.
“Inflammation of the brain and the gut benefits from Beta Glucan D and this is extracted by cooking the fungi.
“When cooked the cell wall of the mushroom turns from chitin into Beta Glucan D and it is this that works as an anti-inflammatory.”
He said prior to 2010 his knowledge base of fungi and their benefits was rather pedestrian and in order to skill up he threw himself into learning all he could about the humble ‘shroom’.
“I am a member of the Queensland Mycological Society which comprises a group of citizen scientists,” he said.
“We forage for fungi and log our findings by sending the data to the Queensland Herbarium.
“The Herbarium is where scientists get their information from about where different fungi grows.
“I am primarily specialising in Lion's Mane, that's my main interest and I call myself a specialist because I make a really high quality and potency product.
“I make sure there is a high volume of Lion's Mane fungi to the extract ratio.
“I use ethanol to extract the compounds, which are the hericium and erinaceus.
“Then I do a 12 hour second extraction using water.
“The water and ethanol extractions combined make a really strong, high quality product.”
He said he considered himself to be an ‘ethical grower’.
“People can visit us and see the fungi growing,” he said.
“We're not importing it from China or anywhere else and it's being grown in clean, sterile conditions.”
He said a friend worked as an accountant in Boonah before developing Parkinson’s disease.
“He was one of my first customers for Lion's Mane outside of family,” he said.
“He got to a point where he was still able to work but needed to operate from his home.
“The disease progressed to where he couldn't remember numbers.
“He would have to hold a piece of paper and physically type them in one by one, but since taking lion's mane he can remember up to seven digits again.”
He said he also grew fungi for food and a number of restaurants regularly purchased mushrooms from him.
“My everyday sort of job is growing fungi for restaurants,” he said.
“We grow mostly oyster mushrooms as well as pioppino, chestnut and some restaurants buy Lion’s Mane from us when we have some left over because it is a really delicious edible mushroom as well as being medicinal.
“We grow black pearls and king trumpets too, both of which are really tasty.”He said fungi were a part of their own kingdoms and more like humans than plants.
“They respire cellularly, breathing oxygen in and CO2 out as we do,” he said.
“Different fungi species have seasons they grow best within, pink oysters are finished growing now as they are a summer crop.
“As we move into colder weather we grow king trumpets, black pearls and freckle chestnuts because these grow best in around the 20 to 21degree mark.”
He described pink oyster mushrooms ‘grilling up really nicely’.
“We put them on a stick to make kebabs,” he said.
“You marinade them with Moroccan oil and they taste like lamb with a nice crispy coat, similar to lamb fat.
“They look beautiful too, like coral on the Great Barrier Reef.”
He said these mushrooms caramelised when cooked creating a umami flavour that satisfied meat cravings for those following vegan orvegetarian diets.
“We also run workshops to teach people how to grow mushrooms,”he said.
“It is an interactive session and they leave with their own grow kits.
“We also have a chef visit who teaches visitors how to cook various mushroom dishes using produce sourced from Scenic Rim growers.
“Those sessions end with a dinner party where we sit down and enjoy what has been cooked up.”
He said when it came to space, mushrooms took up very little.
“The incubation space is a dark, slightly cooler space.
“They're just all bagged on racks in the incubation space.
“From inoculation to fully colonised, takes between two and four weeks.
“Once they're fully colonised, we pull them out and open the bags to introduce them to oxygen, light and humidity.
“They typically fruit within five to seven days.”
The fungi species grown in the ‘indoor farm’ need a sawdust base as they are wood decomposing fungi. 

“Button mushrooms are a manure grown species which is why they usually back