by Erin Johnston
Kitchen Pride mushrooms
The crunch of gravel under the tires quiets the excited chatter spurred by the sight of the Kitchen Pride Mushroom Farm truck logos. The rural location, near Gonzales, TX, is quietly advertised along the small county farm road. Surrounded by fields of cattle and massive piles of mulch, long metal warehouses spread around the entranceway. The heat rushes in as we grab our wallets and cameras. In the office, our tour guide greets us and introduces himself. Brent has worked for the company for 24 years.
Kitchen Pride Mushroom Farm, centrally located to all major cities in Texas, ships 250,000 pounds each week mostly to Walmart and Central Market. When asked about expansion possibilities, Brent stated that although the company has the land and opportunity to expand, finding the employees to work their existing operation is a challenge.
As the door opened to the main warehouse, cold air gushed toward us, enveloping and drawing us in. On one side of the warehouse stretched a conveyor belt with crates of different mushrooms plodding onward into the distance. On the other side were doors marching as diligently as harvesting ants in a line. Here were the growing rooms, labeled with mushroom types and foreign terms such as “case,” “spawn,” and “break.”
Drawn toward these mysterious doors, Brent ushers us into a soft blue glow escaping from the dark interior. Our first glimpse of their production is a spawn room. Their special homemade compost lines foot-deep trays that stretch into the dark from floor-to-ceiling. Combined with the mulch is mycelium bought from one of 3 major suppliers across the US (Stage 1). The spores will spend time here in a high CO2 content to attach to the mulch. The blue light is to attract and kill the mushroom fly. Each room will contain the same trays from start-to-harvest, a process that takes 4 weeks.
Exiting that stage room and entering a nearby door, we get a glimpse of a case room (stage 2). At this point the mycelium have covered the mulch and will be ready for a fresh air flush which will spur them to start producing the mushrooms. Once the fresh air hits, the spore will create sticks or pinheads which will develop into mushrooms. Brent informs us this stage is called pinning.
We skip ahead to a full production harvesting room with workers taking out the ready-to-package product (stage 3). Workers, he tells us, are paid by the pound that they pick and harvest. If a worker can estimate the weight in each box within ideal wrapping weight, there is a bonus added to their boxes. A harvest, called a “break” by Kitchen Pride, occurs every 4-5 days. Each tray will produce a break 3 times, and then the mulch will be discarded and turned over with heat to be sold to customers.
The exit shows us a mysterious steamy glimpse of the special mulch. Brent says Kitchen Pride uses 450 tons of wheat straw from locally sourced farms each week to speed compost. They use heat, forced irrigation, and maximum turnover to get a finished product in 22 to 24 days. Their compost is considered a crop. All we catch is the massive machines engulfed in steam, and feel the heat blowing off the piles.
Carrying our boxes of purchases, mushrooms of all varieties, many of us were able to fill whatever container we could find with their end product mulch for free. Only a gardener would treasure these type of souvenirs.
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