Evans said the garden became a place where he felt safe and learned the impact farming can have on community. By Erin M. HenkelDaily JournalFarmWeek Dec 16, 2023 Excerpt: This year�s urban agriculture experience included three stops: Windy City...
Malcolm Evans, director of farms for Urban Growers Collective, discusses urban agriculture with Steve Koeller, Illinois Farm Bureau board director.FarmWeek/ Erin Henkel
Evans said the garden became a place where he felt safe and learned the impact farming can have on community.
By Erin M. Henkel
Daily Journal
FarmWeek Dec 16, 2023
Excerpt:
This year�s urban agriculture experience included three stops: Windy City Mushroom, Green Era Chicago and Wild Blossom Meadery and Winery. Each visit provided a different perspective on producing in the city and the opportunities for collaboration with rural producers in ensuring food security.
As participants stepped off the bus at the first stop at a building resembling a warehouse, it was a pleasant surprise to walk inside to the familiar sight of an auger.
�We think there�s a huge problem in our food system that we need to be providing people with real food, not synthetic, hybrid, processed or adulterated food,� John Staniszewski, co-owner, head of sales and mycologist for Windy City Mushroom, told FarmWeek. �Being able to offer this up to the community at a low, affordable cost is really what we�re trying to accomplish here.�
Windy City Mushroom was founded at the start of the COVID pandemic due to a shortage of healthy food options, including mushrooms, in the city.
The operation grows three main types of mushrooms: oyster, maitake and lion�s mane, and is planning on expanding the facility. Because mushrooms differ from traditional crops, the company has relied on innovation and experimentation to develop their growing process.
The process includes inoculating a brick of soy-hull and hardwood dust with the different fungi spores and letting the spores incubate and consume the biomass, before moving them into converted shipping containers serving as climate-controlled grow rooms.
Staniszewski said using soy-hull as a substrate presents the opportunity for collaboration.
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