Belgium: Gourmet mushrooms like lion’s mane and shiitake grown sustainably in brewers’ grains and waste breadcrumbs foster circular economy
The urban farm in Brussels sells 8-10 tonnes of fungi a week to high-paying customers, and its founders are proud to be part of Belgium’s circular economy
Agence France-Presse
10 Oct, 2022
Excerpt:
And the substrate – the substance the spores grow in – is easy to come by in Belgium: a mix of spent grain left over from the mashing process to make beer, and discarded baguettes.
“The beer and the bread don’t have any effect on the mushrooms’ taste, but we get better yields from them in terms of quantity and quality,” explains Quentin Declerck, one of Eclo’s founders.
For several years, his company has been collecting brewers’ grains from Belgian beer maker Cantillon, and leftover bread from Colruyt supermarkets and the Bon Pain chain of bakeries.
The collaboration allows Eclo to recycle five tonnes (5.5 tons) of discarded grain and 18 tonnes of bread annually.
The surplus grain and bread goes into Eclo’s cold rooms, where the mushrooms grow in the moist air.
Each week, the company sells between eight and 10 tonnes of its mushrooms.
Beyond the financial return the activity brings, Declerck explains that contributing to a domestically made and ecologically friendly production cycle in Brussels was a motivation.
“We realised that many of the mushrooms bought in shops came from the Netherlands, many from eastern [European] countries, and even further afield, from China,” he says.
