"As land is super expensive in California we're growing products that are high producers to balance costs out. The good thing is that we can grow our mushrooms right. Occasionally, we're bringing in new mushroom cultures every time so we're always trying to play around with that as much as we can," says Justin Nguyen, Co-founder of Long Beach Mushrooms.
Long Beach Mushrooms is a family-owned and operated mushroom farm that is based in California, USA. They are local suppliers of vertically grown mushrooms in the state. Their off-takers are restaurants, pizzerias, (farm-to-table) restaurants and other businesses that have an appetite for sustainability and local.
Justin Nguyen
Growing locally
Starting off farming with tomatoes for his wife Mia, Justin Nguyen started experimenting with other products that could be grown indoors and not found in supermarkets due to low quality. Farming out of his house, he soon looked for a larger facility in Long beach as they found loads of interested parties that wanted their product. That's how Long Beach Mushrooms was born.
Long Beach Mushrooms has about 11 mushrooms in production right now, grown on rotation. According to Justin, Southern California has a really specific microclimate which makes them grow products that are most logical for them given the climate.
As the company supplies quite a wide range of companies, they also have a weekly subscription box that allows consumers to sign up for either a $25-, $40-, or $75/month mushroom subscription box.
Justin's ultimate dream is to have a mushroom farm in every city eventually. "That's why we want to educate others as much as possible to grow their own mushrooms," he adds.
Farm tours
When someone would like to request a farm tour, Justin and Mia would be more than welcome to see where their food is grown. "If you'd like to start your own farm, come on in. We're super transparent and we want you to really know what you're going to get when getting into this business. We want to avoid any misconceptions of mushroom farming," he adds.
Supply in percentages
Mushrooms have a 3-5 day shelf life so we really do intend to grow a certain amount of products per week. We're always making sure we meet the number of products that are requested per week. 500-900 pounds a week.
10-15 restaurants are supplied weekly where most fresh mushrooms are being sold to. On top of that, 30% of grow blocks are sold to other mushroom farms. And finally, the farm supplies grow kits as well to aspiring home growers or starting farmers.
Oyster mushrooms
If the grow kits are growing, they are selling their A plus stacks that are not possibly the best quality as they can manage it as best possible. Justin adds, "What we want at the end of the day is for people to grow their own food so more grow kits are coming and being launched within a few months."
"The power behind growing food where it's eaten is that we can get our hands dirty, and one of the most spiritual things we can do," Justin concludes.
For more information:
Long Beach Mushrooms
longbeachmushrooms@gmail.com
www.longbeachmushrooms.com