It was a shared love of gardening and wanting to create a more sustainable world after the birth of their daughter that inspired Quintin and Amy Mutton to create their market garden, Kai Kai Farm, in 2020.
But the El Nino weather pattern made crop production on Tamborine Mountain a challenge, so Quintin began to explore gourmet mushroom farming.
“They were just going to be another crop at the start but became very popular through The Green Shed and are now our main production,” he said.
Quintin took a course and then taught himself through researching online.
They were able to begin with little upfront investment but after reinvesting the profits for the last five years, they are now in a position to begin to reap the profits.
Quintin works on the farm part-time, while Amy is full-time, in between being a busy mum. They each invest close to 12 hours a day on the business and produce 35 kilograms of mushrooms a week of 18 different varieties.
The fresh mushrooms are sold at Joseph the Greengrocer, Eagle Heights Butcher, Nosey Knome Organics and also Now Fresh at Mudgeeraba, as well as online through their website kaikaifarm.au.
It takes around three to four weeks from getting the spawn, which they buy from one of a small number of companies in Australia producing it, to harvesting, with shiitake mushrooms taking up to four months.
“During that time, it’s a lot of monitoring, cleaning, daily harvesting and removing blocks to make way for new ones. It’s a weekly production cycle,” Quintin explained.
“We make over 100 mushroom blocks and grow kits once a week which go into the fruiting room after a period of weeks.
“We go through two fruiting cycles, usually around three to four weeks, and then the bags go out which we sell at the front and they are good for another fruiting cycles before they can be used in the garden.
“Each block will produce up to seven times depending on the conditions.”
“Because we are on the mountain, which is susceptible to mould, we have to be very careful.”
The farm is airconditioned 24 hours a day, so they have to ensure the air conditioner and the humidifiers are cleaned weekly to be mould free.
“The entire farm is constantly maintained at a fairly clean level, otherwise any contaminate is going to make its way through the fruiting room if we don’t stop it,” he said.
Four years on they still come across problems.
Kai Kai Farm also sell mushroom growing kits and a lot of mushroom supplies, allowing people to cultivate their own.
They have also expanded into Bokashi composting, selling the composting microbes.
The goal of the business is to eventually make their own spawn, but this would require a lot more research and development.
They also hope to expand into dried mushrooms or mushroom salts in the future.
“It’s a lifestyle choice. We are not in it for the money,” Quintin said.
“I am happy with where the business is at but like any developing business it’s a lot of hours which we are trying to reduce.”
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