FROM WASTE TO TASTE

MUSHROOM CULTIVATION IS THRIVING AT LETHBRIDGE COLLEGE WITH NEW SUSTAINABLE GROWING METHODS.

DR. ADRIANA MORRELL REALLY LIKES MUSHROOMS.

WE’RE TALKING SHE-TURNED-A-BACKYARD-HOBBY

INTO A FUNDED-RESEARCH-PROJECT LEVEL OF LIKING MUSHROOMS.

If you visit her mycology lab at Lethbridge College, you’ll quickly see why these fabulous fungi have captured her attention. Inside a small room tucked away in the Cousins Building sits a pair of unassuming black tents that, when unzipped, reveal shelves of mushrooms bursting out of their bags, boasting shapes and colours that almost seem other-worldly.

These aren’t your grocery-store mushrooms. These mushrooms – blue and pink oyster, lion’s mane and turkey tail to name a few – are being grown using various types of food waste as part of Morrell’s research to test the viability of sustainable substrates. Once they’re harvested, the mushrooms land in the frying pans of the college’s Culinary students to be shared with the campus community.

Morrell is an Agriculture Science instructor who received an internal research grant through the college’s Centre for Applied Research Internal Fund (CARIF) to create a mycology lab on campus last summer. Her research focuses on the benefits of both medicinal and gourmet fungi, while promoting sustainability in agriculture by testing the use of food wastes as a growing substrate compared to more common and cost-prohibitive substrates. Morrell’s research is looking at how food waste can not only replace them, but how they can also add nutrients and benefits to the mushrooms.

“These are things that mushroom producers are keen on learning because it could mean more yield and faster production – maybe you’ll get bigger mushrooms, heavier cups or better pigmentation,” says Morrell. She has already seen the results of coffee grounds producing a stronger hue in blue oyster mushrooms, something that can go a long way in the desirability of a mushroom when sitting on a shelf in a grocery store.

Currently, the project is testing and comparing three pairs of substrates against each other: wheat straw versus hemp straw, gypsum versus pulverized eggshells, and the benefits of supplementing mushroom cultures with either spent brewer’s grain or used coffee grounds.

“It’s a constant battle to reduce waste in our personal lives, so of course we want to try and recover as much waste as possible through this research,” says Morrell, who is providing the spent brewers’ grain from her and her husband’s home brewing operation. The used coffee grounds come straight from the college’s Food Court.

When harvested, Morrell personally delivers boxes of fresh mushrooms straight from her lab to the Culinary kitchens, creating an accessible and sustainable way for students to work with the rare and unique produce.

“What we’re trying to do is show people that there are other mushrooms beyond the usual kinds we see in the grocery store,” explains Morrell. “They taste amazing, but they are different. They have a different shape, they have a different colour and typically people tend to stay away from what looks different from what we know. For me, the most exciting part is bringing that unknown piece to people and allowing them to try it in a better way.”

Having fresh mushrooms growing on campus means huge cost savings for the Culinary program. Not only does it eliminate transportation costs, but it also preserves the delicate fungi through the reduction of packaging and long-term storage.

“It’s beneficial anytime our school can produce a product that we can put directly into the hands of our students, not only on the business side – but it’s even better when it’s tied into applied research,” says Chef Doug Overes (Professional Cooking 1987, Distinguished Alumnus 1992), chair of the college’s Culinary Careers program. “The biggest benefit is when a student can see that farm to table, locally grown concept in action. It gives them a sense of pride to be able to say, ‘this is ours; this is Lethbridge College.’”

Additionally, Morrell’s mushrooms give Culinary instructors an opportunity to take students out of the kitchens for a tour to see how the mushrooms

Morrell is using different kinds of food waste – coffee grounds to eggshells to hemp straw – to serve as the material where mushrooms are nourished and grown, and to determine if they could add nutrients and other benefits to a mushroom crop.