After just a few months of operation, Windarring’s urban mushroom farm in Castlemaine is flourishing, and with multiple local eateries signing on to purchase the organic mushrooms the venture is growing in recycled coffee grounds.
It’s a win-win for the Windarring workers who were otherwise facing redundancy after The Copy Centre closed – and for the environment as discarded coffee grounds otherwise decompose to produce methane – a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide.
Last Friday the oyster mushrooms that Windarring Australian Disability Enterprise is now busily producing at its Barker Street site went on show when the unique urban mushroom operation opened its doors for a public open day.
The large climate-controlled shipping container in which the mushrooms are grown at the site was also on show – as was some smooth and warming mushroom, garlic and onion soup – just one of the endless dishes the mushrooms can be used in.
The farm is operated by Windarring Australian Disability Enterprise and aims to provide sustainable work for people with a disability.
“It’s going really well. We’ve now got more than 10 (commercial) customers that are buying from us regularly,” said Mark Castle, Windarring’s employment pathways manager.
“We’ve got four staff working eight hours a week each and as we grow more mushrooms we hope to grow the staff level as well, so we hope we can have six staff by this time next year in line with the growth of the business.”
The aim is to recycle coffee grounds from local commercial eateries but there’s also opportunity for environmentally conscious home-based coffee lovers to donate their own grounds.
“We welcome anyone wanting to donate coffee grounds. We’re just keen to redirect coffee grounds from landfill because 99 per cent of the coffee grounds end up in the bin and one per cent makes up your coffee,” Mr Castle said.
“You can contact us on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, the days when we operate. We’re going to have some deposit bins here at Barker Street so if anyone wants to donate coffee grounds it would be a worthy cause to donate them to.”
They’re also about to introduce Mushroom Monday – “where people can come and buy fresh mushrooms from us,” Mr Castle said.
