Page 27 - Port Douglas Magazine 31

WORDS by Sharon Timms
he world is full of many great mysteries. Is textbooks, and while not specific to tropical climates it was
there order in chaos? What exists beyond an excellent learning curve into the world of mushrooms.
the universe? Why does sour cream have an In Australia, there’s only a small number of mycologists, so
expiration date? We all love a good mystery. I’ve had to learn by trial and error, becoming a small-scale
TThe more unexplainable the mystery is, the scientist to make this business work, especially as we’re
more we tend to love it. There are, however, some growing mushrooms in an environment that isn’t natural
mysteries that are significantly more mysterious than for them,” Rick says.
others... “We put mushrooms in a food category, but they’re so
One of these mysteries is the mushroom. A microscopic much more than that,” exclaims Rachel excitedly. “They’re
connected community that is in a continual process of not a plant, they’re not an animal – the mycelium is its own
dividing and colonising until it grows big enough to fully web of nature; it spreads across the planet and connects
consume the substrate it’s grown in, which then triggers every living thing. The nutritional and medicinal properties
fruit production and – shazam! We get to wow our friends are extraordinary. They’re simply not studied enough!”
with a colony of mushrooms we’ve grown under the couch. Most of us think of ‘mushrooms’ as the toadstools and fungi
Good news though – Rick Measday and Rachel Smith, the that pop up out of the ground. “Best not to eat those though,”
entrepreneurial duo behind The Good ‘Shroom Co. - have a Rick warns. “The difference between something tasty and a
far more sophisticated setup than an accidental mushroom painful death is microscopic.” Hidden underground to the
colony under the couch. Inside a couple of fully enclosed, untrained eye is a vast web of stretched out ‘strings’ called
climate-controlled shipping containers on a property in mycelium, spreading on and throughout the soil, giving
Newell Beach, 20 minutes north of Port Douglas, something mushroom species extraordinary properties.
astonishing is going on. All day and night, the combination
of a marvel of nature and human ingenuity is producing
food, and a reasonable amount of it. Each week, about 50
kilos of mushrooms are produced from that single setup by “They’re not a plant, they’re not an animal
the self-confessed mycophiles (mushroom lovers, for those – the mycelium is its own web of nature;
playing at home). it spreads across the planet and connects
“I’ve no idea when the fascination with mushrooms started,” every living thing....”
says Rick. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a park ranger, I
was always intrigued by nature. I became a tradie instead,
but the underlying allure was always there. When I met
Rachel up here in North Queensland, we would go exploring This web-like mycelium can intertwine and co-exist between
every weekend and I was always drawn to the mushrooms. fungi species, just like different coloured spaghetti strands
“Fast forward ten years, and we’re now running the most in a pot. The network of mycelium, affectionately known as
northern coastal mushroom farm in Australia. We deal with the Wood Wide Web, links plants via their root systems,
salt in the air, long daylight hours, heat, humidity … all the mediating the exchange of sugar, water and nutrients
natural deterrents to growing mushrooms. Yet here we are! between plants and fungi. Plants share sugars with fungi
“The mushrooms here are obviously very different and in turn, the fungi assist plants in collecting water and
nutrients, while relaying chemical signals that provide an
compared to the forest pines I was used to as a kid. When otherworldly communication system to the plants, such as
toying with the idea of growing commercially, I started to warnings about predators”.
read as much as I could from North American and European

PORT DOUGLAS MAGAZINE 27