mb.com.ph; September 18, 2013

There’s a newly introduced mushroom that promises to be a runaway winner compared to the different species that are currently produced in the Philippines.

This is the Milky Mushroom from India, thanks to Rolita “Baby” Spowart who has been devoting her time to agri-related pursuits. Her passion in researching on this new mushroom, from spawn production to grow-out, is starting to take off and can be a winner not only for herself but also for other growers as well as the consumers.

Botanically known as Calocybe indica, Milky Mushroom has a milky white appearance. Harvestable mushrooms come in various sizes, some small while others are really big ones. The biggest Milky Mushroom that Baby Spowart has produced so far is three kilos.

When we visited her growing area in Amadeo, Cavite, three pieces of the harvest weighed a kilo. There were smaller ones but bigger than the commonly produced oyster mushroom. (Baby has other farms for spawn and grow out operations as well as for orchids and ornamentals.)

The Milky Mushroom has a much higher yield than the oyster mushroom. In Amadeo, according to worker Cynthia Pataray, a 75-square meter growing area can produce 20 kilos a day. The peak production period is the first two months but the bed can be productive up to six months. However, the yield becomes less and less.

Milky Mushroom has also a much longer shelf life than oyster mushroom, the most commonly grown species commercially. When kept in a refrigerator, Milky Mushroom can remain fresh for about 21 days. Not so the oyster mushroom.

Also, we like the taste of the Milky Mushroom much better than the oyster mushroom. It can be prepared in many ways. It can be used in pansit, tinola, adobo, omelet, soups, lumpia, chopsuey and more. We liked very much the thinly sliced mushroom simply cooked with oyster sauce. It is very delicious, not to say nutritious.

It is claimed that like other mushrooms, the Milky Mushroom has medicinal properties that could boost one’s immune system. The cap and stem can be cooked. Even the very mature ones are soft and tender.

As of now, Spowart is selling her harvest at P200 per kilo. That’s because, she said, she is still recovering the research costs that run up to a small fortune (read millions). But she says that as production becomes really commercial scale, she believes that a farmgate price of P50 per kilo will still be profitable. After all, the cost of production is not much.

There are no chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in growing the new mushroom. The growing medium is largely fresh rice hull topped with carbonized rice hull. The only added material to the growing medium is one percent powdered eggshell, oyster shell or marble dust, whichever is readily available. These powdered materials are the source of calcium.

Baby Spowart did most of her research through the internet starting in December 2011. She spent at least a year in experimenting on the best ways to produce the spawn. There were mistakes that resulted in contaminations of the spores being multiplied in the lab. Those were not cheap mistakes because the materials used in the laboratory are very expensive. But then her persistence had finally produced the desired results.

Also, commercial mushroom production was also limited in the past year because they had to observe how the consumers would receive the product. They displayed their limited production in the weekend market and the customers liked it. So they intensified production of spawn and fruiting bags to meet the demand. As of now, there are two main buyers in Metro Manila and Baby could not cope with the increasing demand.

And that is why Baby is in the expansion mode. She is fast-tracking the production of spawn in her laboratory in Isabela where she and her husband Paul are staying most of the time.

They also thought of conducting seminars so more people would grow the mushroom and so the increasing demand could be met. Conducting the seminars is Mark Spowart, the only son of Paul and Baby Spowart. He himself has mastered the techniques of Milky Mushroom production and will hold a seminar on October 5 in Amadeo. The seminar is usually one whole day. Topics include introduction to mushroom farming, why grow Milky Mushroom, site selection, growth parameters, mushroom house design, pasteurization of substrate, how to make mushroom bags, incubation conditions, harvesting, how to cook Milky Mushroom, and spent mushroom substrate made into compost. There is also a cooking demo, and of course eating Milky Mushroom.

By the way, the Milky Mushroom farm is one of the tour destinations that will be visited by attendees of the Horticulture Congress in January next year under the auspices of the Philippine Horticultural Society. The officers and some members of the PHS recently visited the farm in Amadeo and were particularly impressed with the Milky Mushroom.(by: Zac Sarian)

Source: Here comes the Milky Mushroom