The "O" Word

It happens at every market - a valued customer raises the perfectly reasonable question: "Are these mushrooms organic?" It's a great question, because one of the main good reasons for including more mushrooms in our diet is the health benefits associated with the increased dietary fibre, non-animal protein and researched functional food compounds mushrooms contain. If such supposedly'healthy food' is treated with chemicals that increase yield but are known to be harmful to human health, such as chemical fungicides, herbicides, pesticides ("'cides") and fertilizers, this undermines the value of increasing our consumption of them.

We wish we could answer with a simple 'yes', but, as with so many things in this era, there are convoluted reasons why we cannot legally do so.

The common meaning of the word 'organic', with a little 'o', describes any collection of Carbon-based molecules assembled by life processes. It can refer to nutrients in the soil taken up by plants, the plants themselves and anything the plants might eventually be turned into, including food for an animal or mushroom, the animals and mushrooms themselves - even fuel! "Are mushrooms organic?" Yes, they are.

Use of the word "Organic" (with a big "O") to describe food intended for human consumption can no longer be used as an adjective according to its common meaning in a retail setting. It's been claimed as a 'protected' word by food agencies around the world. Canada's version is called the "Canada Organic Regime." Sounds terrifying, but don't worry, they're on our side! In order to use the word as a product descriptor, retailers must seek accreditation and undergo inspection to ascertain the validity of their claim. That process is outsourced to 'Certification Bodies' for whom that process is their bread and butter. We're not saying they don't do good work, which contributes meaningfully to the assurance of quality and content for consumers. Just that they charge for it. The fees for accreditation are appropriate for medium to large-sized commercial property-based operations, but don't scale well for home-based, small businesses like ours. Those fees are passed on to the consumer within the increased price of Certified Organic products.

A little-known fact is that Organic Certification requires a standard of only 95% Organically-grown qualifying content, which means up to 5% of what you pay for and then eat may not be Organically-grown at all. 'Made with Organic' ingredient labelling requires only 70% Certified Organic content. If Canadian forests were Certified Organic then we could perhaps claim 'Grown On Certified Organic Ingredients', but unless people start eating trees, that won't happen. Remember, the "O" word only applies to the food people eat. We still couldn't describe our mushrooms as 'Organic' without inspection of the growing process and payment of fees. It makes sense, from the perspective of consumer protection, because even in that scenario we could still spray the mushrooms with all manner of chemicals as they grow, and it would still be true that the 'ingredients they grew on' remained 'Certified Organic'. The purpose of the inspection and certification system is to prevent that kind of misleading claim.

So, instead of undergoing inspection and paying the associated fees, we self-certify that our products are naturally-grown, a phrase which has some wide understanding that no chemical 'cides or fertilisers are used, and are open with our customers about our processes and materials. Thankfully, we're still allowed to do that!

Most of our mushrooms grow in wood-based substrates (the food source and growing medium of the 'root' part of a mushroom, called 'mycelium'). Without exception, our sources of wood are naturally-grown, free of all additives. Most often, it's residual sawdust from lumber mills, processed into fuel pellets by Canawick. Check them out, they have their own high standards worthy of consideration. We also gather community-grown logs and woodchips though networking with neighbours and arborists, and prune our own Big Leaf Maples.

We've networked with a local businesses to incorporate Organic grains and bran into our process, and we're working towards establishing a consistent supply of Organic straw. Since the decline of horse-based transportation, there's not much modern demand for bran or straw. Some is ploughed back into farm soils to amend organic (little 'o') matter levels. Very little straw is reused as a soil mulch layer, or as animal bedding. Some reaches biofuel producers, but most of these agricultural by-products have no end-use, entering the waste stream and landfills. We use them to culture mushroom mycelium and add extra nutrition to mushroom substrates. All our indoor cultivated mushrooms (some of which are used in traditional Asian medicine) are grown this way, with the exception of one group. Let's talk about:

The Other "O" Word!

"O"yster Mushrooms! We grow a wide variety of Oyster Mushrooms, from the common Pearl Oyster to the stately King Oyster. They're delicious culinary mushrooms, not especially touted for purported health benefits, but known for the versatility of their fast-growing mycelium enabling cultivation on a wide range of organic (little 'o') materials, such as straw, cardboard, newspaper, and even spent coffee grounds. We still use the same high-quality wood or Organic straw for the base of our Oyster Mushroom substrate. We've also networked with another small, local, home-based business, Holbean Coffee, to collect their spent coffee grounds from markets we both attend, and incorporate them in our Oyster Mushroom substrate. Like us, Holbean Coffee does not produce Organic Certified products. We use their spent coffee grounds only after they've already been small batch roasted and used to make filter coffee. Research suggests over 70% of pesticides are volatilized ('burnt off') during coffee roasting, and a little more during filter coffee-making. In theory, since we blend substrate at 30% spent coffee grounds, 70% wood or straw, this would qualify our Oyster Mushroom substrate for 'Made Using 70% Organic Ingredients' status. But of course, we're not feeding you the substrate directly. We're just feeding it to our Oyster Mushrooms. And we don't then spray them with any chemical 'cides or add fertilizers.

Spent coffee grounds are typically only of value as a garden soil amendment. We feel the net result of taking commercial and agricultural by-products like coffee, bran and straw out of the waste stream and landfill, finding novel applications in the production of food with high nutritional value, does more to contribute to environmental sustainablity and food security than obtaining a label for our products that doesn't tell consumers the whole story. We prefer to give you all the information, and let you make your own decision.

Can we get an "O"‽