Urban mushrooms are sprouting from our cafe’s used coffee grounds

Well it was an exciting day at City Farm yesterday.  The hard work from our GRO project team has finally paid off with our first flush of mushrooms sprouting from coffee waste.  The GRO project (Grounds Recycled Organically) aims to grow gourmet mushrooms on used coffee grounds.  Its part of City Farm’s larger aim to divert urban waste streams for use as organic resources for urban farming.  Its also part of our lofty aim to make our on-site Cafe a zero waste cafe.

Above and below are our first images of our first Oyster mushroom crop.   They are delicious in asian cooking.  They are also the primary decomposers of woody and plant material in nature.  Oyster mushrooms are the most commonly grown mushrooms for processing used coffee grounds so it can be used as compost.  We have also been inspired by reports of farmers using mushrooms to feed to fish in aquaculture systems.  This is a good source of protein that can be easily produced on-site.  More on that later….

Lastly, here is our first test crop of mushrooms growing from our experimental hanging pipes.

These darling clusters represent the beginning of the exciting GRO project, which has the potential to divert 10s of 1000s of tonnes of non-compostable waste away from landfill every year.   In the not so distant future (we hope) you’ll see our coffee recycling bikes collecting coffee grounds from cafes throughout the City of Perth.  Can’t wait to eat those mushrooms.  If you would like to know more about our GRO project or any other exciting urban farming projects at City Farm, contact us via webmail or call on 9325 7229.