Lab 11

Monterey Mushrooms facility tour

Purpose

The purpose of this laboratory exercise on November 7, 2012, was to learn about commercial production of mushrooms by touring the Monterey Mushrooms facility in Madisonville, TX.

Materials and Methods 

Fluorescent security vest

Hair net

Long pants

Enclosed toe shoes

No jewelry

Long hair tied back

Nothing in pockets above the waist 

Results 

Highlights of the tour are pictured below.

 Aerial view of the Monterey Mushrooms facility in Madisonville, TX.

Monterey Mushrooms makes compost from straw and uses it as the preliminary food source in growing mushrooms.

Co-laboratory instructor Dr. Dan Ebbole (left), and classmates Lauren (center) and Charity, put on hair nets and safety vests required to walk through the facility.

Huge bales of straw used in making compost.

Armando, who works at the plant and conducted the tour, showed us step by step what happens to the straw in the biochemical process of making compost.

Heat is generated when making compost. You can see the steam rising. You can also feel the heat if you place your hand into the compost, as Armando did in the above photo.

Rows and rows of compost nearly ready to bring inside and fill wooden trays used to grow mushrooms.

Shan (left) and Zach check out the conveyor that brings in the compost from outside.

Wooden trays are filled with new compost. The compost is pasteurized to free it of weed molds and insects. And then the compost is cooled to room temperature before it is inoculated with mushroom spores. Trays are moved periodically to different environmentally controlled rooms to accommodate the different growth stages of the mushrooms. The time interval from production of compost to harvesting of mushrooms spans 72 days.

Mushroom primordia

Monterery Mushrooms grows both white (above) and brown (below) mushrooms. We got to sample both.

I have never eaten brown mushrooms, but I found the flavor earthy, almost smokey.

Laura enjoyed eating mushrooms too.

Mushrooms are hand picked and sorted by size.

Monterey Mushrooms packages and ships their products to grocery stores. Locally, you can find them at HEB.

Discussion

Since its establishment in 1971, Monterey Mushrooms, Inc. has gone from a family owned and operated farm in Royal Oaks, California, to an international, multifacility company, with 10 mushroom growing farms strategically located throughout North America. Headquartered in Watsonville, California, Monterey Mushrooms has production, sales and administrative offices internationally. Monterey Mushrooms is the country’s largest and only national marketer of fresh mushrooms to supermarkets, foodservice and ingredient manufacture operations, and preparers of processed canned, and frozen mushroom products. Detailed steps to how the company grows its mushrooms and other information can be found at the following link: http://www.montereymushrooms.com/