Dropping sawn-off sections of logs to the ground and hitting them with a hammer may sound like a weird way to farm, but it is all in a day's work for a young Sunshine Coast couple.

Key points: A Sunshine Coast couple are crowdfunding in a bid to expand their mushroom farm

A Sunshine Coast couple are crowdfunding in a bid to expand their mushroom farm They use techniques that mimic natural processes to grow their produce, which is in high demand

They use techniques that mimic natural processes to grow their produce, which is in high demand According to an industry head, mushroom farming is a growing business

Katrina Atkinson and Daniel Tibbet said the aim is to get logs that were injected with shiitake mushroom spores a year ago to fruit.

The wood is soaked in water overnight, before being given vibrational shock treatment and propped against a corrugated wall in a shady spot outside.

"That mimics nature's process of there being a big storm — the logs being drenched from all the rain — and the log has fallen from the tree and hit the forest floor and [it tells it] 'now's the perfect time to make mushrooms,'" Ms Atkinson said.

"So then the logs produce shiitake mushrooms for us."

Daniel Tibbet sometimes drops the logs to mimic the natural process that causes shiitake mushrooms to fruit. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

A cultured pursuit

The couple has retrofitted a century-old pineapple packing shed in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, to grow shiitake, oyster and lion's mane mushrooms for their business, Mountaintop Mushrooms.

Katrina Atkinson is aiming to raise the funds to double the size of their grow room. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

Plastic bags are filled with a substrate of organic cane mulch which is pasteurised and inoculated, or injected, with a mushroom culture before being placed in the first of two rooms created inside the shed for two to three weeks.

Mr Tibbet described the incubation process.

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"All the white stuff inside the bags is the mycelium — that's the actual mushroom culture — it is kind of like the root structure of the mushrooms," he said.

"This room stays dark and a little bit warm, we keep it closed so the CO2 [carbon dioxide] levels rise in here and they really like that for this part of the growth.

Young oyster mushrooms fruit in a beautiful clump. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"As soon as we see the first signs of mushrooms in here, we'll move them into the fruiting room where we have increased humidity and they're exposed to more light and they start to produce mushrooms."

Colourful clusters of pink, white, grey and brown oyster mushrooms grow from holes poked in hanging bags.

"Within four to nine days they go from the first signs of pinning — you'll see like these strange, alien like looking things popping out of the holes — and then they sort of blossom into this bouquet of oyster mushrooms anywhere between seven to nine days," Ms Atkinson said.

Oyster mushrooms come in a range of shapes and colours. ( Supplied: Mountaintop Mushrooms )

"It's quite temperature-dependent, so in summer, these grow a lot faster in the heat and when it's a bit cooler it all slows down a little bit — but in those cooler temperatures, they also form a lot nicer so they're more robust as well."

On shelves in the corner, white, bulbous lion's mane mushrooms, featuring a furry exterior, protrude from blocks of the growing substrate.

"They are a brain-like structure and they and they are actually very good for your brain," Mr Tibbet said.

"There've been studies done where they've actually really helped people with Alzheimer's and dementia."

The lions mane mushroom has dense white flesh and a furry exterior. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

The duo each juggles two part-time jobs in addition to trying to build their business to meet demand at Mountaintop Mushrooms.

"We're having to turn away people now we're at full capacity, we're still so small — we're only growing 20 to 25 kilos a week," Mr Tibbet said.

"We've got about another four or five chefs lining up at the door that just said, 'we'll take whatever you've got.'"

Campaigning for capital

But like for many young farmers, raising capital can be a challenge and the young couple does not have the money to expand.

Sterile organic cane mulch is inoculated with the oyster mushroom spores. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

They are pinning their hopes on selling mushroom kits, shiitake logs, training sessions and crowdfunding to meet their goal of raising $10,000 to get their modest expansion plans over the line so they can double production.

"Basically, we're asking for money to rebuild the two rooms that we have, so we want to pretty well double the size so we can reach about 50 kilos of mushrooms a week," Mr Tibbet said.

"That would actually start becoming financially sustainable for us, to start taking a bit of an income from the business and quit a bit of our day work so we can really focus on this and and do what we love — and do something that we really believe in."

At the halfway mark of their campaign they have raised close to $4,000 of their $10,000 crowdfunding target.

In Asia these shiitake, lions mane and oyster mushrooms are more popular that white button mushrooms. ( Supplied: Mountaintop Mushrooms )

Growing industry

Australian Mushroom Growers Association chairman Tim Adlington said more than 40 growers were registered with the national association and he estimated another 10–15 were just getting established.

"I think it's a great industry and we've had quite a few questions and interest from young people," Mr Adlington said.

"Probably in the last three or four months I've had four or five new entrants asking me about how hard it would be to get in — and some people are growing them in their garages trying to get started up."

Australian Mushroom Growers Association president Tim Adlington appreciates the support of chef Curtis Stone. ( Supplied: Tim Adlington )

The Canadian-born mushroom executive is also the CEO of Parwan farms in Victoria, the nation's fourth largest mushroom producer.

He said while white button mushrooms, scientifically known as agaricus bisporus, dominate the Australian market, in China, so-called gourmet mushrooms were the most common commercial crop.

"In China the white button mushroom is in the minority — people love to consume oyster, shiitake, enoki, maitake.

"But the Chinese are starting to build agaricus farms now, so the flip side may happen here, where because there's a predominance of the white mushroom, it's possible that the exotic mushrooms will start to take a bigger role."

Button mushroom and spicy chickpea Buddha bowl with tahini dressing is just one of the recipes on the Australian Mushrooms website. ( Supplied: Australian Mushrooms )

Australia ranks sixth in the world in mushroom consumption and Mr Adlington said while wildly-fluctuating prices sometimes made it hard to estimate the value of the annual crop, about 70 million kilograms are grown annually.

"All of that gets consumed, mushrooms are very popular with us here in Australia, we're growing about 3 per cent annually," Mr Adlington said.