Hunter business, Bean Cycled, is helping local schools and community organisations have a new, healthy and environmentally friendly fundraising tool with the launch of Coffee Mushroom Kits.
Coffee Mushroom Farms are grow-at-home oyster mushroom kits using recycled coffee grounds. The kits are the latest product offering from Bean Cycled, which grows oyster mushrooms in a special facility at GPT Charlestown Square using grounds from coffee retailers in the centre.
The kits cost $25 each with $6 going to the fundraising organisation.
Co-founder Leisha Parkinson said the kits are practical, educational, easy to use and a healthier alternative to chocolate and other junk food fundraisers. They will produce two or three crops. Once the crops have been harvested, the contents can be used in the garden as compost.
“Our Coffee Mushroom Farms are easy to grow; simply spray regularly with water and the oyster mushrooms will start to form in about two weeks,” Leisha said.
“Stockton and Broke public schools and Kotara Scouts have used the kits for fundraising. Scouts can potentially earn a gardening or agriculture badge from using the kits. The kits are also perfect for sporting clubs, dance groups or service clubs.
“Oyster mushrooms are a super food that are nutrient rich, high in protein and have a great nutty taste. Perfect for eating on their own or for use in stews, soups, stir-fry and sauces.”
Schools or community groups who order and pay for a minimum of 60 kits by 30 November 2018 go into the draw for a cash prize of $500, further boosting their fundraising effort.
Leisha established Bean Cycled in 2017. She has been sponsored as the Slow Food Hunter Valley young farmer delegate to attend Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Turin, Italy at the end of September. She will be part of a 40 strong Slow Food Australia delegation. Organised by Slow Food, the Terra Madre is a biennial gastronomy exhibition that will bring together more than 5,000 delegates and 800 exhibitors from 140 countries. This year’s theme is Food for Change.
A 2016 report by Planet Ark found that Australian’s drink six billion cups of coffee per year. Around 93% of coffee grounds go to landfill where they can produce methane and carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
“The recycled coffee grounds are pasteurised during the coffee making, a process that is vital to remove contaminants from the material in which the mushrooms grow,” Leisha said.
“Traditional mushroom growing uses a lot of energy to sterilise material which this process avoids so there is another environmental benefit.
“The mushrooms are free of caffeine and won’t taste like coffee.”
Bean Cycled continues to sell its own oyster mushroom to cafes and restaurants and to the public through Your Food Collective. It also makes the rich compost material left over after harvest, freely available to local community gardens.
IMAGE | Leisha Parkinson with a Coffee Mushroom Kit.
