From Malt to Mushroom

Owners of Mycelium Express are making innovative culinary strides by cultivating mushrooms in a climate where they naturally can't be grown.

Rickey Boudreaux and Michael Garcia started full production of Oyster Mushrooms from their Pearl River facility in September 2018, a tough task to take on seeing as Louisiana's climate is the least favorable for mushroom cultivation.

"A mushroom's shelf life is 5-10 days. However, within that shelf life, the mushrooms were stored in their Northern warehouses, ordered and then, transported to South Louisiana, leaving chefs with a mere 2-3 days to prepare and serve them," Boudreaux said.

Boudreaux and Garcia's innovative system uses byproduct from local favorite Crescent City Brewhouse's spent brewer grain for production. They also use byproduct from local coffee giant, PJ's Coffee.

Mycelium Express also supplies the Brewhouse with fresh mushrooms currently served in the Wild Mushroom Pasta and Spinach and Wild Mushroom Bread Pudding dishes.

Boudreaux shared that some of the company’s biggest challenges come with managing their "warehouse inside of a warehouse" in both terms of temperature and humidity, but despite these challenges, he looks forward to expanding Mycelium Express' reach to more chefs throughout the city.

You can read more about Mycelium Express by visiting their company Facebook page.