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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

mushroom

The Shrooly Lets Aspiring Mushroom Farmers Grow Fungi On Their Kitchen Countertop

While I’m not a mushroom eater – they’re slimy and weird-looking pieces of mold – I’m all for growing them at home because, well, mushrooms are slimy weird-looking pieces of mold.

And, from the looks of it, I (and the mycophiles among us) may soon have another option to become a small-scale mushroom farmer with a home mushroom fruiting chamber called the Shrooly. The new gadget is currently being offered up through a new Indiegogo campaign and is scheduled to start shipping to backers in December of this year.

The appliance, which is available starting at $299 on Indiegogo, is a countertop home growing chamber with light and humidity control. The appliance has on-device control knob and a small display screen that gives updates on the mushroom’s growth, temperature data, and how long until the mushroom is ready for harvest. The Shrooly will also have an app that allows the user to control humidity and monitor the growth of the mushroom.

The Shrooly Mushroom Growing Appliance

Shrooly users will grow mushrooms from pods that feature a variety of different types of shrooms, ranging from Maitake to Shiitake to Cordyceps. Once a user puts a pod into the chamber, the mushroom takes about five or so days to grow big enough to be harvested. Each mushroom pod will cost $12. Shrooly owners will also be able to use third-party growing blocks.

Spoon readers may remember a similar concept from GE’s innovation arm and microfactory FirstBuild, the Mella. The two chambers are similar, but the Shrooly has a bit slicker-looking design and what looks like smaller countertop footprint. The two appliances are similarly priced, with the Mella going for $419 compared with the Shrooly’s standard price of $440.

While we haven’t quite seen the same level of proliferation of mushroom home grow chambers as we saw with countertop leafy-green grow systems a few years ago, two in the span of less than a year might be the start of a trend. For those who actually want to generate food for consumption with a small footprint countertop appliance, I actually think mushroom chambers make more sense. Mushrooms can be quite large and they have fairly quick grow cycles, which similar-sized countertop veggie-grow machines really only produce herbs or leafy greens like lettuce.

As always, we have to caution that crowdfunded appliances have a history of delays and sometimes never showing up at all. But, the mushroom heads out there, the Shrooly might be worth taking a shot on.

FirstBuild is Making a Smart Mushroom Fruiting Chamber for the Home

One of my wife and I’s inside jokes is the reason we fell in love was our mutual dislike of mushrooms. When we first met, we both thought most forms of fungi that crossed our plates were gross. A few gray hairs (on my head, not hers) and years of marriage later, we can both be adult enough nowadays to eat the occasional mushroom when offered, even if we both would still prefer to hold the mold.

That said, I have come to marvel at the power of fungi in recent years and am all for people (except me) eating more mushrooms, so I was excited when I saw that FirstBuild is working on taking its mushroom fruiting chamber from prototype to product.

You can catch a glimpse of the new Mella Smart Mushroom Fruiting Chamber in action below in the video from FirstBuild.

Introducing Mella: The Smart Mushroom Fruiting Chamber

With sensors for humidity and temperature monitoring, the ability to monitor the mushrooms via a web dashboard and email alerts, closed-loop humidity control with a small refillable water basin, and air filter with duel inlet fans, the appliance has all the bells and whistles to help the aspiring fungiculurist create a high-tech fruiting chamber on their kitchen countertop. Plus it looks cool. The fruiting chamber is surrounded by glass, which lets you check out the your growing fungi.

So why is FirstBuild creating a mushroom growing appliance? The main reason is probably because weird and interesting new appliance concepts are largely the reason the organization exists. FirstBuild, which became somewhat well known with product concepts like its precision cooking Paragon cooktop and Opal ice maker, essentially acts as a product innovation engine for GE Appliances. The group crowdsources new ideas, builds prototypes, and occasionally – like with the Opal – will take the prototypes to full production.

FirstBuild has a microfactory that can do small batch manufacturing, so oftentimes the group will make small one-off manufacturing runs of products like the Forge clear ice system. Other times, the product never gets out of prototype, like it looks like happened with the Arden in-home smoker (bummer) or the Saucemaster 3000.

The move into a grow system for mushrooms isn’t the only sign that FirstBuild has become home-grow curious since earlier this year the company prototyped a smart garden system. It’s also possibly a sign the innovation group is following its parent company’s lead in exploring home grow systems as part of a broader home appliance offering.

If you want to get in on the mushrooom farming fun, stay tuned. FirstBuild says the campaign (which we presume will be on Indieogo) is coming soon.

Ecovative Launches Spinoff Company Atlast Food to Create Myceliuim Scaffolding for Meat Alternatives

At the Good Food Conference today biotech company Ecovative announced it was spinning out Atlast Food Co., a new company entirely dedicated to creating mycelium scaffolding for meat alternatives.

As I wrote about Ecovative/Atlast earlier this year:

The company first developed a mycelium platform 12 years ago to use as sustainable packaging material. Then, a few years ago, they started developing a marshmallow-like mycelium foam, called “Atlast,” which could be used as scaffolding for tissue engineering. Ecovative co-founder and CEO Eben Bayer told me over the phone that they can grow the mycelium into a shape that emulates meat fibers, then infuse it with plant-based fats, flavors, and seasonings. In short: they can use it as a scaffold to grow meat.

It seems that Ecovative has realized that there’s enough potential in growing meat alternative scaffolding to merit a dedicated company. According to Andy Bass, Ecovative’s Director of Marketing, Atlast will partner with companies to help them develop bespoke whole cuts of plant-based and cell-based meat.

So far, Atlast has tested their mycelium into a scaffold for plant-based bacon. I haven’t had a chance to try it myself, but based off of the video below it actually looks pretty tasty.

Ecovative is striking while the plant-based iron is hot — and primed to grow. Most meatless meats available now have a processed texture, such as burgers, chicken nuggets or sausages. In order to take a real chunk out of the meat industry, alternative companies will have to figure out a way to make whole cuts of meat — like steak or chicken breast — out of plants. And one of the biggest challenges standing in their way is texture.

Atlast’s technology could be even more critical to cell-based meat. Thus far, the majority of companies have been able to grow meat with a “ground” texture, though cultured meat companies are experimenting with 3D printing and even spinach leaves as tools to improve texture. Even Aleph Farms, which is making cell-based steak, has only been able to make thin sheets the size of a credit card. There’s a big opportunity for someone to come in and provide a scaffolding solution, especially as cultured meat inches closer to hitting the market.

Bass wouldn’t disclose future partners but said that they would make more public sometime in 2020.

Ecovative’s Mushroom Foam Could Solve Alternative Meat’s Texture Problem

When you bite into a juicy piece of steak — or any meat — a big part of the tasting experience is texture. It’s one of meat’s most defining characteristics, which also makes it really, really hard to accurately imitate. Alterna-meat companies are trying, but all too often their efforts fall short and we’re left with gummy vegan sausages or tough “chik’n” strips.

The secret to texture might lie in mushrooms. Or, more specifically, what lies beneath mushrooms. Ecovative, a biotech company based in upstate New York, is using mushroom roots (AKA mycelium) to give meat alternatives a better, meatier texture.

The company first developed a mycelium platform 12 years ago to use as sustainable packaging material. Then, a few years ago, they started developing a marshmallow-like mycelium foam, called “Atlast,” which could be used as scaffolding for tissue engineering. Ecovative co-founder and CEO Eben Bayer told me over the phone that they can grow the mycelium into a shape that emulates meat fibers, then infuse it with plant-based fats, flavors, and seasonings. In short: they can use it as a scaffold to grow meat.

This sort of scaffolding technology is really needed right now. Texture is a huge barrier to widespread acceptance for meat alternatives, both cell-based and plant-based. On the whole, cellular agriculture companies have figured out how to replicate animal cells. But as of now they can basically only copy and mush cells together, so they’re limited to making meats that don’t require much structure, like ground beef. Similarly, plant-based meat is struggling to replicate the exact texture of meat, cheese, and fish.

Ecovative isn’t the only company working on this problem. Redefine Meat is using 3D printing to try to make plants emulate the texture of beef. Researchers at Penn State are using LEGO pieces to spin edible scaffolds made of cornstarch, and others are experimenting with spinach leaves to help grow tissue.

But Ecovative’s platform has a couple of advantages. Mycelium is super easy and fast to grow: Bayer said it only takes nine days to grow a sizeable sheet of the mushroom foam. It’s also very cheap to make and extremely versatile. Scientists can either grow the foam into an intended shape — like, say, a pork chop — or cut and shape it after the sheet is ready.

Bayer told me that Ecovative will sell its mycelium foam to other businesses. He wouldn’t give specifics on pricing or when exactly they would head to market, but told me that the company will have “stuff to taste by this year.”

Sure, right now we’ve got vegan burgers that have a texture pretty close to the real thing. But what about bacon, or beef tenderloin, or steak? Until there are indistinguishable plant-based (or, down the road, cell-based) options for all cuts of meat, not just burgers, it’ll be hard to get carnivores on board with meat alternatives. Hopefully Ecovative’s mycelium can help crack the texture code.