Li-Sun Exotic Mushroom Tour, Mittagong

Two months ago, Ivanhoe began organising a group road trip to Bowral in order to attend the Li-Sun Exotic Mushroom farm tour in nearby Mittagong over the Labour Day long weekend. I wasn't quite sure what to expect so I did a little research/light reading to get myself prepared for what was ahead.

Fortunately, the weather on this day was awesome and we headed down south early in the morning so that we could scout out the local cafes in the Bowral town centre before the tour. The time soon came to head to the local swimming pool car park, which was the pickup point for the tour.

Shuttle Bus

A shuttle bus runs multiple loops in order to transport the 30 or so people that had signed up for the first of the two tours on this day. Realistically, we could easily have walked our way from the car park to the entrance of the mushroom tunnel, but for safety reasons, the track to the tunnel is prohibited to the public due to suicides in the past along the railway line.

Two-Line Railway Track
(This is how close we got to the railway line)

Entrance of Mushroom Tour

History Behind the Mushroom Tunnel

The mushroom tunnel is 650m long and was originally built in the 1860s, historically used for travel and transporting goods from Sydney to Goulburn along a single-line track. However, in the early 1900's, the current two-line track railway was built running parallel to the original one. Since then, the tunnel was used to store firearms and ammunition for the WWII and left for disuse until in 1953 when the tunnel was used to cultivate mushrooms.

Cultivation of mushrooms in Australia began in the 1930s - the first place was in the (old?) Eastern Suburbs Railway tunnel near Circular Quay. As mushrooms prefer damp, dark locations with occasional light, the tunnels provided the optimum environment for cultivating the fungi. Apparently, Australians consume the second-most mushrooms per capita after France!

The Mushroom Tunnel Today

Dr Noel Arrold, the tour guide and owner of Li-Sun Exotic Mushrooms (yes, 'Li-Sun' sounds like a Chinese name but is actually named after Dr Arrold's two children - Lisa and Sunner) comes from an agricultural science background and studied mushrooms back in his uni days. He introduced Swiss Brown mushrooms to the Australia and gradually began to cultivate various exotic mushrooms in the tunnel to sell to wholesalers and restaurants across Australia and abroad.

The tunnel is kept at a constant 16 degrees with wet floors to keep the humidity at 80-85%, and the lights are regulated to turn off at 5pm to allow the mushrooms to grow ("when [we] go to sleep...the mushrooms will grow"). Throughout the entire tunnel are logs composed of various materials (like eucalyptus sawdust to grow shiitake mushrooms), which provide a food source for the mushroom spores (or seeds) that have been mixed into the material. Most fungi can be grown on any food source (e.g. like the logs in the tunnel) but some grow on specific mediums, e.g. :

• Mycelium is grown on sterilised mashed potato, which is passed through muslin cloth with added agar agar so that when it dries, the final substance hardens - this makes for a great base for growing oyster mushrooms.
• Pathogens can cause disease to trees, grapes and cause blight disease for potatoes
• Mycorrhiza grow around root systems of forest trees (e.g. pine or oak) and help draw nutrients from the ground

Mushroom spores are viable for 6-12 months.
Apparently there are medicinal mushrooms - e.g. maitake mushrooms - but Dr Arrold is still negotiating with the government to obtain permission to cultivate them.

Warning: when picking wild mushrooms, never eat any mushrooms with white gills as it may be the death cap mushroom, especially in Australian forests (like in Oberon)!

Mushroom Tour

Here are some pics from the tour:

Entering into the Unknown

Tour Group in Mushroom Tunnel

Mushroom Tunnel

Mould Growing on the Wall

Shiitake Mushrooms

Shiitake Mushrooms

Shiitake Mushrooms

Wood Ear

Pink Oyster Mushrooms

Nameko

Nameko

Mushroom Spores in a Jar

Chestnut, King Brown and Enoki Mushrooms

Chestnut and King Brown Mushrooms

Oyster Mushrooms

Oyster Mushrooms

Wall of Oyster Mushrooms
(cos flower walls are so last year)

Italian Oyster Mushrooms

Shimeji Mushrooms

End of the Mushroom Tunnel

At the end of the mushroom tour, we got to pick up a small pre-packaged tray of various exotic mushrooms as a takeaway item:

Pre-packaged Mushroom Packs

Various Mushroom Packs

Overall, it was an interesting experience to see how mushrooms are grown before they hit the supermarkets/restaurants and onto our plates. There were a few mushrooms that I have never seen before (e.g. the pink and Italian oyster mushrooms, as well as the shimeji mushrooms) and it was amazing to see so many oyster mushrooms growing together.

Next mushroom experience to look forward to: mushroom picking in Oberon forests.

The mushroom tours are run 3-4 times a year, usually over the long weekends, and currently costs $38pp - this covers the return trip in the shuttle bus, 1hr tour, and a sample of exotic mushrooms that are grown on site. Bookings via email or phone are essential (details on the tours are available on the Li-Sun Exotic Mushroom website).

Mushroom Pack with Pamphlet
(Yes, I'm holding up the shuttle bus)