Monterey Mushrooms Scores with More Spores
Published Jan 24, 2008
More than 550,000 pounds of mushrooms are harvested weekly at Monterey Mushrooms Inc. in Madison County.
Business at Monterey Mushrooms Inc. in Madisonville is, well, mushrooming.
The company’s 240-acre Madison County farm that was started in 1975 now harvests more than 550,000 pounds of mushrooms each week. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Production occurs under cover in a greenhouse environment.
“We grow white button, portabella and oyster mushrooms that are sold fresh to big grocery retailers throughout Texas, including Kroger, Albertsons, Tom Thumb and HEB,” says David Nesselrode, general manager of Monterey Mushrooms. “We are centrally located between the big cities of San Antonio, Houston and Dallas, which allows us get fresh products to all of those key markets. We also ship Monterey Mushrooms out of this facility to Louisiana, Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico.”
Nesselrode says the company uses a lot of recycled raw materials to make up the compost needed to grow ideal mushrooms. “We get wheat straw from Texas harvests, along with cottonseed hull and mill residue, plus a lot of poultry litter from eastern Texas,” he says. “We mix the recycled raw materials together, add water and then let the natural biological bacterial process take over.”
Nesselrode says the soil is inoculated with spore spawn, then covered with a ground layer of peat moss and lime mixture. The only thing left to do is wait for the harvest.
“Monterey has 11 growing facilities around the country, with the Madisonville site being one of the most productive,” he says. “We are always busy here.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
Current Weather Conditions In Bryan, TX (77805)
Clear, and 48 ° F. For more details?
Click here...
