Hamakua Mushrooms Farm Tour

hi I'm Robert Stanga we're here at Hamakua mushrooms I'm the owner of the facility here as well as the food safety guy and the mechanic etc [Music] on this for entire episode we ventured out to the east side of the Big Island to visit hamako mushrooms in lapa hoy Hawaii on this visit I brought along a few special friends Chad Yamamoto executive chef at mermans Waimea and rocky Toledo also a chef from Airmen's oh yeah and chef dad Jason koneko when I first came to Hawaii I was at 75 at Barbara's point Hawaii US Navy guys that never left I was a flight instructor in San Diego after I was discharged in San Diego I met a guy named dr. Mattson was fringed with that wide Pacific helicopter owner for a pilot mechanic and that brought me right back to why and that's where I've never left sitting there that's when I was exposed to the food's here the wide all the coastal foods and believe it was an amazing mix so I kinda really got into that idea of growing doing so I thought okay mushroom so anyway 96 sold to helicopter company an interior designer I was a helicopter guy by trade but I told her about the dream of doing mushroom farm bought the property in 99 incorporated 2000 first mushrooms came out in 2003 and ever since the farm was 35 acres the coast we're about a 700 [Music] Bob and Janice's story is a super interesting one I mean from helicopters to mushrooms but they managed to pull it off and this farm is bustling now I wanted to learn more the mushroom steak is they start from the raw ingredients and all so it's just go right around this way this is where we make or mix everything rather all the substrates for our bottles and behind you here or in front of us is where we empty the bottle that they've been harvested but we use the Japanese while the cultivation method that's these trays here of 16 bottles per tray the polypropylene bottles we've been using them since 2003 the alder the bottle the yellower and then when one cracks or breaks we put in a new one that that's where it gets to be a lighter color but all developed in Japan all of our machines here in Japan we bake a cake there with the mixer we have 8 ingredients and go into the mix all organic and the main ingredients are sawdust wheat bran and corn cob then we have other things like peat moss we had a car at different different things at different qualities we mix it for about an hour and a half but add water till we get the right moisture content then we convey it over to the bottle filling machine back behind us each bottle with the same amount so therefore we get the same yield then it goes to the next phase here we call the hole maker and that puts a hole down in the middle of the substrate the sawdust substrate and that's where the spawn or the seed goes when we seed it in there so it falls down that hole so it grows from the inside out instead of from just the top to the bottom well we put the spot on the top of the bottle it would take a long time for it to grow or colonize and get all the way down to the bottom of the bottle but by sticking it in the middle it grows from the inside out and only has to travel about an inch and a half weeks edges or the ends of the jars and the full all things colonized very quickly so then it goes into her autoclave over here where we sterilize it and we bring it up to for an hour and a half that 15 to 20 psi and that kills all molds bacteria spores it's just sort of mushrooms gifter the mushroom spawn now always time to see the inside of Hamakua mushroom but not before sanitizing man this place is cool we saw the raw ingredient process outside but the inside of this place is more like a science lab back around the corner is a cool-down room and then we bottles in an hour super fast and so as the train goes through it pulls up a row of four caps and will auger spin and about two tablespoons a spot hit the top of the jar fall down that hole and then snap the cap back on that I was talking about then we bring them out here or they sit for four weeks and it goes from the dark brown once again to see these bottles here already see they're all white like psyllium mission already that's what we're doing here we gave it all the nutritional needs it's ready to go the temperature is incubation and by dropping it in a cool bro room that admissions a growth so we made it like it got cool overnight and now it's ready to go and now the money shot look at this girl robe if you didn't realize that alii mushrooms grew in bottles well welcome there's a few other processes that happen before the mushrooms get into this room but we'll leave those a secret now Bob bring it home with your science thought so we turn it upside down to protect it but also when it's growing it produces co2 co2 though is heavier than air so it falls way at this point where we exhausted with the fan there if we drew the bottles like this it would get a little layer co2 right in the top and the mushrooms would have work they just stopped so yeah weird stuff so all these little things you got to discover the hard way sometimes the moment I've been waiting for my very own harvest big tight grip and twist the left there you go that's it that's what we deal with every single one so then you guys would just seize our right to package it go yeah we have a little knife we'll trim it and then it goes into the bags two three pound bags per box for the chef's for it to a big bin where we taking the back your room and put it into us [Music] so what everything going on right now is it well we're down to basically zero restaurant sales right now so that was the bulk of our 5,000 plus me out at the end of this educational tour we each walked out with an abundance of mushrooms but also a greater appreciation for this craft by the way were you talking to dad remember to support your local farmers special thanks to Bob and Janice and the team at home cool mushroom you truly are inspirational and experts at what you do until next time

Channel: Pā'ina by Ocean

Views: 39,436

Keywords: mushrooms

Id: Azes6S3oSV4

Length: 7min 56sec (476 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 16 2020