Stalk to Finish

It may sound obvious, but mushrooms are grown in rooms and much like the edible fungi itself, that goes a long way. “We are currently producing and retailing one tonne of myriad mushrooms across Delhi-NCR and beyond. Our biggest customers are 5-star hotels and restaurants where the APC is `2,000. However, since the pandemic, direct sales to individual customers are at an all-time high,” says Hotel Management graduate, and legacy farmer (more on that in a future article) Pranav Bahl, whose produce sells under Swadeshi Mushroom (@ swade shimushro om o n Instagram) These are not your everyday mushrooms, as were introduced by his father back in 1988.

“Back then, people didn’t know what a button mushroom was, and would ask if it was edible. Today, thanks to travelling and the Internet, people are more knowledgeable about the many different kinds of mushrooms and their various uses,” says the 30-year-old, adding, “Now people are asking for specific kinds of mushrooms, and since several of these fungi grow in the wild, and can’t be cultivated, we have a lot of customers hungry for more.” In case you thought we were referring only to Truffles, those hedonistic wild growths in Italy and parts of France, think again.

“There is a wild mushroom, Cordyceps sinensis, which only grows in Arunachal Pradesh, which is worth way more than truffles (think several lakhs a kilo). The Chinese are trying to muscle into that market, but it’s a mushroom that can’t be tamed and drives the economy of the villages from where people go to forage it in the couple of months a year it grows.” For Bahl, it isn’t only about the viability of the mushrooms, but also their benefits. As he notes, they are a great source for Vitamin B-12, which also helps the body process Vitamin D (the vitamin that the sun provides, which Delhi people are often bereft of), which in turn helps bone density and all types of things you didn’t know you want, but your body needs.

“It’s really a full package of nutrients, and since the pandemic, when people started cooking at home, they began reaching out to us for mushrooms. While high-end hotels and restaurants are still our biggest buyers, we have seen an explosion in recent months when it comes to directly supplying people at home,” says Bahl, mentioning his company is presently shipping out a ton of mushroom every month. While he could definitely expand his production, like a true farmer, Bahl is playing it cautious. “It’s a perishable product, which we grow in the best possible conditions.

Ensuring those conditions, as well as the developing new infrastructure to support further projects is a costly endeavour. We’d rather supply the best ingredients to fewer people than have a bounty of produce which might get wasted due to less orders.” The six-year-old farm was started by Bahl after he completed his college at Bombay Catering College, with the chef-never-to-be noting he got into other noteworthy colleges but chose Bombay as he wanted to stay in Mumbai. “After doing my course in hotel management, and given my family’s background in the edible fungi industry, I decided to start supplying hotels with top quality produce instead of working in them.”