Little Yarns: Kalesha Rogers

Pure Mushrooms – Woodcroft, SA

This edition of Little Yarns heads to Adelaide’s South to chat with Kalesha Rogers, who runs the Willunga Farmers Market and Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market operations for Pure Mushrooms. A family-run business since 1992, Pure Mushrooms supply us with fantastic Swiss Browns for our Mushroom Pâté, and have a focus on both ecological and social responsibility and sustainability, utilising solar power, recycled water and all recycled materials in their mushroom growing substrate.

Tell us what you do at Pure Mushrooms and how your farm started.

Geoff Izard built a mushroom farm in the ‘80s in Mildura, Victoria, before purchasing an existing mushroom farm on Bains Road in Woodcroft. In 2006, this was purchased by Phil and Linda Rogers, Geoff’s daughter and son-in-law (and my parents). Originally operating as P&L Rogers Pty Ltd, we recently transitioned to the name Pure Mushrooms.

I run the Willunga Farmers Market and Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market stalls, and I personally love the interaction with the customers, and being able to shop for and sell fresh produce out in the open.

What types of mushrooms do you farm?

Pure Mushrooms grow white mushrooms and Swiss Browns. The set-up of our mushroom farm is equipped for these types and they both grow in the same conditions.

We imagine growing mushrooms can be a balancing act of getting the temperature and humidity right, pH and so on – how do you manage to maintain such a high quality of finished product?

We grow our mushrooms in ‘cool room’ panel growing rooms for insulation. We have quite high tech equipment to maintain the ideal growing environment so that we can grow mushrooms all year round.

How do the harvesters know when they are ready to pick and which mushrooms make the cut?

Our pickers go through a training period and are taught how to pick, grade and pack mushrooms.

The most desirable size mushroom is what we call a ‘medium button’, and that size is generally 35-50mm in diameter. The pickers will pick their rows and harvest that size, and doing that then provides more space for the smaller ones to grow to that size.

Mushrooms will double their size every 24 hours. By picking the larger mushrooms and providing space for the others also means that they are not crowded and therefore will be able to have that perfect round shape.

If mushrooms grow too close together, or too close to the legs of the growing bed, then they can sometimes come out with a few blemishes and then be graded into seconds.

Roughly how many mushrooms do you pick a day?

We harvest on average 40 tonnes of mushrooms per week. Depending on where the crops are at, the daily harvest can vary.

You’ve got a heap of recipes on your website - what’s your favourite dish to cook using your mushrooms?

My favourite at the moment is the most basic combination of mushrooms (of course), onion, capers and horseradish. Cooked in some butter or olive oil, it makes a wonderful side dish or on top of your favourite protein. But a mushroom cob loaf is always a crowdpleaser!

What do you love most about the Willunga Farmers Market?

I love the relationships I have formed over the years with various stallholders and customers – being outside rain, hail or blowing a gale, but most of all the sunshine and fresh air.

What is your favourite Little Acre product? 

It would be wrong of me not to say the Mushroom Pâté! But a nice warm mushroom toastie on a chilly market morning is always a winner.

Why are Swiss Brown mushrooms so great for making pâté?

Swiss Browns have a stronger flavour than the white mushrooms, and they give you that lovely darker colour.

Tell us your favourite mushroom joke.

I had a brilliant one at the market the other day: “Excuse me, do you have a seat here? Because I was hoping to find a toadstool!”

If I had a dollar for every time I was asked if my coworker is a ‘fungi’, I would never have to work again!

Where can our customers find your products?

Look for the Pure Mushrooms boxes in Coles and Woolworths, as well as some independent Foodlands. Better yet, find us at the Willunga Farmers Market on a Saturday morning, or the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market every Sunday.

You can find a full list of Pure Mushrooms’ stockists here.