Long Beach makes ‘shroom for hyperlocal farming duo

Local couple Mia and Justin Nguyen transformed their shared hobby of home gardening into a niche business with the launch of Long Beach Mushrooms in late 2020.

“We started growing enough for ourselves and we started sharing it with other people and it was like ‘Wow, the product is awesome and it’s not available anywhere.’ I couldn’t really figure out why,” Justin Nguyen told the Signal Tribune.

The Nguyens noticed that the mushrooms they were growing at home were missing from the shelves of most large grocery chains.

“‘How come the only mushrooms we see are button mushrooms and portobello mushrooms, and these are so rare?'” Justin Nguyen said.  

Long Beach Mushrooms currently grows pink oyster, blue oyster, gold oyster, blue king, black pearl king and bear’s head mushrooms — species you’d be hard-pressed to find in most grocery stores.

After doing some research, they discovered this was because traits such as texture and short shelf life make it difficult for these mushrooms to be packed, shipped and distributed on a large scale.

“It’s hard. I guess the idea is: it’s hard for it to really be scaled up to a level where distributors would be selling it,” Justin said.

But where large distributors saw an obstacle, the Nguyens saw an opportunity.

“That actually is what really drew us to it because most of our food comes from so far away,” he said.

Their mushrooms are an example of the niche foods hyperlocal gardening can make possible: the product they provide can’t be shipped in from far away, and has to be grown within the community it will be eaten in.

“It has to be hyper localized because it doesn’t ship, it has to be hyper localized because there’s not a good shelf life on it,” he said. “And we just really liked the idea of it’s eaten where it’s grown.”

Turns out, people love mushrooms

The Nguyens’ mushrooms gradually burst through the bags of substrate that line the shelves of their darkened, humid grow room, unfurling intricate caps and stems as the weeks pass. The different oyster mushrooms grow complex stems that branch off into multiple caps, while the bear’s head grows as a thick white mound made up of thin strands that look like a fluffy cumulus cloud.

Once the mushrooms are ready to be harvested, Long Beach Mushrooms reaches out to local chefs in the area who regularly use its products at their restaurants.

Long Beach restaurants that have recently incorporated its mushrooms in their dishes include Heritage Sandwich Shop, which recently offered a sandwich that combines the meaty taste of blue oyster mushrooms with pickled fresno chilis, swiss cheese and melted onions on country loaf.

After the local chefs place their orders, Long Beach Mushrooms opens up sales to the general public through their Instagram page.

The different mushroom varieties can be enjoyed by themselves, sauteed simply with butter, salt and pepper, or used in a wide variety of dishes that best use their unique flavor.

The pink oyster mushrooms are known for having a taste reminiscent of ham or bacon and work perfectly alongside scrambled eggs or in breakfast burritos.

Golden oyster mushrooms have a nutty flavor similar to cashews, and make a delicious addition to pizza, pasta and ravioli filling.

Justin pointed out that the flavor of most produce found in stores suffers because fruits and vegetables are picked at a time when they can still be shipped and displayed, rather than when they taste best.

“I think the thing that people don’t realize is not just where our food comes from, but how much better it can taste when it is hyper localized,” Justin said. “I think a lot of people know the environmental benefits, maybe the health benefits, but the thing that hooked me was how much better it tastes when you can literally harvest it in your backyard and eat it right away.”

It all started with a tomato

The difference in taste between homegrown and store bought food is what first convinced the couple to start taking their hobby seriously.

“We grew our first tomato — my wife hates tomatoes — and we grew our first one, we sliced it, and I was like ‘Here, let’s try it, we grew it,’” he said.

The result, he said, was “mind blowing.”

“It was the best tomato we ever had. We didn’t realize. We didn’t know why tomatoes didn’t taste like this when we bought it from the store, and we’re like ‘What the heck is going on? This is amazing,’” he said. “And I think from there we just got more and more excited and started growing more and more things.”

Justin noted that although gardening had been a part of his life since childhood, he didn’t appreciate it until Mia joined him. 

Growing up under the pressures of assimilation, he was once embarrassed that his Vietnamese family continued the tradition of growing their own food using a home garden in their backyard.

“When I was a kid I thought it was super weird and I hated it and I didn’t want my friends to come over cause they’re gonna see this weird garden that wasn’t kept and there’s just stuff everywhere,” he said.

Room to grow

Now that he’s fully embraced his family’s tradition of home gardening, Justin and Mia plan to take it even further. They recently agreed to a lease on an industrial space that will allow them to increase the amount of mushrooms they grow, and expand the range of species they can offer.

“When we move into our bigger space what we’re gonna do is have grow rooms dedicated to certain varieties of mushrooms so we can really control the microclimate,” he said.

Until they move to their larger site, Long Beach Mushrooms has to be intentional with the varieties it chooses for its grow room, making sure they have similar growth cycles of around six weeks.

“We pretty much sell out anything we have,” Justin said. “I guess that’s a good problem to have.” 

To order from Long Beach Mushrooms customers can send a direct message to their Instagram page @longbeachmushrooms