MEMO ON SHIITAKE
✓ It is a medicinal and culinary mushroom native to the Far East. The Chinese call it “elixir of long life”.
✓ Very rich in nutrients, especially vitamin D, protein, zinc, selenium, copper, and lentinan, an active compound responsible for many of its properties.
✓ Studies have demonstrated its benefits for the immune system and the heart, as well as its anti-cancer potential.
✓ Today, this mushroom is the most cultivated species after the button mushroom.
La Caverne, the first organic urban farm in Paris
That summer, in the middle of a Paris heatwave, we found refuge in the first organic urban farm in Paris, interested in shiitakes that a team of enthusiasts has been growing for several years. We love shiitakes and mushrooms in general, for all their nutritional, therapeutic, ecological and other potentials (see my recent op-ed in Usbek & Rica on the subject)!
You reach this Alice-in-Wonderland burrow by taking a passage between two buildings that spirals underground. A dog stands guard, surprised to see intruders in La Caverne in the middle of August. Olivier Akesso, the site manager, welcomes us and tells us the story of the place.
In 2016, the Paris city hall launched a call for projects to transform this underground parking garage, abandoned for several years. Cycloponics, a start-up specializing in converting urban underground spaces into organic food production areas, won the call for proposals.
The initiative for this project came from Jean-Noël Gertz, a thermal engineer and founder of the Bunker Comestible in Strasbourg, and Théophile Champagnat, an agronomist and nomadic cook. They assembled a team that developed La Caverne, the first organic urban farm in Paris!
The farm covers 8,000 square meters and hosts a variety of crops and projects. Given its size and resources, it is also a prime location for cold storage and logistics. That’s why you encounter, around the galleries, one friendly startup after another — some doing R&D and others beginning to market their products.
Smart Farming System develops models of vertical farms to install in supermarkets, Superette grows aromatic plants, taking care to leave their roots at harvest to create “plugs” to replant at home or in a cocktail bar, for example, and Wesh Grow cultivates delicious microgreens under pink LEDs.
The shiitakes of Paris
We continue our exploration of La Caverne by the light of the LEDs that replaced the neon lights. Olivier shows us substrates on which shiitakes (and oyster mushrooms, which they also cultivate) grow.
It may not be widely known, but mushrooms cultivated off the ground can obtain organic certification if they are grown in the traditional way on straw or wood logs.
Here, we use substrates made of organic straw and wheat bran, which come from Brittany.
We immediately lose heat, but humidity is greatly increased! It can reach 70 to 95% in the mushroom house. Shiitakes grow well starting at 10°C and double in volume every day!
La Caverne harvests 250 kg of shiitakes per year, and about the same amount for oyster mushrooms. Its clientele includes Parisian grocers, chefs, private customers, and organic cooperatives. Most deliveries are made by bicycle, and 90% are within Île-de-France. This local situation keeps the price of these fresh, organic shiitakes attractive: €18/kg for individual customers.
One can still ask about the energy cost of an underground farm, detached from the seasons and the sun. Since mushrooms need little light, and endives (another flagship product of La Caverne) grow in the dark, lighting is not an issue.
These are intrinsically low-energy crops. All the more so because the farm respects the seasons, even underground! As for the microgreen crops mentioned earlier, they are grown under LEDs, energy-efficient lighting with a long lifespan.
Finally, the site runs on energy from 100% renewable sources.
The project also has a social dimension. There is no question of being a self-absorbed hipster ecosystem. La Caverne hires locally, favoring employees from the neighborhood and the social housing that overlooks it. Residents also benefit from a preferential price for products from the farm.
In 2019, Cycloponics developed a new underground project on the outskirts of Bordeaux: the Cave Agricole! Perhaps the subject of a future report?
Lately, the farm has started offering processed products: soups, sauces, terrines… So we leave with our arms full of local, plant-based vitamin D! An ideal spot for anyone from Île-de-France who loves this wonderful shiitake mushroom 🍄 🍄 🍄
