"Hello! Anyone there?" Like a scavenger in a post-apocalyptic world, I knocked on the entrance to the abandoned Tropicana swimming resort in Rotterdam looking for my contact Nathan Surrett. "We're down here" I heard from the right and followed the voice down to a basement under the swimming pool to find the headquarters of these regenerative mushroom growers.
RotterZwam mushroom growers believe in a society where cycles are closed, raw materials are exploited to produced food locally. Therefore, we grow super fresh oyster mushrooms in Rotterdam wasted coffee grounds and sell them to restaurants and supermarkets in the nearby area.
I first heard about these urban mushroom growers through Zjef Van Acker at the Association for Vertical Farming. I was too curious about their space and business model to skip a visit during my travels to the Netherlands last week. What I found was a dynamic group of committed sustainability entrepreneurs, making a big difference one mushroom at a time.
RotterZwam is a impact-driven business. Its unique business model involves making about 30% of their revenue off selling mushrooms to local restaurants. About another 30% is made from selling homekits for people like you to grow your own mushrooms at home. The rest of their revenue comes from something urban farms everywhere know a lot about: workshops and events.
I simply love the work that RotterZwam is doing for a couple reasons. Firstly, they are regenerating an unused space and making it productive. Literally they are growing mushrooms below ground in an abandoned urban swimming recreation centre. That space, thanks to their leadership, is now being branded as “Blue City” and hosts a slurry of urban agriculture projects, maker spaces, and sustainability start ups. Urban agriculture works best when its greening grey space and to see RotterZwam's hanging bags of mushroom cultivation in previously used spa spaces and swimming pool changing rooms are a revelation to see!
The second reason I love the work that RotterZwam does is because of their collaborative mindset. They are making money off growing and selling mushrooms but thats not enough for them. They want YOU to learn more about commercial mushroom growing and they do this through their Mushroom Master Program where you can learn all you need to know to start a commercial mushroom farm via e-books, a forum, and online courses. More than 29 entrepreneurs around the world have been trained how to cultivate and regenerate through funghi production. This open-source approach is admirable and important.
Sign up for RotterZwam’s Mushroom Master Program today!
I made a #ceramic #growset for #oystermushrooms #Rotterzwam just prototype. So you can grow these on coffee grounds waste. #gers #handmaderotterdam #artcharlois #charlois #rotttergram #mushrooms (bij Rotterdam, Netherlands)
RotterZwam is an innovative concept that turns waste into food. With the leftovers of coffee grind the company grows mushrooms in the basement of Tropicana, an abandoned swimming pool alongside the river the Maas.
At the moment RotterZwam has developed different products; from Grow Kits, to different types of mushrooms, and even provide inspiring lectures and workshops.
Their ambitions are to convert as much coffee grind as possible into food. In your home, in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and in the whole world!
