“I get the question all the time at farmer’s markets, are these edible? They think they’re decoration,” Sewidan says as Hance holds a block sprouting a stunning bouquet of golden oyster mushrooms.īefore a block erupts with oysters, it undergoes a transformation in a dark, climate-controlled incubation room. Sewidan has a knack for this sort of experimental entrepreneurship after years managing an indoor lettuce farm venture and dabbling in CBD extraction.ĭown the hallway in other grow rooms, we encounter rows of reishi, chestnut, lion’s mane and oyster blooming with shrooms. Hance, Sewidan and their building manager started this exploratory operation just a year ago, after sprucing up the complex and removing some pesky biohazards. His face turns to just delight when we find a shiitake mushroom fused atop another and somehow growing upside down. ![]() “Shiitake lives in three or four different stages and if at any point you screw up, it's ruined, period.” These are their best shiitake blocks yet, but Hance wants them fully covered in fruiting mushrooms. “They look nice but they are very hard to grow.”ĭepending on the species, the recipe for success is complex, explains farm manager Joe Hance, eyeing the block with a mix of delight and frustration. “These are shiitake,” Sewidan says, pulling down a block to show off the shaggy-capped mushrooms popping out of it. He tosses a lab coat over his suit as we enter the massive metallic complex that houses 20 temperature-controlled rooms for growing, a lab, and a 40-foot-long tube used for sterilization.Ī steady mist showers shelves full of sprouting, brownish-grey mushrooms in the first grow room. “It feels like we are on a volcano that’s about to erupt,” says CEO Mohamed Sewidan, referring to the fast growing fascination with mushrooms in pop culture, medicine and beyond. Also inside is a small team with big visions for this fungi operation in suburban Minnesota. Definitely something I would choose over a mimosa any day.Facing the nondescript brick facade outside New Hope Farmacy, you’d never guess that within the building lies the largest indoor mushroom farm in the country. I was surprised that it had grapefruit without that abrasive sour after-taste that grapefruit drinks tend to have. I started with a French Spritz and got to work showing off that perfect backdrop. I love Hopcat, and it was definitely past noon, but I challenged myself to stay on the “Brunch Menu” while ordering. ![]() It was gorgeous and shiny, and everything a drink photographer ever dreamed of. I sat at the bar and almost started drooling as I saw the beautiful beer-cap mural covering the back wall. It’s been through many restaurants, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that they invested in the look of the place, in order to make it uniquely Hopcat. This Hopcat location is in a spot that has struggled in the past. I have also never been to their Knapp’s Corner location, and despise trying to find parking downtown, so I headed to the Beltline. ![]() My husband had plans for the day, so I made it a solo trip. I saw a post this week on Hopcat’s Instagram, that they are now serving brunch, and of course I had to go right away.
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