Their research showed mushrooms can be cultivated using a combination of recycled coffee grounds and traditional straw-based growing, and they’re now six weeks away from launching their product at Harvest. 

“We did some market research and found no one was growing gourmet mushrooms in Launceston.

“We did a bit of research and saw you can grow certain types of mushrooms on coffee grounds,” Mr Richardson said. 

Operating under the name Wild Spore, Mr Richardson said they trialled the innovative method for six months.

It’s a practice that has been used overseas, and more recently in Western Australia.

Mr Richardson said he believed the combination of straw and coffee grounds produced a greater yield and profit margin.

He said it also prevented tons of coffee beans going to landfill each week. 

The pair said they regularly sought out coffee shops to take their spent coffee grounds, and have found willing participants in 10 coffee shops in Launceston, including Stillwater and Bryher. 

Mr Richardson said they collected around a ton every month of coffee grounds.

“It’s not just about growing mushrooms and coffee it’s about building relationships with the restaurants,” Mr Smith said. 

“We’ve been collecting coffee grounds from Stillwater, and just recently they’ve put our mushrooms on the menu.” 

Mr Richardson said they’ve also been selling their product to Davies Grand Central and Larceny Restaurant. 

“We’ve grown a few varieties of the oyster mushrooms, different colours and also chestnut mushrooms. We’re focusing on oysters at the moment, but we’re going to branch out to other varieties as we go,” Mr Smith said. 

But their overall plan extended further than mushrooms, Mr Smith said, as they hoped to establish more farming enterprises that are sustainable, direct to customer and low capital. 

He said they planned to teach sustainable business practices overseas to third world countries.