North Canty couple hopes for business to mushroom online
Coronavirus may have stopped concerts, overseas travel, and the Olympics – but it hasn’t conquered the Canterbury mushroom market.
This year, shoppers will still be able to get their fix of various mushroom products through a weeklong online marketplace and delivery service.
Run by Sydenham-based vegan deli Grater Goods, the market is now in its second year. Co-owner Flip Grater said people were ‘‘stoked’’ to see the event has continued.
‘‘I think there was a real sense of disappointment when the [physical] event was cancelled, so it’s just been a really nice way to just stay chatting as a community,’’ she said.
‘‘Anything right now is a nice distraction from reality, anything fun we can do online is great.’’
Last year, the market was run over a single day and Grater said all stock sold in about 90 minutes.
This year’s online event, which started on Wednesday, was stocked with various products, including grow-your-own mushroom kits, mushroom-filled Polish dumplings, and mushroom-shaped vegan cookies. Grater said the event had to continue because there was so much interest and she wanted to keep the community strong.
‘‘The only way any of us are going to get through this is by supporting each other to get through it.’’
Taylor McConnell and Susan Jacobs were selling products from their North Canterbury mushroom farm in the market.
Their farm, Sporeshift, specialised in gourmet mushrooms and regularly supplied to restaurants, McConnell said.
He had lost a lot of customers due to the lockdown restrictions on restaurants. McConnell said he redesigned the farm’s website to make more sales to the public.
He was ‘‘really excited’’ when he was told by Grater the market would go ahead online, as he had assumed it would be called off.
McConnell was selling a five-step growing kit for oyster mushrooms at the market. He said it would make a good project for kids, as people got to see the full growing cycle.
He was also offering a log of shiitake mushrooms, which were easy to grow as the customer only had to remove the package and spray the mushrooms once a day.
McConnell said business through social media had increased in past weeks, with people being confined to home. ‘‘Your fast food market’s gone, so people are having to start exploring what they can make in their own kitchen.’’