Smallhold’s Mushroom Minifarms Give New Meaning to the Term “Local Food”
The Brooklyn-based company installs custom growing pods inside grocery stores, restaurants, and other establishments, dramatically shortening its supply chains.
By Mara Fisher
November 24, 2021
3 minute read
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In 2017, Andrew Carter and Adam DeMartino retrofitted a shipping container on a farm in Brooklyn and began growing mushrooms—about 50–100 pounds of them every week—inside, and sold them to local restaurants through a company they co-founded called Smallhold. They cultivated multiple varieties—sculptural shiitakes, royal trumpets, yellow oysters, and more—in a substrate made from recycled waste from the restaurant and agricultural industries (coffee grounds, sawdust), and became the first certified organic farm in New York City.
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