Mushrooms Are Poised To Be the 'It' Food of 2020

Smallhold is changing the way supermarkets sell mushrooms. It’s an important innovation since nationwide the consumer demand for mushrooms is greater than the supply.

Former college roommates Adam DeMartino and Andrew Carter started Smallhold three years ago and farm 10 varieties of mushrooms inside their Brooklyn, N.Y., warehouse—the first mushroom farm in New York—but their indoor farm isn’t the big news. Smallhold installs high-tech farms in restaurants and supermarkets. These farms can produce up to 100 pounds of mushrooms a week.

Smallhold is making these mini-indoor farms totally turnkey. They maintain the farms through an app. They regulate the temperature, humidity, CO2, the fresh air exchange, etc. This is truly sustainable farming at its best, which is important as we face climate change, and it creates a crop that doesn’t have to be transported from California or Kennet Square, Pa., to supermarkets and foodservice operators throughout the country.  

Whole Foods has started bringing Smallhold farms to its stores, and we expect many more to follow suit, because a Smallhold farm certainly brings a cache to the supermarket environment and makes a powerful statement about fresh. 

Smallhold plans to eventually expand to other types of produce with the hope of changing the future of farming.