PAOAY, Ilocos Norte—While looking for mushrooms needed for a dish to serve her family while on vacation in the Philippines, Marina Tagatac-Grant, 53, an independent human-resources professional based in San Jose, California, failed to see even a single piece at the market.
“When I came here with my two children—it was their first time to come here in the Philippines with my husband —I was looking for mushrooms and my aunt told me that it’s seasonal and I was so surprised they were still hunting for mushrooms,” Grant said as she recalled how their family mushroom-growing business started two years ago.
Her love for mushrooms dates back to her childhood in Batac City, when relatives would go to the mountains and to the rice fields hunting for that soft and succulent mushroom that grow after a thunderstorm during the rainy season in the Ilocos region.
To this date, mushroom culture in the Philippines is less popular among traditional farmers. Hence, she decided to grow her own with YouTube as her first mentor.
It could have been a blessing in disguise as the Tagatac family in Barangay Nanguyudan, Paoay, Ilocos Norte has produced graduates in agriculture at the Mariano Marcos State University-College of Agriculture, Food and Sustainable Development (formerly known as College of Agriculture and Forestry) in Batac City and an inherited parcel of land located by the road in Nanguyudan village overseeing the Paoay Lake.
Checking at the lot her grandfather Cecilio Tagatac left to all his children, one her cousins, Allan Tagatac suggested they could put up a mushroom farm in the area.
So in 2012, the Tagatac and Grant family started to clean up the land and constructed a 1,480-square meter organic-mushroom farm equipped with an air-conditioned laboratory, where they personally developed seeds, a production area in a close-room building and a separate storage facility, among others.
With the right mix of capital and manpower resources, having Allan, an agriculturist at the provincial government of Ilocos Norte-Veterinary Office and wife Ofelia Bucao, a crop science major working in a private seed company, the husband and wife tandem worked at the Tagatac-Grant mushroom farm as COO and chief for research and development, while Marina served as the owner and CEO.
Born and raised to a farming family and considering the lack of employment in the Philippines, Marina decided to involve her other relatives at the farm for them to have an additional source of income.
Allan’s mom, Marcela Tagatac, 66, said she enjoys working at the farm, wearing her white-robe uniform, a hair net and gloves while collecting mushrooms conveniently hanging in plastic containers.
Grant, in their family mushroom-growing business, combined the technology she learned from mushroom culture in the United States and from local knowledge derived from the Batac University including field visits to technology demonstration farms here.
The Tagatac-Grant fresh organic mushroom farm is now gaining popularity. Being the first complete tissue-culture mushroom facility in the Ilocos region with a stream of loyal buyers mostly composed of balikbayans, restaurants and local individuals including from Metro Manila, Grant said they envision to grow more promising varieties of mushrooms and later on explore the export market.
To date, the farm produces oyster and straw mushrooms pegged at a farm gate price of P300-P340 per kilo. Grant said they are harvesting at least 12 kilos daily. As they try to improve and learn by experiment or by trial and error, they hope to meet their average daily production target of 30-50 kilograms by the end of this year with a gross income of P9,000-P15,000 daily.
“Weather is a big factor in growing mushrooms. So, we are still on the experiment stage. This is our first year on full cycle and we want to grow other varieties such as shiitake, crimini or Italian brown which are very expensive in the market,” Grant said, noting she is in and out of the country to personally supervise the farm on its infancy.
So far, the oyster mushroom, which is easier to grow in tropical climate, found a local market niche with returning customers buying wholesale.
Last September 25-27, the mushroom farm led by Grant joined the Ilocos Norte Food and Trade Expo where they displayed some of their products including a sample food taste of their mushroom dishes.
Although often grouped with vegetables such as the popular Ilokano dinengdeng, mushrooms are fungi and provide many nutritional benefits commonly found in meat, beans or grains including a similar number of nutrients as brightly colored fruits and vegetables. Mushrooms are low in calories, fat-free, cholesterol-free and very low in sodium, yet provide several nutrients including Vitamin D, riboflavin, niacin, and selenium.
Growing mushrooms convert agricultural waste such as rice straw into a valuable product. These can also be used as feed stock for ruminants and a soil conditioner. No wonder the Tagatac-Grant mushroom farm is surrounded by forest trees, fruits, green leafy vegetables plus a magnificent view of the Paoay Lake, giving a relaxing ambiance to everyone visiting the farm during sunset.
PNA