Tucked away in Colorado Springs off Highway 85 is a door with a vibrant red mushroom cap that marks the entrance to Microvora—an indoor farm specializing in microgreens and mushrooms.
“I initially wanted to empower people in apartments to grow their food, so we created these indoor gardening centers,” said the Owner of Microvora, Patru Dumitru. “As I was working on that project, we were growing a bunch of microgreens, the chefs wanted them, we got connected, and kind of all took off from there.”
Behind the storefront is where all the work truly lies, with rows upon rows of products growing in rooms of different temperatures. The process of growing mushrooms is extremely thorough and requires a lot of attention to detail. “Basically, you mix your substrate, you sterilize it, you inoculate it with your spawn, which is like the equivalent of seeds and the substrates like soil,” Dumitru said. “Then you let it sit in a room for 2 to 4 weeks to colonize and then put it in a fruiting room, which is a lot more humid and a lot colder.”
Growing fresh mushrooms and microgreens weekly, the business supplies local restaurants along with grocery stores in Southern Colorado. However, in the early winter months, Dumitru was faced with a major challenge as his mushrooms were not blooming.
“We were out of mushrooms for about six weeks there,” Dumitru said. “Thankfully, the chefs worked with us, and they’re here for us to support us when we’re ready again, and we’re super grateful for them.”
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