The Gardening Group finally made their much anticipated visit to Smithy Mushroom Farm and were blown away by the technical and industrial scale of the operation. Anyone expecting to see a large shed with white and brown mushrooms were quickly put right by the technical manager Gary Bebbington. And there wasn’t a closed cup white mushroom in sight. Smithy Farm specialises in exotic mushroom such as Oyster, Shiitake and Lion’s Mane among others.

The amount of investment and computerised equipment was breathtaking. After a two hour interesting and entertaining tour of the production areas, they came away with a complimentary box of exotic mushrooms, and the challenge of how best to cook them.