High in fiber, low in calories, and packed with vitamins and minerals to keep you healthy, what’s not to love about mushrooms? Marie-Eve Arseneault and Alexis Galus have a passion for food and medicine; she’s a trained sommelier, and he’s a French chef with over 25 years of experience. Their journey is deeply personal, starting with Marie-Eve’s quest for natural remedies to help treat her father’s early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. They stumbled upon the cognitive benefits of lion’s mane mushrooms, and Alexis immediately began cultivating them for Marie-Eve. That venture quickly flourished into a passion for medicinal mushroom farming and the creation of their company, Smithereens Mushroom.
In Smithers, BC, Smithereens Mushroom is a farm constructed from shipping containers. Each container is designated to specific stages of mushroom production, including substrate bagging, pasteurization, inoculation labs, and spaces for incubation, packaging, and a kitchen with a walk-in fridge and fruiting room. The growing and processing happen on-site in sterile environments featuring a comprehensive library of mushroom strains that ensure genetic diversity and health. The pasteurization system is for fruiting block production, and they use sterilized grain spawn to initiate healthy mycelium development. The lab is outfitted with HEPA-filtered walls to maintain an ultra-clean environment. No crop goes to waste, and the company recycles its organic substrate into compost.
Marie-Eve and Alexis have crafted various recipes to tantalize your taste buds, including risottos made from chestnut, gourmet oysters, and lion’s mane mushrooms. They also sell a lion’s mane coffee blend, powders and spices, extracts, and various dehydrated mushrooms, such as reishi, cordyceps militaris, oysters, and shiitake. The couple’s favorite is the lion’s mane for its exceptional versatility, unique texture, and excellent flavor. They add it to mock chicken nuggets, schnitzels, stir-fries, and burger patties. They also love cordyceps militaris and suggest pan frying and enjoying them as crunchy salad toppers.
This year, Smithereens Mushroom is developing a new line of exciting products incorporating medicinal mushrooms in various sweet treats! The company will continue its mentor work with Nepalese mushroom farms, guiding them in gourmet and medicinal mushroom cultivation. The project is part of their commitment to sharing knowledge and fostering global and sustainable agricultural practices.
Let your food be your medicine.