2021 Reviewed: Fun, funky fungi tap into the EU’s farm to fork plans

An interview with the ‘mushroom couple’ proved to be a welcome, educational relief from Covid-19 for Antigoni Pitta

A journalist, a marketeer and a lawyer walk into a bar….to talk about mushrooms. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it sets the scene for my favourite story of the year. Talking about the humble mushroom opened up the floor to discuss the island’s obsession with supermarkets and the need to adapt our farming practices to the changing climate through new methods.

I joined the Cyprus Mail at the beginning of 2021, as the world was coming to terms with the fact that after one year, the coronavirus wasn’t going anywhere. This was my first time in a newsroom, and being a journalist felt like being caught in the crossfire between the public and the officials.

A year on, the introduction of vaccines has made a great difference, but the virus still dominates our lives – and the news. So the launch of the paper’s Environment section this spring was a welcome respite from all the Covid stories, which have more or less melded into one.

When the opportunity came up to interview Vas Joseph and Greta Skemaite of Freyia Labs – about mushrooms, of all things – I jumped at it. Looking back, it was among the very few stories I worked on this year that made no mention of that dreaded virus, and for this reason it was the most memorable.

It was a warm summer day, and the three of us met at a café in Strovolos. Over iced coffees, Vas and Greta explained how they brought the vision of a sustainable urban farm to life through FungyFungus, their mushroom trading business.

For me, mushrooms have always been pretty neutral ground, a part of the food chain I rarely thought about. But over the years I’ve developed a fascination for them and their different guises, from food to poison and everything in between.

Vas, on the other hand, has been passionate about the world of fungi since he started growing them as a hobby at 17. The idea for FungyFungus (a play on fun and funky) came to him while he was recovering from an injury, and he set things in motion by building a lab in his back yard, fully equipped to create the optimal conditions for propagating and growing mushrooms. Listening to him talk about his growing process was fascinating, and the enthusiasm was infectious – which is exactly why Greta believed in the project as much as he did.

FungyFungus operates on a waitlist basis, offering a range of gourmet and medicinal mushrooms from all over the world – from the Cyprus native Anathrika to the Japanese Shimeji. But the variety isn’t the most interesting part about it.

Part of the European Green Deal’s strategies is Farm to Fork, which aims to make food systems more environmentally friendly among other things. The initiative supports that “a shift to a sustainable food system can bring environmental, health and social benefits, offer economic gains and ensure that the recovery from the crisis puts us onto a sustainable path”.

In October, Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis said Cyprus would do its best to adapt to the demands of the strategy by tackling three problem areas specific to the island, mainly the excessive use of pesticides and antibiotics, and animal welfare. As I learned from speaking to Vas and Greta, the problem with commercial mushroom farming is fertiliser, which is a huge source of CO2 emissions.

Apart from looking to introduce the public to fungi they wouldn’t be able to find at a supermarket, FungyFungus is completely sustainable; closely controlling and monitoring the environment created in the lab ensures very little waste and low water and electricity consumption. And unlike commercial mushroom farms, they don’t use any fertilizers; instead they give the mushrooms exactly what they need to thrive,

We also discussed the Cypriot obsession with the homogenised shopping experience offered by supermarkets, which often generates a lot of waste in the form of unsold products, a problem particularly rife when it comes to fresh produce. “The mushrooms you find at the supermarket are often already too far gone,” Vas said, explaining that wrapping them in plastic to transport and store them also makes them spoil quicker – which is why those button mushrooms in your fridge get slimy if left too long.

FungyFungys’ ‘farm to table’ approach means they grow seasonally and sell directly to the consumer, only producing however much is needed and eliminating waste. Not producing on a large scale also means there is no need to adhere to commercial size and shape standards, Greta pointed out during the interview. “It doesn’t matter if it’s huge or a tiny delicate flower; we’re growing it because we can deliver it to you”.

I left the interview with some beautiful pink oyster mushrooms and a newfound appreciation for the funky world of fungi. Not only can they feed and heal us, mushrooms have the potential to become alternatives to leather and even plastic. And for the uber-environmentally conscious, American scientists have developed a fully biodegradable ‘burial suit’ as an alternative to a coffin, uses mushroom spores to filter nutrients back into the soil and in a way, return the body to the earth.

At the time, the couple were expecting a girl – who is now a few months old. Looking into the future, they said sustainability was key to their whole enterprise. “It’s very important to cultivate sustainability, do something meaningful for younger generations,” said Vas. “What kind of education will we give our child?”