A gourmet taste of France now delighting tastebuds in the Waikato

Champignons premium product is the end result of a strategic and integrated scientific-led philosophy championed over the past year by business architect Niels Kolmer and business partner Vanessa MacDonald.

Their tasty, healthy, smart flamingo mushrooms are locally grown using recycled coffee grounds and are clean from chemicals, a feature that is increasingly important to New Zealand consumers.

This is a mushroom revolution because never before have mushrooms been recognized for such innovation in production techniques, sustainable business focus and premium quality ethos.

The product is 100% premium New Zealand tasty, healthy and smart food that our communities are deserving of.

Sustainable mushroom farm

Champignons’ farm was recently completed in Raglan, after a lengthy scientific process to refine production techniques and perfect the product.

The objective was to be able to produce mushrooms all year long while minimizing energy consumption and production wastes. A smart cultivation technique has been developed to replace single use plastics which are broadly used in the mushroom growing industry to mimic tree trunks and are damaging for our environment.

The mushrooms are grown using spent coffee that are collected daily from Raglan's cafes and restaurants, helping to prevent this waste ending up in landfill. The whole process works without the usual need of sterilization of the mushroom growing media, thus saving important amounts of energy.

Collaboration with Raglan's zero waste community enterprise

Raglan's zero waste community enterprise - Xtreme Zero Waste - has been managing Raglan's solid waste for the last 18 years and is now a major figure in the waste management practices in New Zealand.

They have accepted Champignons’ sustainable mushroom farm on their premises so they could join forces to further close the loop on foodwaste in Raglan.

The by-products of the mushroom cultivation process, which consists of spent mushroom compost, is fed into Xtreme Zero Waste's hot composing unit to help produce high grade compost for the community.

Educating younger generations seems equally important for both entities and they will thus be trying to integrate mushrooms into Xtreme Zero Waste's well established educational programme, introducing them as a new solution to our waste and environmental problems.

Scientific stuff

It has long been proven that ingestion of significant levels of heavy metals are extremely damaging topeoples’ health. However, the presence of heavy metals in soil, air, water and living things keepsincreasing in industrialized countries such as New Zealand.

Scientists have recently discovered thatmushrooms have the ability of biosorption, meaning they can remove and recover heavy metals fromaqueous solutions, making them excellent candidates to depollute our soils.

The downside is thatmushrooms grown for human consumption show increasing levels of heavy metals due to this ability. Champignons' rigorous and considered production research has culminated in a product that is safeto eat thanks to the soil it is grown in (made of your coffee left overs!) and high in essentialnutrients with five times more protein than in carrots!