Farmers are not marketeers,” says Monika Chowdhry, who established The Mushrooms Hub (themushroomshub.com) in 2018 in Gurugram. While the hub operates out of Badshahpur village in Gurugram, Chowdhry has also established a network with a couple of mushroom farmers who have the skills to grow their produce but not their brand.
Chowdhry, 40, was previously a digital marketeer who helped develop brand identities before she got jaded of the corporate life. “I quit my last job in 2017, and took my time figuring out what I wanted to do. I was always interested in health and improving peoples’ lives. In India, food is a religion, and so I had to enter the food chain if I wanted to make any lasting impact. I could not leave Gurugram as my kids are still going to school, and so I had to find produce that wasn’t demanding on space and also within city limits,” recalls Chowdhry.
As a mathematics graduate, Chowdhry also wanted to put her college education to good use: “In mushrooms, I found my ideal crop. You can’t just grow them willy-nilly and you require a lot of calculations and ratios to figure out which type to grow when, while making sure that there is no chance of cross-contamination.”
The first edible fungus Chowdhry grew was the Oyster Mushroom, having since expanded her repertoire to eight varieties, ranging from the common White Button Mushroom to the more imperial Shitake. “One mushroom variety we tried that didn’t work out was the Lion’s Mane. It wasn’t easy to rear and people didn’t really appreciate its taste.”
Indeed, 2020 was the year that ended up being inventive for The Mushrooms Hub. “We had been a B2B company, selling directly to organic stores and suppliers. At the beginning of 2020, we thought to expand our operations and reach out to restaurants and hotels directly. Unfortunately they have been the most hit by the pandemic, and were not in a position to ask us for orders.
Then private individuals reached out, as they were confined to home, and asked if we could supply them with mushrooms that were usually confined to restaurant larders, as they wanted to cook at home,” shares Chowdhry, noting that “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Speaking of private individuals, Chowdhry has this to say about the farmers’ protests currently engulfing the Capital and its news feeds. “I am still very new to the farming community, but I realise what they are trying to say.
That being said, in my previous life as a marketeer, I have worked with various state and union governments for various campaigns,” she says, concluding, “I think both sides need to approach this issue with long-sightedness and look at the future, and not just immediate results.”