Located in a warehouse in the heart of Montreal, Blanc de gris is the first commercial urban mushroom farm. The idea? To provide local, healthy, fresh and sustainable food in the city. How? By recycling food waste from local cafés and breweries to grow mushrooms in buckets! That was the crazy big project of Dominique Lynch-Gauthier and Lysiane Roy Maheu , high school friends who met up again through a shared project that would bring about change. “What caught our attention, what really triggered it, was environmental awareness. The desire to do something really useful. We wanted to start a business, do something concrete, have an impact on the ecosystem,” Dominique recalls, her eyes shining. At the heart of this association is the company’s purpose: to be an agent of positive change, to innovate in urban agriculture and to provide concrete environmental solutions on a local scale.

A circular economy that benefits everyone

Several restaurateurs in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood have benefited from Blanc de gris' business project, launched in 2015. The two entrepreneurs were primarily interested in contributing to the circular economy. By combining their skills, one in the environment and agricultural innovation, and the other in catering, they managed to develop a local, ecological and fair trade food supply chain. "Mushrooms have the ability to break down matter and make nutrients accessible again. It's ideal for working in a closed loop circuit," says Dominique, co-founder. Lysiane didn't even like mushrooms at first! But she knew the restaurant industry, and she was able to penetrate it." Together, they solved the problem of food waste that restaurateurs were trying to get rid of. An opportunity to create a profitable exchange of services. Coffee grounds, wood chips, brewer's grains: urban farmers collect them for free. They see this waste as resources. The revaluation of food waste is at the heart of their mushroom production.

Persevering to meet production challenges

Working with living organisms, and especially with non-traditional substrates, is an unstable bet. From her cellar, Dominique first conducted small-scale tests for over a year. More than once, the warehouse was invaded by bad mold. "We had to throw everything out, sanitize it and start from scratch," shares the woman who did not give up. "The problem is that we don't know in advance if the food residue substrate is contaminated. Pasteurization does not necessarily eliminate the mold spores that we don't want. So, it's a race to find the good mushrooms!", admits the expert, before adding, in her characteristic burst of optimism: "we had about ten failures. Each time, we were discouraged, then we found something that had worked well, a clue. So we started again." Perseverance paid off.

A quality that takes you far

Meanwhile, Lysiane didn't hesitate to push open the kitchen door to present the miracle of the neighborhood's oyster mushrooms. "The chefs, used to their mushrooms from Poland or China, or even Ontario and British Columbia, had never seen oyster mushrooms so fresh, firm and fleshy!" Mushrooms, which are a fragile and perishable product by nature, are excellent candidates in local urban production, with the goal of being consumed quickly within a 10 km radius. Grown without pesticides or synthetic products, Blanc de Gris' urban oyster mushrooms are available locally year-round. Restaurant owners are willing to pay twice as much to put them on the menu. When the time came, some didn't hesitate to prepay their orders. "It happened that we no longer had any room to maneuver to pay the rent. It's thanks to our customers that we got back on our feet," they rejoice.

Reorienting towards B2C

The health crisis has pulled the rug out from under everyone in the restaurant industry. Once again, Dominique and Lysiane faced a major challenge. They could no longer count on their customers, who were also failing. "We had to lay off two employees. We had no working capital and we realized that we were 95% dependent on a single sector." The partners had to refocus the target of their business project, as well as the role and commitments of each. "We can't give up after overcoming so many obstacles." The entrepreneurs rolled up their sleeves and set out to conquer other segments of the market: the general public, through local delicatessens, basket subscriptions and direct sales to individuals. The Montreal Island Biofood Industries Council (CIBIM), PME Montréal and the École des entrepreneurs du Québec have enabled them to better equip themselves, particularly with a view to a transactional site.

It is our strength to know how to surround ourselves well. – Lysiane Roy Maheu

“It is our strength to know how to surround ourselves well. – Lysiane Roy Maheu”

Lysiane did not hesitate to reorient herself either: "Approaching a grocery store manager through the front door is not the same as going through the back door of the kitchen!" There is also the challenge of conservation in the grocery store, which leads them to rethink the transformation of their product, beyond simple dehydration. No matter, they continue their efforts in negotiations, in particular with a microbrewery to annex their premises and create new synergies. They are also in discussions with one of their client chefs to create recipes for marinated oyster mushrooms. Optimistic and rebellious, Dominique and Lysiane are not impressed and are already talking about expanding their business model to other cities.