Flooding Creek Fungi

11/07/2024

Flooding Creek Fungi is five years old this week! 🥳🎂

In that time we are proud to have reliably supplied high quality gourmet mushrooms to Gippsland's finest eateries and happy home cooks across Victoria.

We've certainly had our challenges, like so many small businesses over the last few years (don't say the dreaded 'C' word!! 🫣😝) and floods, which have impacted on supplies of substrate we use for growing. But we have had SOOO many highlights...

🏆Bringing home the 2021 Food & Fibre Gippsland award for 'Driving Innovation'
🥢The joyous riot showing celebrity chef Khanh Ong around our urban farm and featuring on the SBS series Khanh Ong's Wild foods!
🌱Showcasing our produce at last years Gippsland New Energy Conference Gala Dinner as local growers punching above our weight when it come to sustainable food production!
⚡️The recent retirement of our trusty old van, which has been replaced with a new electric van.
..And all this while getting to enjoy time with family and growing food that makes people feel good! 🩷

We want to say a ⭐️MASSIVE THANK YOU ⭐️you to all our loyal customers and collaborators who have supported us over the years. We couldn't do this without YOU!

In August, we're taking a well-earned week-long break (our first week away from the biz in five years 🫨). And going forward, we will be striving to deliver even MORE nutritious food through our foray into regenerative agriculture and food systems. Watch this space! 🫶

From the Flooding Creek Fungi fam with mush 🧡!!

24/04/2024

Autumn is here fungi hunters! 🔎 So we've teamed up with Maffra & Districts Landcare Network to host a local fungi walk and talk session. Come and enjoy a Sunday stroll and lunch with us while we check out what's on show in the understory.

Sunday 19th May 10:30 - 1:30 🍄 9 Avon St, Briagolong

Register by 17th May, by contacting Bonnie on 0484002296 or [email protected]

05/04/2024

Out in the garden on this mild autumn 🍂 morning we found some curious and wonderful things. 😲

This mushroom may not look like the most fancy mushroom, but this is a Baby King Oyster growing out of our garden, in a place that hasn’t had fresh mulch or much happening (visibly above ground) for a while.

In the wild, this variety is ground growing, so it seems that we have unintentionally inoculated our veggie patch with this cool climate variety which feels more comfortable popping it’s head up 🍄‍ now the days and night have begun to cool.

The second fabulous sight were these busy bees, flat out pollinating pumpkins - and a fantastic job they’ve been doing with pumpkins rambling everywhere, over trellis and tomatoes, and bursting forth with giant fruits right through the garden! 🌿🌼 There’ll be pumpkin on the menu right through to spring and plenty to share with our neighbours.

How adorable are their bright yellow 🐝 pollen pants? 🤗

02/04/2024

Did you know that half of all records uploaded to Australia’s largest collection of biodiversity data now come from everyday people like you? 😊

That is people in their gardens and on bush walks, logging finds and contributing to a growing body of data which help researchers and scientists protect our native species and battle invasive species such as the myrtle rust, a lethal plant fungus from South America, which can weaken and kill hundreds of our most loved tree 🌳 species.

To build out the most accurate and detailed picture, researchers constantly need fresh data, but this challenge is beyond their resources. Being a citizen scientist is remarkably easy, and a fun way to do your little bit in a really big picture way.

Find the full article 🔍 The Conversation Australia + NZ

Bushwalkers with smartphones could help scientists track a fungus lethal to many of Australia’s most loved trees.

25/03/2024

Who's feeling a little zen after the ? 🙂‍↔️ We really enjoyed sharing some tasty treats and chatting with people about the health benefits of making mushrooms a regular part of their diet.

There's so many reasons why eating mushrooms are good for you. With their ability to boost immunity and reduce inflammation, they really are a veggie superfood! 👊

22/03/2024

Today kicks off a weekend of health and goodness at the

You'll find us there 👋 cooking up tasty samples of our mushrooms, packs to take home and growkits - so you can enjoy the fun and wonder of growing your own nutritious oyster mushrooms!

12/10/2023

Traditional Chinese medicine has understood the value of oyster mushrooms and other medicinal mushrooms for centuries.

But now many people around the world are realising the health benefits of regularly getting fancy mushrooms in their diet. 😁

Oyster mushrooms have the power to...

💥 Supercharge your immune system with the beta-glucans that make oyster mushrooms one of the most powerful immunity boosting foods.

💪 Build strong bones, as they are packed full of bone building essentials such as vitamin D and magnesium.

🫀 Reduce inflammation - the beta-glucans and antioxidants in oyster mushrooms make it a great food for lowering inflammation.

🧠 Defend against neurodegenerative diseases. The amino acids protect cells against oxidative stress and free radical damage, contributing to the defence against neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia.

And luckily, mushrooms are so versatile that its easy to add them (and all the additional health benefits 😉) into your meals.

Are you looking for a way to supercharge your health?

Tag a friend who might like to level up with mushrooms! 🧡

04/10/2023

Have you eaten out at The Stables est1889 ? It's definitely one for the list next time you're in Bairnsdale.

This unique location had been transformed into a great space for breakie, brunch, lunch or events. Friendly staff, great food, and your favourite fungi featured on the menu. That's a winning combo! 😉

Open from 7.30am every day except Sunday.

Go check it out!

04/10/2023

Have you eaten out at ? It's definitely one for the list next time you're in Bairnsdale.

This unique location had been transformed into a great space for breakie, brunch, lunch or events. Friendly staff, great food, and your favourite fungi featured on the menu. That's a winning combo! 😉

Open from 7.30am every day except Sunday.

Go check it out!

23/09/2023

Community Farmers Markets are a joyous occasion! 🎉

What more could you want? Spending quality time and laughs with family and friends, bargaining with local traders for quality produce and crafts and free entertainment. 🎸🥁 Even the littlest market goers can enjoy a good boogie. Oh, and did we mention the puppies?! 🐶

Here in Gippsland, if you're looking to enjoy a day out, you're in luck, as there is a market happening every weekend.

It's also a great way to get your weekly mushrooms fix, as you'll find us each month at...

🍏 Metung Market 2nd Sat
🍩 Sale Producers Market 3rd Sat
🍯 Lions Club of Traralgon Farmers Market 4th Sat

What's your favourite Market and what do you ❤️ about it?


Pictured in 📸 are 💐 Great Alpine Flowers ,
🎨 Lauren Jane Art, Dutch Poffertjes and Haraz Coffee Yemen.

01/09/2023

Absolutely 💥 POPPING 💥 with colour and sass (oh yeah, mushrooms sure can give sass 😋) these Yellow Oysters 💛 are one of our favourites.

They have a delicate texture and slightly nutty flavour, so are perfect to enjoy cooked simply - in butter on toast with some eggs and your favourite local chutney.

Yasss breakfast!! 🙌🙌 The most important meal of the day! 😆

These beauties are making their way into punnets, which you can pick up at...

🧄 Lazarro's Fruit and Veg in Sale
🫙 The Pickle Pot in Maffra
🚛 Delivered to your door with Farmbox Co.

30/08/2023

Fungi are natures ultimate recyclers. ♻️ They liberate nutrients, for themselves and other organisms, to thrive upon. Out of respect for the wonder and benefits fungi brings us, we try to do the least possible damage to the climate and environment in our mushroom farming process.

Our business is energy 💡intensive. We run fans, heating or cooling, humidifiers, lights, cooktops for pressure cooker sterilising, amongst other things.

So here are some of the ways we reduce our impact...

⚙️ The appliances we chose are the most efficient - such as our heat pumps for heating, cooling and hot water. Our connection to gas has been removed! 👊

🌳 The grow shed is situated to get the most shade on hot summer days, ironically, from a flame tree!

⏱️ Processes are timed around getting the most from our 7.5KW split solar ☀️ array or using off-peak energy and ‘Green’ power from the grid.

Its important for everyone to start changing the way we plan, use and consume energy, but it's especially important for businesses, as we have a bigger impact, and therefore have a greater responsibility - and ability - to reduce harmful impacts on our climate and environment.

What are some of the ways you reduce your carbon footprint 👣 at home or in your small business?

29/08/2023

Feast your eyes on Gippsland trusted provenance. 🤩🤩🤩 The very finest our region has to offer!

We are delighted to be featured on this stella lineup. 🌟 Big shout outs to Simon and the team at Tinamba Hotel and Food & Fibre Gippsland.

This is "The trusted provenance of Gippsland: Meet our producers and growers" by Food & Fibre Gippsland on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos…

29/08/2023

When our love of growing fungi led us to start our business back in 2019, we were in firm agreement that the way we would develop our processes would be determined by an approach to farming that was ecologically responsible. 🌱

Doing our bit to minimise the amount of plastic that ends up in landfill through the food system was one part of this, so we set out to grow with zero single-use plastics. ❌️

Slashing single-use plastic bags with a blade (a practice known as ‘slashing’ 🔪 as seen in 2nd pic) is actually a really common practice in the gourmet mushroom industry and one that some mushie farmers, like ourselves, work hard to avoid.

By choosing not to slash plastic bags and instead invest in more sustainable growing methods, such as growing in glass jars 🫙 and plastic buckets - which can be repurposed (from other businesses like our sustain-ably-minded mates 💚 at The Source Bulk Foods and reused or using bags that are re-washed dozens upon dozens of times , we can divert tonnes of plastic from landfill. 👊

It does take a bit more time and effort, but as citizens of this fine planet 🌏 called Earth, we reckon it’s all in the job! 😉

28/08/2023

Sustainability and ❤️ for this planet is the very bedrock of our small family business. If you follow us, you'll know how passionate we are about...

☀️ Powering our urban farm with renewable energy

♻️ Using methods of growing our mushrooms (like glass jars 🫙, buckets recycled from our good mates at The Source Bulk Foods and reusable plastic bags) that do not rely on single-use plastic bags which are slashed with a knife and pile up in landfill after use. 🙈

🪱 Feeding soil and community, as our waste makes more food and healthy microbiome (more on this throughout the week! 😉)

So.... as you can imagine, we're thrilled to be showcased alongside some of the regions finest producers in a short film for the Gippsland New Energy Conference in Sale later this week. Each of the businesses in the video will have our produce featured on the menu for Thursday night's conference gala dinner, where the talented team from Tinamba Hotel will prepare a gourmet three-course meal for several hundred delegates. The fine dining experience will see the taste of Gippsland paired with local wines and craft beers.

Big shout out to the wonderful team at Food & Fibre Gippsland and all those local businesses who are striving, innovating and inspiring! 👏👏👏

28/08/2023

Feeling the love!

Flooding Creek Fungi are specialists in commercially grown mushrooms, produced in a controlled environment right here in . Fungi are a great source of protein, are high in nutrients and lend the most amazing aroma to all sorts of dishes. You’ll find produce grown by Flooding Creek Fungi in sustainable packaging at farmers’ markets and selected providores across Gippsland 💛💛💛

Tinamba Hotel

11/08/2023

Fridays are the best, right...? The day before market day 🫶😁

This selection of gourmet mushrooms will be making their way to Metung Market with us tomorrow. Pink, Yellow, King, Tan, Chocolate and Winter White oyster mushrooms. We will also have fresh Lions Mane - but get in quick, it's too good (it cooks up like crab 🤤 and feeds your brain 🧠 💪).

8am - 12:30pm on the Metung Village Green. It's always a fabulous day out in a spectacular scenic location.

Hope you'll join us there.

04/08/2023

❗️ATT: Mushroom lovers❗️

Find us at the Bairnsdale Farmers Market 🫒🧄🍄🥜 tomorrow, with stacks of your favourite umami packed Flooding Creek fungi. Locally grown with renewable energy and 🚫 single use plastic - there's a reason our gourmet mushrooms are a favourite with chefs and shoppers across Gippsland. Come and find out why!

We will be there from 8am to 1pm, in the markets new location at Howitt Park, south side of Princes Highway, next to the Bowls Club.

Hope to see you down there! 😉

02/08/2023

Bigger ain't always better 😋, especially when it comes to growing produce.

Have you ever grown your own veggies at home and enjoyed the goodness of a tender young carrot 🥕? ☺️ Or maybe you've left beetroot too long in the ground and kicked yourself that they've gone too far (yep, guilty 🤭).

The same is true for mushrooms!

Big frilly mushrooms look cool, but by the time their caps have curled up, they are well passed their prime.

That's why we harvest our mushrooms a little earlier than most other growers, picking at the point of perfection, so you get the best texture, taste and shelf life!

It's taken a lot of testing and tasting over the years, but we reckon we nail it - a claim supported by many happy customers 😄 ✅️!

Are you a mushroom connisuer? Can you taste the difference?

26/06/2023

We know its a little niche, but we still reckon making art with fungi is waaaaay cool! ☺️

Unfortunately, we have canceled our Spalting Timber workshop which was scheduled to run tomorrow. But that’s not the end of the story… ‼️

Check out this article by Wood Review. They interview our master grower and sometimes woodworker Josef about spalting and the fungi that makes the magic happen. Read the full article here...

https://www.woodreview.com.au/news/how-to-spalt-your-own-wood

We are stoked to bring to light some of the lesser-known abilities of our favourite not-quite animal, not-quite vegetable friend fungi, especially since an extensive aus literature review we conducted on the artform of spalting turned up almost nothing!

Would you like to learn more about spalting? What other curiosities about fungi would you be keen to learn more about?

13/06/2023

Spalting is the effect, or a combination of effects, left by one or more types of fungi in timber. That can be colouring, bleaching or zone lines. Humans have used spalted wood in art and furniture for hundreds of years but relied largely on nature to provide.

Much has changed in spalting in the last 20 years and the process is much better understood.

Let local mushroom grower, fungi enthusiast and sometimes woodworker, Josef Sestokas of Flooding Creek Fungi, walk you through the methods you can use at home to create spalted timber in 3 months, which might have once taken years.

Tue 27th Jun 2023, 9:30 am - 12:00 pm
TAFE Gippsland - Forestec Campus
27 Scriveners Rd, Kalimna West

This event is part of the 2023 East Gippsland Winter Festival, running from 9 June - 9 July.

Enjoy Spalting Workshop, Hosted at TAFE Gippsland - Forestec Campus - Room FOR.2.G-3, 27 Scriveners Rd, Kalimna West VIC 3909, Australia, Tue 27th Jun 2023, 9:30 am - 12:00 pm AEST. Tickets are only $135. Only on Humanitix

05/06/2023

Take a stroll with us this long weekend! 😊🍄 Join in a citizen science foray, spotting and logging our local fungi.

Are you fascinated by fungi like us? 🕵️‍♀️🍄

If so, we’ve got the perfect free event for you to enjoy over the King's Birthday long weekend! Join Josef from Flooding Creek Fungi as he leads the hunt for fungi to photograph around Lake Guyatt Reserve in Sale 📸

Starting with a quick talk about species in the area, the group will lap Lake Guyatt and return for a warm cuppa indoors and a debrief at Nakunbalook.

📆 Sunday 11 June, 10am to 11.30am
📍 Nakunbalook Environmental and Cultural Education Centre in Sale

🌐 While the event is free, registrations are essential via http://ow.ly/OzLR50OAoso

Make sure you download the iNaturalist app to your phone before you go so you can be a citizen scientist on your hunt!

*While fungi might love the wet weather, don’t forget to rug up!

See you there 🤗

01/06/2023

Featuring yours truly! 😁

Have you tried eating out at The Stables yet? Definitely a must do next time you're in Bainsdale.

Winter has officially started and with the change in season comes our new winter menu.

Filled with new winter warmers utilising the best local produce we can find.

Come in and find your new favourite 😍

30/05/2023

It was something of a ‘going the full circle’ moment for Josef last week when he presented to the Gippsland Community Leadership Program 2023 participants at the Maffco Brewery and Taphouse in Maffra. Josef is himself a Fellow of the program from 2000.

The focus for the day was ‘sustainability’. 🌱💧☀️♻️

Josef explained the various ways Flooding Creek Fungi as a business strives to achieve sustainability, and how the business also invests time and energy into promoting conservation and sustainability of fungi in the wild, in the citizen science space. 🔎

Thanks to Gippsland Community Leadership Program
for inviting us along, and we wish the 2023 cohort all the best for the year ahead!!

30/05/2023

One of the serious upsides of working from home is delicious healthy homemade lunches (and it doesn't get fresher than picked straight from the garden! 🥬😁)

With a bit of preparation, those lunches can also be a flavour extravaganza!! 😄

We ran out of gas at home yesterday (and as we were already planning on ditching our smelly fossil gas cooktop, we thought we'd try and hold out on buying another bottle and instead hobble through till the new induction hotplates arrive 🤞)...

So I pulled out the sandwich press, a little olive oil, wild venison mince (gifted from my fabulous neighbour who loads us up with local hunted meat in exchange for mushrooms and garden fare), sliced capsicum, kale and silverbeet. Then, onto some toast and topped off with a generous spoonful of picked Pine mushrooms (see out last post for the recipe).

Deeeee-lish!! 😋

What's your best quick'n'easy kitchen hack?

30/05/2023

Got a glut of tasty pine mushrooms (aka saffron milk caps)? Try pickling them! That way, you can have them on hand for months, ready to toss through salads, serve on toasted crusty 🍞 or add as a garnish to soups.

This simple recipe takes about 10 minutes. Yes! 10 minutes!! 😁

▪︎ 250g pine mushrooms
▪︎ 200ml sherry or red wine vinegar
▪︎ 200ml water
▪︎ 100g raw sugar
▪︎ 50ml olive oil
▪︎ 1 teaspoon salt
▪︎ 5 black peppercorns
▪︎ 3 cloves garlic
▪︎ 3 juniper berries
▪︎ 2 bay leaves
▪︎ 1 sprig rosemary
▪︎ 1 sprig thyme

1. 💧 To clean pine mushrooms, first soak and clean them in a cleaning solution (6 cups water with 1/2 cup white vinegar).

2. 🥣 Place vinegar, water, sugar, olive oil, salt, peppercorns, garlic, juniper berries, bay leaves, rosemary and thyme in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the sliced mushrooms and simmer for one minute.

3. 🫙 Remove from the heat and once cooled, place in a sterilised jar. Make sure that the liquid reaches above the mushrooms.

These beauties will keep in the fridge for up to 6 months, provided they are always covered by the liquid.

Happy hunting mushrooms lovers! 🍄 😉

29/05/2023

Happy foragers came home with a heap of delicious Pine mushrooms (the orange ones) and a few Slippery Jacks too (they’re the ones in bottom left of picture.) The later have a spongy pore-like structure under the cap and, as implied in the name, a slippery top of cap which needs to be peeled before cooking.

Both these varieties are found widely in pine forests all over the place! 😁

Have you been foraging lately?

What do you do with your finds?

27/05/2023

Have you been watching Khanh Ong's Wild Food? 🥢

This Sunday and next, at 8:30 on SBS Food, the vivacious visits our very own Wellington Shire to showcase a stunning array of local produce - including yours truly! 😋

We’re thrilled to be featured alongside some other local superstars, like , , and ! 🐝🪻🍊

Supported by .middle.of.everywhere.

Tune in tonight! 😁

26/05/2023

Have you been down to the Lions Club of Traralgon Farmers Market lately?

You’re always in for a treat. Packed with exceptional local produce, dressings, pasta, bread, soaps, flowers and more! 🥬🍞💐🍎

We will be down there loaded with your favourite gourmet mushrooms from 8am – 1pm.

Come say ‘Gday’!’ 👋 at Kay street, Traralgon.

25/05/2023

This eye-popper is commonly known as the Green Elf Cup (or the green wood cup). It was a real treat when we found this specimen near Ensay, in East Gippsland last year, because its small, green, saucer-shaped fruit bodies are rarely seen.

More commonly, the staining green-blue tinge is what gives this fungi away in the wild. It is the staining properties of this fungi that make it a favourite for spalting.

And what is spalting? 🤔 Glad you asked!! 😄

Spalting is the effect, or a combination of effects, left by one or more types of fungi in timber and humans have used spalted wood in art and furniture for hundreds of years.

As part of the we are excited to be running a...

🩵 SPALTING WORKSHOP 🩵
Tuesday, 27th June 9:30am-12:00pm
TAFE Gippsland - Forestec Campus, Kalimna

Our resident fungi-brain and sometimes woodworker Josef will walk you through the methods you can use at home to create beautifully patterned timber
To book tickets, hit up the link in bio, or head to