Erbe Farms

Erbe Farms Neighborhood, family owned urban farm in Saint Charles, Missouri producing gourmet mushrooms & herbs. Anyway... we started posting our progress on Facebook.

In late 2016 we started growing our own microgreens and salad mixes indoors. We had so much fun learning new methods of growing different species of plants that our dining room had started to become a greenhouse and we had way more produce that we could eat between the two of us. This year (2017) we have started to begin expanding / formalizing our indoor growing area as well as learning about mor

e plants. While sunflower micros are awesome... you can only eat them with every meal so long :-)

Currently we're getting ready to start sprouting for our gardens outside starting with a huge batch of lavender, followed by another batch of peppers, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, and a few others. Even more exciting, when we finish that, the rack will be converted into a nutrient film aquaponic system for indoor lettuce, spinach, kale, and chard. Right now we want to see how much of our own food we can produce, as well as try to develop a steady enough system to supply some local restaurants with some portion of their produce. We've even been looking into the organic certification process for down the road. Then people started asking about it when we didn't, so we figured our little micro farm deserved it's own page. So here you have it!

Got our sign approved and plumbing passed inspection! Should have electrical work done on Wednesday. Got a fresh coat of...
12/09/2024

Got our sign approved and plumbing passed inspection! Should have electrical work done on Wednesday. Got a fresh coat of sealer on the stone walls, getting ready to get fresh paint on the painted walls. Looking at touching up the floor while we're at it cause otherwise it will fall into the "one of these days" file.

Plant grow areas are about dialed in. Repotted and split some of the herbs, getting them ready. Dusted off some of the old micro greens boxes and started setting up our baby greens tent. Been playing with them a little at home to remember the timelines, and looking forward to scaling up production so we have enough to bring down to the shop.

Finally done with the equipment juggling and have the grow and lab situated. While we've been down, we've put a lot of thought into improving processes for quality and efficiency. Moving the 3 door fridge to the grow, freed up enough space to bring our substrate materials into the production area, and let's us chill the mushrooms before transport for less brusing.

We also got the new filter fans we've been sitting on installed in the inoculation station. They are about a foot taller and extend a foot or so off each side of the table, so it gives us a huge area to work in, with a lot more clean air buffer around it.

Slowly but surely πŸ€ͺ

We had a few old Shiitake blocks we were able to fruit out and harvest for more recipe testing. We tried making a sort o...
11/24/2024

We had a few old Shiitake blocks we were able to fruit out and harvest for more recipe testing. We tried making a sort of mushrooms shawarma and put it in wraps and on pizza. Really liked the veggie wraps. Rushed the pizza dough in about every way possible, but all in all, it came out pretty good for the first scratch pie in over a decade. Can't wait to try it down at the shop!

Plumbing is already mostly in and waiting on the ground rough inspection next Tuesday. Hopefully, we'll be ready for the electrical first week of December.

Holy schnikeys, we got our permits! Plumbing going in over the next couple days. Waiting to hear back from the electrici...
11/21/2024

Holy schnikeys, we got our permits! Plumbing going in over the next couple days. Waiting to hear back from the electrician on when they can start. Then we can put everything together and get ready for inspections!

It's seems like the most realistic goal we could have would be to open next year, but with any luck, we'll be able to start testing out some of the kitchen equipment in the next couple weeks 😁

More Focaccia while we wait on permits. Rumor has it, we have to be close... Till then, more practice.We picked up some ...
11/07/2024

More Focaccia while we wait on permits. Rumor has it, we have to be close... Till then, more practice.

We picked up some great olive oils and balsamic to play with from our neighbors down the street at Di Olivas Oil & Vinegar and have been messing with sizes and times of the Focaccias.

We did one with a mix of dried mushrooms, sweet peppers, some Serrano infused oil, truffle white balsamic, Italian cheese, and stuffed it with peppery ricotta.

We also tried walnuts with jalapeΓ±o infused oil, double chocolate balsamic, blackberry jam, and walnut cream cheese.

Always improvements to be made, but overall, they came out pretty good. 😁

Went out to Mizzou for food safety training! It was great, only a handful of folks, so it was almost like a private clas...
10/25/2024

Went out to Mizzou for food safety training! It was great, only a handful of folks, so it was almost like a private class. Learned a lot and got to meet the folks I'll be sending samples to for testing once we start producing marinated mushrooms, or anything else we want to put into jars once the kitchen is up.

I also wandered over to the greenhouses since food science and agriculture are neighbors on campus. I lucked out and met the MU horticultural club manager who let me check out their grow area. He was nice enough to give me a pot of some really cool, red shamrocks that tasted kind of like cranberries to take home!

And... I had Gumby's pizza... So, it was a pretty great trip all around.

I can't believe it's already fall. We heard back from the city, and they wanted a little more detail on the plumbing, so...
10/22/2024

I can't believe it's already fall. We heard back from the city, and they wanted a little more detail on the plumbing, so I met up with Mike from Greywater Plumbing to help us get them requested schematics.

Took a few minutes to walk around the building and check out the fall decorations. While we're not open yet, there are a lot of other cool folks in the building. If you're down on Main Street for Legends and Lanterns, the pumpkin glow, or just because why not... come check them out!

I heard they are gonna have some pretty awesome cider a few nights this season.πŸ€”

Peace Love Happy, The Potted Plant, Moon.u.mental Jewelry Emporium and Makerspace, Lunar Healing

It's been a while since our last post. Slowly moving ahead. County health approved the kitchen plan, so now we're just w...
10/17/2024

It's been a while since our last post. Slowly moving ahead. County health approved the kitchen plan, so now we're just waiting for final approval from the city.

One of the things we've been wanting to do is produce our own herbs, so we switched over one of our tents for exactly that. We've got some tweeking to do, but in general, the plants are looking pretty happy.

We wanted to start from seed but ran out of time. Fortunately, we got a great deal on a bunch of non-gmo herbs from the folks over at The Bee Garden Center to get us started. They are closed for the season, but check them out next spring!

We cut a lot of herbs to dry and use in the charcuterie boards for the shop. Our friend over at is working on them right now, incorporating the dried herbs with dried mushrooms we grew earlier. Can't wait to see them in the shop!

A lot of little things go into getting a kitchen setup. It took a while to get everything ready, but finally got the app...
09/28/2024

A lot of little things go into getting a kitchen setup. It took a while to get everything ready, but finally got the application in to the health department. Should have the build permit application into the city early next week. Feels like we're coming down the home stretch!

With the first application in, it seemed a good time to play with OpenArt to make some "paintings" for the deli / bakery. Pretty crazy what AI can do, although it still hasn't learned oyster mushrooms, and the chicken of the woods.... well...

Anyway, hope everyone has a great weekend and the weather doesn't stop you from getting out to the market or enjoying Oktoberfest!

Been another busy this week getting everything lined up for the kitchen. Lots of time figuring out workflows, space / po...
09/13/2024

Been another busy this week getting everything lined up for the kitchen. Lots of time figuring out workflows, space / power / storage requirements. We won't be able to do huge batches, but we should be able to have a lot of fun making tasty stuff!

Started playing with Focaccia a bit, and it came out pretty decent. Think it's gonna need more toppings next time, but it was fun finally getting to use some of the morels I've been hanging on to.

Have a good weekend all!

In case you haven't heard, we're going to be shut down for a few weeks while we get our shop converted into a kitchen. W...
09/06/2024

In case you haven't heard, we're going to be shut down for a few weeks while we get our shop converted into a kitchen. We're really excited about it because we can start making all sorts of fun food to put in the deli cases that right now we only get to make for ourselves. With any luck, come early October, we'll be able to share stuff like these garlic, mushroom, and seven cheese raviolis. So, while being closed a while kinda sucks, and we apologize for the inconvenience, we think it will be worth it.

Been a super busy week. Got the truck back after replacing half the electrical on the lift gate. Unloaded the blocks tha...
08/23/2024

Been a super busy week. Got the truck back after replacing half the electrical on the lift gate. Unloaded the blocks that were stuck in the back, and it looks like some of them are going to make it! πŸ₯³

They won't be ready for this weekend, but we'll open up the shop when they are ready. Kinda works because the truck is back at the shop, getting the other half of the lift gate electrical replaced. The good news is, at this point, there is nothing electrical left on the gate to be broken πŸ˜‚

More good news, our friend Micki came out and started on drawings to submit for building out the kitchen at the shop. She owns Little Hills Architecture here in St.Charles by Main Street and does great work. With any luck, we're not much more than a month or so out on getting that done since it's a pretty minimal setup. 🀞

I keep ending up in Ohio... Checking out food trucks at .titantrucks. Turning the booth into a truck keeps sounding bett...
08/19/2024

I keep ending up in Ohio... Checking out food trucks at .titantrucks. Turning the booth into a truck keeps sounding better by the day. Got to see a couple of really cool projects they were working on as well a check out some trucks a little more the size of what I'm looking for. Seems like a good goal for next year.

All set up on Main Street on the Peace Love Happy patio. Great day for a walk on main if you're out and about. We've got...
08/10/2024

All set up on Main Street on the Peace Love Happy patio. Great day for a walk on main if you're out and about. We've got a decent little harves with some Blue Oysters, Black Pearls, and Lion's Mane. We'll be here till at least 1 pm, but we may hang out later. We'll also be closed next week but hopefully back on the patio the following week.

The unreliability of our liftgate is the latest chapter in, "We'll that didn't go according to plan" but at least we're learning from it. If you are for some reason looking at buying a box truck, do yourself a favor and get one with a side door to the box. If your gate breaks, all your stuff won't be trapped inside cooking. Not so bad when it's just your booth, another thing when it's full of what was gonna be the next three weeks of mushrooms getting moved to the grow space. Oof...

Good news is we've made a lot of progress on getting our shop turned into a prep kitchen so we can break out the deep fryers at the market once all that is put together. Not going to jinks it by putting a date on it, but already good to build with county health, and just waiting to hear from city building commissioner on what all we can do equipment wise.

Something tells me the box truck is going to get traded out for something better suited to our needs, but so far this year has reiterated to me, if I talk about it to much before it happens, it won't happen. So until then, "What's a food truck?"

Going to be set up on the Peace Love Happy  patio today down on main street from 9 till 1. Liftgate on the truck becomin...
08/10/2024

Going to be set up on the Peace Love Happy patio today down on main street from 9 till 1. Liftgate on the truck becoming a lot more of a pain in the butt than helpful. Currently has the next few weeks spawn held hostage in the box, so we might be in for a dry August. Looks like it's time to find a different way of doing things...

All set down at the St. Charles Riverwalk Market  this morning. We've got a nice little crop of Blue Oysters and Black P...
08/03/2024

All set down at the St. Charles Riverwalk Market this morning. We've got a nice little crop of Blue Oysters and Black Pearls as well as plenty of mushroom powders. Lots of fresh fruit and veggies from the other farms down here today as well. Come on by if you're down by Main Street!

Not really mushroom stuff, but awesome farm stuff 😁 We got to spend a couple hours over at UMSL where MU Extension  did ...
08/02/2024

Not really mushroom stuff, but awesome farm stuff 😁 We got to spend a couple hours over at UMSL where MU Extension did an awesome, free, intro to bee keeping class. Eli and Manita broke it down for beginners to not only take the plunge and start a couple hives, but also how much starting supplies cost, where to find help, clubs, business planning incase you were thinking of making a buziness out of it. (Buziness... 🐝... πŸ€£πŸ˜‚πŸ˜…)

Anyway, the peope at Extensions are pretty great folks. If you're interested in agricultural stuff like beekeeping (livestock), mushroom growing (specialty crops), canning food (food safety), or anything in that arena, they can probably get you some great info.

Had a good morning talking to folks in planning and zoning about larger projects we've been working on. While you can't ...
08/01/2024

Had a good morning talking to folks in planning and zoning about larger projects we've been working on. While you can't tell from the tiny harvests we've been having lately, we have infact been pretty busy.

Down at the St. Charles Riverwalk Market with a refrigerator full of Lion's Mane. All the other vendors are setting up a...
07/27/2024

Down at the St. Charles Riverwalk Market with a refrigerator full of Lion's Mane. All the other vendors are setting up and getting ready for you. Come on by if you're in the neighborhood 😁

Address

524 S. Main Street
St. Charles, MO
63301

Opening Hours

Wednesday 11am - 7pm
Saturday 7am - 1pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm

Telephone

+16366813130

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