It’s been four years since 35-year-old Verah Mburugu Nkirote took the risky leap from her marketing job at a large Ugandan company to start growing mushrooms.

While at the Ugandan company, she teamed up with a few friends to launch a yoghurt business, but it suffered huge losses.

“We sold the yoghurt but there was nothing our books of accounts showed,” Ms Mburugu says.

Sometime later, a friend suggested she start mushroom farming, insisting it was a profitable venture. Desperately in need of the money, Verah dove into the business, using her small plot of land in Kiserian specifically for mushroom production.

“I used my marketing and sales skills in this new field. I encourage young people interested in business to start as brokers. This will make them understand where to source and sell the commodities,” she says.

In 2019, Verah quit her job to focus entirely on mushroom production. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the following year, her business also faced the threat of collapse. However, the Kenyan government came to her rescue with a Sh. 900,000 grant.

“I got a message on how the money would be wired to my bank account. I received the money a week later and immediately revived the project,” she says.

The first thing Verah did with the grant money was build a proper facility for mushroom production. Growing mushrooms requires protection from extremes like heat and sunlight.

“Mushrooms will only grow in an environment that has fungi. We put the fungi on cotton or maize husks. We then clean the material used in growing the mushrooms,” Ms Mburugu adds.

The waste used to steam the fungi is filtered to remove impurities.

“Seven drums are used to steam the husks for about six hours. We engage the help of seven workers who have different roles to play. The water is placed at the bottom of the drums and the husks in the middle,” she says.

Ms. Verah Mburugu adds that mushrooms are among the plants that need very little water to grow and mature. Their growth rate depends on the type being produced.

In the market, clients tend to prefer smaller mushrooms over larger ones. The clean husks are then placed inside a plastic bag, allowing the mushroom spores to spread quickly.

“The spores are in plenty two to three weeks later. With the fungi spreading, we place the bags on shelves to monitor the mushroom growth. When the fungi have spread as required, we start sprinkling a small amount of water on the bags,” the farmer says

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“Mushrooms do well when grown in a room. I will fail if I allow air to flow freely,” she says.

One of the biggest challenges in mushroom farming is the potential destruction caused by snails. To tackle this problem, she and her employees make sure to actively hunt down the snails.

For mushrooms to grow well, the air needs to be clean, there should be light, and temperatures should be around 16°C. She sells mushrooms at Sh. 400 per kilo, but for Sh. 100, you can get a quarter kilo.

Her workers start packing the mushrooms for sale to Nairobi clients around 4 p.m. daily. She has assigned her mother the task of distributing the mushrooms to shops in Nairobi.

“I wish more Kenyans could eat mushrooms. I’d not be struggling to look for markets abroad if that were the case,” she says.

“I have discovered that dried mushrooms have a shelf-life of up to two years.”