CHILI, N.Y. — A Rochester-based food company is proving you don’t need conventional farming techniques to grow superfoods. Leep Foods on Scottsville Road in Chili is elevating the premium mushroom industry.

The future of food is happening at Leep Foods and its indoor, climate-controlled organic gourmet mushroom farm.

What You Need To Know

  • Leep Foods is an organic and soil regenerative indoor mushroom farm

  • The mushrooms are USDA-certified organic

  • Leep Foods is a finalist in the Grow-NY Initiative with a grand prize of $1,000,000

RIT grad George Zheng jokes that he's a proud mushroom dad. He’s figured out a way to grow premium mushrooms on American hardwoods. Yes, Leep grows specialty mushrooms in sawdust grow packs.

"The first image is a bunch of lumberjacks growing mushrooms in the forest right?" he joked. "But what we do is considered controlled-environment agriculture. It is indoor farming and you get the best tasting mushrooms that can be grown efficiently." 

Leep's team of farm-growing engineers and scientists grow Blue Oyster, Lion's Mane, and shiitake mushrooms that are packed with fiber, vitamin D, magnesium, and antioxidants.

"These are health foods for sure. We fell in love with this biotechnology because what we are really doing here is, we are diverting waste streams to produce really delicious food. So environmentally speaking, it is going to be an important food pillar for the future generations," said Zheng. 

Leep Foods is a finalist in the Grow-NY initiative. It’s one of 20 companies eligible for a $1 million grand prize.

Look for Leep Foods and it’s specialty mushrooms at Tops, Wegmans, and in burgers and sausage sold on QVC and online at Thrive Market. The Grow-NY winner will be announced next month.