Meet Andrew Carter of Smallhold

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Carter.

Hi Andrew, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Los Angeles, and while I love the city now, I wanted to get as far away as humanly possible after high school. This brought me to Burlington, Vermont, where I studied chemistry, biology, ecology, and ecological design at the University of Vermont. After school, I made it back to LA to work with TreePeople, a non-profit focused on tree planting, management (and so much more) across Los Angeles. After a couple of years, I decided to move to New York City, where I found work landscaping and consulting on various environmental projects throughout the city.

Throughout the years, I had opportunities to work on amazing companies in the indoor farming and ecological design space, including Windowfarms, Brightfarms, and Agritecture Consulting, building a skillset on growing lettuces and fruiting crops indoors in greenhouses or large warehouses. It’s important work – it’s apparent that our ecosystem is changing with climate change, pollution, and so much more, and the plants and animals that we rely on for sustenance are not evolving fast enough. Biodiversity is decreasing at an alarming rate, and, in my opinion, one of the ways we can continue to feed the planet with foods we recognize is by growing them indoors.

That said, you can’t feed the world on lettuce, so I decided to start growing mushrooms. Originally it was a modest operation in a basement, but eventually it grew into a shipping container in Brooklyn and then to a warehouse with a series of Minifarm installations throughout Manhattan. We were a small team but we’re truly changing minds with mushrooms.

In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we drove a van around NYC, selling mushrooms to people stuck in quarantine. We helped others grow their own mushrooms while they were stuck at home. We quickly realized that more and more people were becoming obsessed with mushrooms, and Smallhold was providing them products and quality they couldn’t find anywhere else. Grocery store chains were paying attention as well, and through relationships with Central Market and H-E-B, we decided to expand our operation there.

About a year later, we built our farm in Vernon, CA. I always knew Smallhold would set up shop in Los Angeles. The community is perfect for us, and it feels like home. It’s our biggest farm yet, and we’re now in stores and restaurants across the region.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has absolutely not been a smooth road. We’re a farm, we’re a startup, we’re a technology company, we have taken a lot on ourselves to be both innovative and grow a product we’re proud to feed our families with. Additionally, my cofounder, Adam DeMartino, and I are old friends, which can be a double-edged sword.

One of the biggest challenges that come to mind is the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. At that point, we were a team of 12 people, and most of our customers were restaurants in NYC. All of the sudden, all of them shut down, and we had to figure out whether to shut down ourselves or continue growing mushrooms. A day later we were driving our van through deserted streets, delivering mushrooms to hundreds of individual consumers per week. Soon after that, we were building farms throughout the country, selling mushrooms to some of the biggest grocery store chains in the country.

We’re figuring it out as we build it. Luckily, we have an amazing group of individuals that make up our team. We couldn’t do it without them.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Smallhold grows specialty mushrooms just south of Downtown Los Angeles. Our farm, the first-ever Certified Organic mushroom farm in LA county, ensures maximum efficiency of water and energy usage, is run by an incredible team who is always paid above a living wage and composts 100% of spent mushroom substrate (the growing medium for mushrooms, mostly made up of sawdust, a byproduct of the lumber industry). Educating and sparking curiosity about mushrooms is an integral part of Smallhold’s mission. We want people to ask where their food comes from, think about their diet, and reconnect with the planet.

You can find Smallhold in places like Whole Foods, Erewhon, Lassens, Good Eggs, and many more retailers. You can watch our mushrooms grow in tech-enabled Minifarms inside restaurants, grocery stores, and nonprofits, or even on your own kitchen counter with one of our home grow kits, available at smallhold.com.

We also work with local LA restaurants including:
All Time
Botanica
Gjelina
Gjusta
grá
Kismet
Konbi
Meteora
Woon Kitchen

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
So many people. Hannah Shufro was our first hire back in 2017 and is still with us, building teams, farms, growing mushrooms, and so much more. She runs the show. Jesse Goldman and the entire team at our Vernon, CA farm are growing the most beautiful mushrooms the area has ever seen. Abigail Knoff is the genius in getting the word out about everything we’re working on. Adam DeMartino, my co-founder, has helped us figure out so much over the years. Honestly, the entire team built this company. I can’t wait to meet our future team members as well, all of you are helping us build the next 5 years.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.smallhold.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smallhold/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/smallhold
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf-h5NC6FPQM0bgOHUCR0oA

Image Credits
– The product photography should be credited to DEIRDRE LEWIS – The minifarm and two images of our Austin farm that contain people working should be credited to PARKER THORNTON – The vibey courtyard of our NYC farm should be credited to ZEPH COLOMBOTTO – The yellow oyster and blue oyster mushrooms on the pale blue background should be credited to LAURA MURRAY