"WE give them everything they need: we're playing God in a way, which is quite scary."

Inside a darkened shipping container at the back of Hinksey Heights Golf Club, Lee Timermanis and Rajo Taylor-Smith are creating life.

Earlier this year, the local produce loving couple quit their day jobs to set up what they believe might be Oxford's first ever mushroom farm.

Since they started growing in August, demand for their fabulous fungi has rocketed beyond their expectations: the esteemed Oli's Thai in Magdalen Road, East Oxford, has based an entire dish around their mushrooms; delicatessens around the county are snapping them up and stalls at farmers' markets have sold out.

Luckily, the pair have just finished setting up their second shipping container ready for production, and new life begins there this Sunday.

Miss Taylor-Smith, who lives with her partner in Jericho, said: "It's such an exciting time.

"Local produce is such a passion of ours, and it's really important: I think it's the way of the future.

"What's more, we're producing quite a unique product that's quite difficult to get hold of."

Unlike their crops, which sprout up in a matter of days, The Oxford Mushroom Co. has been a long time in the making.

When the couple first met more than a decade ago, Mr Timermanis was working backstage at the New Theatre on George Street, then went into the care industry.

Miss Taylor-Smith has worked for Oxford's Cultivate local veg co-operative and the couple also spent several years in Spain helping out on a permaculture farm.

She said: "It's always bee a passion of ours, I've always supported local businesses and I've always watched the way that mega-farming is going.

"When I worked for Cultivate a few people asked about exotic mushrooms then someone at the Earth Trust said there was a gap in the market."

The couple started looking into it and happened upon an American innovation known as 'freight farming': growing in shipping containers.

The method is ideal for the urban environment and the small space required is also ideal given Oxford land prices.

They reached a deal with the owners of Hinksey Heights and had their first shipping container delivered there last year, while still working up their business plan.

They also needed to perfect the delicate environment inside the container: 85 per cent humidity, 18 degrees celcius and a fine mist in the air.

Now business is growing at the same rapid sprint as their fungi: the couple are growing four types on their organic oak sawdust blocks – brown, grey and pink oyster mushrooms and shiitake – and harvesting more than 30kg a week.

From Sunday, that amount is set to double.