A Complete Protein

Not only are mushrooms delicious, but they hold within them the nine essential amino acids essential for our bodily health to be considered a complete protein!

Mushrooms can be the main event in your meal planning!

A New Farmer

Hard to believe that today marks the first foray into the public light for Understory Mushrooms. Today at Bayview Farmer’s Market there will be a bright red tent with white dots, sprouted up from the ether. It feels like so much more time has gone into making this happen, and yet it all fits within an eight month window. Here’s to hopeful futures for us all.

Mushroom Season

Here we go- this weekend marks the first Farmer’s Market that I have participated in as a farmer. It was not even a year ago that I had this wild idea to grow mushrooms and started in my apartment in Colorado. The journey from then until now feels as though so much time has passed. So many changes. Here’s to a brighter future filled with fungi!

The Fruit of the Fungus

When we talk about mushrooms, we generally are drawn to the fleshy part that we eat. This is referred to as the “fruiting body”. This fruiting body is genetically more similar to us humans than it is to the plant life that it grows around.

Among other reasons for this, a big one is because of the cellular growth being comprised of “chitin”, which other members of the animal and insect world posses as a building block to their structure, but plant life lack.

This chitin is the big reason why you should always cook your mushrooms before enjoying them. Our bodies cannot break down chitin, which the fruiting body nutrients hide behind, so eating raw mushrooms lack the many beneficial elements that they are known for.

The Year of the Mushroom

Here we are, well into 2024 already! Voting years seem to always get a little tense within our communtiies. Hoping that this will be a more mindfull and patient and kind year for everyone out there. Where we invest our time and attention on is what we are essentially voting for, so let’s make sure it is the good stuff that unites us and brings us closer together. For me, it is the year of the mushroom!

Mushroom Therapy

As I build this farm from essentially the ground up, a lot of thoughts go through my mind. It is a lot of work. A lot of learning. Not just about the different elements that make up a mushroom farm, but also working on myself. Learning about what I am capable of. When the work feels as though it is ceaseless and only growing in degrees, I find myself asking ‘how badly do you want this?’ This is the question that always comes up, when some potential roadblock shows itself. We could have the best of intentions, but when it begins to get difficult, there is a moment when we could very easily take the exit ramp. But if we choose to take that out, then maybe this was the universe’s way of showing us that we didn’t really want it. ‘How badly do you want this?’ It feels good to pour myself into this venture, with nothing but the trust in the universe that it will all work out.

From a Tiny Spore

Here we begin on this fabled journey. Where will we end up? Will there be a toothy beast lurking about? Who knows. Who ever knows the answers to such questions. The important part is that we try. And so this is what I find myself doing. Trying something new. This mushroom farm was born on the desire to try something new, to learn important skills, and above all else, to promote connection. Connection to nature and to heal the rifts in some small way between us. Like any good journey, this one begins with something small. A spore.