Humble Beginnings
Like all great ideas, Fungus Among Us was started in a parent’s basement. Quickly going from a hobby to an obsession, more space was require, mom was given some fresh mushrooms, thanked for her patience, and Ben then officially lost his mind. The grow space quickly went from a 3’x6′ space to two comfy 600sq ft indoor greenhouses with individual temperature, humidity, air flow, and light controllers. The learning curve was steep, but for a love of mushrooms, the climb was worth it.
Now, a business consumed by, and heavily consuming, mushrooms. We are proud to offer completely organic mushrooms. We only use M.O.S.A. Certified Organic mushroom spawn, and the growing process is not only USDA Certified Organic, but we help better our community by using recycled paper products in our substrates that would otherwise be headed straight to the landfill (yes, we even use the infamously hard to recycle paperboard!).
Why Mushrooms Matter
Mushrooms are some of the oldest organisms on this planet, first diverging from other forms of life to become its own distinct kingdom some 1.5 billion years ago. While many people refer to, and think of, fungi as “vegetables,” fungi are actually actually in a kingdom of their own, completely separate from plants.
Some of the first forms of fungi evolved in a very harsh environment compared to today’s. Since trees and other bio-waste did not exist 1.5 billion years ago, early fungi needed to be very adaptive, and ingenious, to survive. In order to use hydrocarbons, phosphates, and other organic and inorganic compounds as food, fungi developed an ability early on to break down various chemical wastes released from geologic processes and turn it into non-toxic food energy. Today, this trait is still very active, and because of this, mushrooms are used around the world in bio-remediation projects such as cleaning up ground oil spills, toxic waste from mining sites, and other waste sites that would otherwise require modern technology.
Here at Fungus Among Us, we also take advantage of these organisms’ incredible ability to turn organic waste into food. Almost all of our substrates contain fiber waste products such as newspaper, cardboard, paper board, paper based packing materials, spent coffee grounds,and grain/cotton/lumber production wastes (such as wheat bran, cotton seed hulls, sawdust from mills) that would otherwise be headed to the local landfill. In fact, in an average month, we processes nearly 110 lbs of paper- and wood-waste to feed to our mushrooms! So not only are they tasty, they are making our world a cleaner place to live in.