Introducing a Collaboration Between Friends
WHO…
Jill & Phil
Fungal Affairs is a low-tech mushroom farm start-up owned and operated by me (Jill) and my partner Phil. This summer will be our first season growing culinary mushrooms for profit. I work for Fungi Akaufo managing their blog and social media and creating content. Phil apprenticed with Fungi Akuafo in the summer of 2020, learning the ins and outs of running a mushroom farm. Phil and I met during a farm tour two years ago and have been dreaming together ever since. We are both passionate about local food systems and the power that they have to create community. We are excited to be joining the local food scene by offering culinary mushrooms to our community.
Meghan & Tara
Because you follow our blog, you probably know that we produce grain spawn for at-home and commercial mushroom growers. If you have ever attended one of our workshops or followed our social media, you also probably know that we are focused on mushroom education as well. Our goal is to demystify mushrooms and help make growing them more accessible. As part of the MycoAgrarian’s collaboration, we will produce grain spawn for Fungal Affairs and share with them what we have learned about building a business and a low-tech rural mushroom farm!
WHAT…
Phil and I are going to be documenting our journey of starting a small-scale, low-tech rural mushroom farm so that Tara and Meghan, the owners of Fungi Akuafo, can use our experience to help educate others.
WHERE…
Phil and I live just outside of Onoway, AB, where we are building a tiny home and our mushroom farm. Check out the MycoAgrarians introductory video to view our property. This is where the filming for the MycoAgrarians series will take place.
You can follow the MycoAgrarians series by subscribing to the Fungi Akuafo YouTube channel, following @fungiakuafo and @fungalaffairs on Instagram, and by joining our newsletter: The Fungi Underground Network.
WHY…
We hope that these videos will help others get into the business of growing mushrooms, after all, the world needs more MycoAgrarians!
WHAT’S NEXT
We are going to be documenting all aspects of starting our mushroom business, including topics such as branding, marketing, finance, how to build the infrastructure you need, what materials you’ll need to buy and where to find them, how to actually grow the mushrooms, and so on! In the next couple of months, you can expect blog posts on branding and finance, and a video on how to build a flow hood.