MycoWizards

Some of our favorite mushroom cultivators are of old punk origins. You know the ones, strapped and packed with an array of patches, CDs, books and leftover dinner all in that high resting backpack rippin’ uphill on a fixed gear or in deteriorating ox-blood doc martens hopping rails and riding free atop the boxcars dead set on the western sunsets. They stand for experience and true freedom in this land of insanity. Their Ginsberg-ian will to be weird projects outward in the most endearing way as does their smile and their outspoken nature when it’s most needed. The archetype of the zen lunatic punk turned cultivator always makes it clear as hell where they stand and Amanda of KM Mushrooms is as true blue punk as they get. I can’t remember when Mike and I decided to stop in on her farm along our west coast MycoWizards tour but we are damn stoked we did because we found a true homie to fold into the anarchist-myco-hive. If you don’t know KM, you clearly are in the wrong crowd, so listen in and enjoy this week’s episode recorded on sight with the one and only Amanda Janney! Don’t forget to catch @km_mushrooms and @shroomsodoom in the flesh this summer giving a talk on scaling a mushroom farm at the @farwestfungi Santa Cruz Mushroom Festival!

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Try to get Kyle Garrone to talk about anything but growing mushrooms and the emerging world of contemporary cultivators and it will ultimately snap back to mushrooms like an elastic band to itself. The draw and intrigue is too intense for the majority of us to stray far from. We stay up late into the dark hours contemplating pneumatic movements for saving time and speeding up a means to grow more and it is ultimately only exhaustion that blankets the intense obsession to allow for a semblance of slumber. It’s a gift and a curse to be generational in this industry but Kyle has brought Far West Fungi out of the labor intensive dark ages of the early 80’s and 90’s where the industry consisted of brute force and an underpaid labor force to get gourmets into the market. Kyle’s global perspective feeds into the important narrative that if we want a mushroom industry to persist and stabilize in the states we need to start building the institutions, the labs, the farms and the networks to empower the youth of now and tomorrow to take the fungal forces into our own domestic hands. Globalization of food crops is a tricky dichotomy to be on the fence about. Build the schools, build the farms, decentralize the fresh food sources and stabilize the myco-world instead of attempting to dominate it and if successful we will have made momentous strides in the direction of my least favorite word due its misuse and abuse, sustainability.      

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There were many things racing through my head when I first met Roger Rabbit, the OG king of Shroomery.org! But an almost decade long battle to get his stolen land back in Malo, WA was not one of them. I’ve spent the better part of two years in conversations with Marc, going back and forth from the east coast to the west coast, riding motorcycles all over hell’s half acre to saturate myself in and understand the entire situation. After all this could happen to any of us and in fact it has happened to several of us cultivators in recent years. Reading through all of the documentation Marc diligently kept on the illegal destruction and seizure of his property, it still blows my mind that this sort of thing continues to happen in the United States, without retribution or even a day in court. Put simply, we humans can be a doomed people solely looking for an opportunity to exploit without much thought other than, how might I gain from this. I chose to believe the majority of the mushroom community is not like this and therefore we can help one another out when called upon. I know I do, every day, helping farms solve cultivation issues early in the morning, on my drive to and from the farm and late into each night. We are a different breed of people driven by different forces, we want to help, we are the earth workers and the lab nerds who shine bright with curiosity, determination and kindness. The town of Malo in Ferry County Washington is where Marc planned to retire. It is where his  wife Vivian passed away and it is the place most of us know well from his “Let’s Grow Mushrooms” video series. The shipping container fruiting room buried in the side of the mountain, the double barrel steamer and that infamous tiny flowhood. The people of Malo WA are not our people, they are demonic chess players who thrive on motivations of advancement without concern for the people it negatively affects.

Being denied a day to make his case at the Supreme Court level, Marc R Keith, alone, is out of options. But with a little help from our community, Marc might be able to get his property back and prove a wrong doing so intentional and illegal that even at a glance one would wonder how this was all allowed to happen. So I, Erik Lomen and the entire MycoWizards and Cap N Stem crew, along with Marc R Keith, ask you, MycoWizards of the world, to send out 4 letters referencing Marc R Keith vs. Ferry Country, WA to:

FBI Field Office, Seattle

1110 3rd Ave

Seattle, WA 98101

WA State Attorney General Bob Ferguson

1125 Washington Street SE, PO Box 40100

Olympia, WA 98504

VA Inspector General Hotline (53H)

810 Vermont Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20420

Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner

P.O. Box 40255

Olympia, WA 98504-0257

You can also find and attach Marc’s “Complaint And Request For Federal Investigation” PDF at www.mycowizards.com/RR under the show notes to send in with your short and polite letters requesting a look into his case. The main Mushroom Growing group on Facebook has three hundred and forty seven thousand members, all Marc needs is a couple hundred letters sent to the above addresses and you'll have helped the original community cultivator.

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Eric Pearson of Son and Skye is a myco-farmers dead set on the details of cultivation. His interests exist within the systems, controllers and concepts for keeping rooms regulated and running in the intense heat and humidity of the Florida summers. While his farm is small and seemingly off grid in its appearance, the dials are finely tuned and honed in on simplicity which leaves breathing room for actually enjoying the fine art of cultivation. A lot of us who have grow our mushroom businesses past the point of no return with partners, loans, mortgages, grants and stretches of expansion that would drive any mycologist mad, have a lot to learn from someone like Eric. He has paved a different path, where he is able to run a business, spend time with family and experience life beyond the perpetual grind for growth and that is something more challenging that you would think!

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On two wheeled deathtraps through fall sun showers and ever changing scenery, RR and myself sped north from the base of the Olympic Peninsula under a solar eclipse, all the way up to Port Angeles for the 2023 OP Fungi Fest.  All red eyed and road stoked our aim was to give the old school shroomery fans exactly what they wanted, 2 hours of tall tales and details into the cultivation world of the one and only Marc R Keith. 

For all of those that showed up, you are all blessed beasts of the mycological machine and we thank theee! There is still so much to say about the humans who begin the decent into topics like the wandering seekers they are, hell bent on discovery, the AHA! moments and the decoding process of such secrets that can only be sought after in the complexities of nature. These hermetic zen masters of the lunatic-world range from Harry Smith to RR in my mind, along with all the magickal mycowizard mystics in between!

We are so stoked to bring you this second installment of our time with RR and can't wait to share the 3rd episode during the depths of this winter, so keep an eye out and an ear sharp and we will keep supplying you with what the one and only Sam Shoemaker calls, our love letter to the cultivators!

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The first time I met Cyrus Lester of Mushroom Maggie's, I had no concept of the entire story behind such a genuine and bright human. All I knew after a couple of days showing Cyrus around Maine and NH was that it would be imperative to get him and Maggie onto MycoWizards. The story of Maggie and Cyrus is a wild one from the get go; initially just childhood acquaintances through a stack of turbulent formative years, their relationship, brainchild and drive today, stems from stacks of prison love letters and a common goal in building something better for their battered community. I remember the first time I hitched west across the bottom of the US, the difference in cityscapes and population compared to NYC or Boston was astounding. The closer you get to where Texas borders Mexico the more wild and outlaw it gets and the people follow suit. These people are the beautiful humans after my own little anarchistic heart. Maggie and Cyrus are as true and as kind as they come. The whole East Coast MycoWizards Run began with the goal of getting down to film and record with Cyrus and Maggie and the rest I’ll leave for the interview ahead of you!

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It's easy to start something, It's another thing to carry it forward through time and space as it grows and morphs and develops its own definition of limbs allowing for an observed sense of autonomy. Sometimes we refer to this as making a Monster, building an Entity, generating Something larger than oneself.  Regardless of scale, mushroom farms today fit into one of two categories, there are the ones who are innovating as they grow and there are those that take a form fit and follow a play book. The difference between the two is that one is waiting to sink while the other is swimming, simultaneously creating a current. MyCo Planet is innovating and driving swiftly towards this conceptual autonomy. Robin and Jake are stoked, taking chances, holding necessity and hard work in one hand and stoke and the almighty nerd factor in the other. The team they amass will surely make a splash in the currents of modern day mycology, so keep a keen eye on these folks as they make themselves innovative leaders in the myco-sphere!  

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Joseph Iovino is a man sculpted from pure badassery! From fire fighting, to actual fighting to mushroom cultivation. The man was a myth before Daniel and myself rolled on down to his neck of the woods to record this interview. I had heard a lot about Joe over the years and it proved one thing, everyone was full of shit in their attempts to describe such a rad human. If you are in the Tampa area of the Sunshine State, hit him up and support Cactus Hat Mushrooms! 

We are trying something new with this release, anyone currently signed up for the MycoWizards Deep Dives at www.mycowizards.com will be receiving a bag of Cactus Hat's Lion's Mane Coffee in just a couple of weeks! So, if you haven't updated your mailing address in the MycoWizards Membership Portal, DO SO NOW!!! You won't want to miss out on this badass gift of neuro-regenerative caffeinated goodness from Joe and his team, to you, the Mighty MycoWizards of the World!!!

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It was 2015 and in a flash I was kicked off Facebook, for reasons I suspect originated with my being on the terrorist-watch-list after starting numerous Food Not Bombs Chapters across New England throughout my anarchistic youth. The constant ding of the notification bells for the newly formed and overactive CMGN was no more. A couple years later for some unknown reason I was let back in through the cornflower blue digital FB doors and like an old ghost entering a familiar hallway I noticed what seemed to be an abundance of new farmers humming along in the infamous CMGN lands. This moment was the first moment I realized mushrooms were about to have a bit of an explosive renaissance. Some of these farmers seemed like strangers yet others were familiar throughout their early Instagram use. Fox Farm and Forage was a familiar one. While James might say it's all Amy, Amy and James Fox were bitten by the mushroom bug and have not looked back since. I first recorded a MycoWizards episode with Amy in early 2021 when everything was far beyond uncertain. The winter was cold and the expansion plans were still there for all of us...just on a bit of an extended hold. While that first podcast recording was never released I knew I had to get Amy's whole story on record eventually: thus this episode and the formation of the East Coast MycoWizards Run of 2023!  

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There were only a few folks who initially went head over heals cultivating cordyceps in the US back in the early 2000's and Alex Dorr of Mushroom Revival was one of them! Now with a full line of mushroom health related products, a brand new book and a booming podcast, Alex has transcended beyond his humble beginnings and entered into a world where feeding the media beast to keep the growing masses of mushroom devotees entertained, happy and healthy is the name of the game! Go check out the selection of Alex's goods at Mushroom Revival and give his Mushroom Revival Podcast a thorough comb through because there is a lot to dig into, from the first episode to the newest! The rabbit hole of this industry just keeps getting deeper and deeper and there is no better guide than folks like Alex leading the climb down into the myco-abyss! 

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