A Mindfull Morning to You,
Welcome to the 2nd Edition of our Mindfull Mycology memo, delivered from our farm and lab to your inbox once per month.
September was a fruit-full month here at Mindfull Mycology HQ.
How so, you ask?
Well, after taking the summer off from mushroom growing to let the sultry Georgia summer dissipate, we kicked the “barn that ‘shrooms built” back into operation. As I type, hundreds of bags of Cordyceps and Reishi mushrooms munch on their final meal before they’ll transform their dense mycelial mats into hundreds of pounds of mushrooms over the next two to three months.
September was also a month of what I like to call “failing forward” as we tested out an entirely new system of Cordyceps production and gratefully found that about 75% of our new processes worked fantastically. When we reach our next round of production this winter, we’re confident we’ll get to 100% and quadruple our production capabilities! For this largely one man band (for now…), increasing the efficiency of the systems’ that make Mindfull Mycology go makes a world of a difference.
September and this past first weekend of October, we also hosted 32 folks on our farm for our ever popular Mushroom Foraging and Growing 101 workshops. Turkey Tail, Reishi, and Artist’s Conk mushrooms were foraged, as well as dozens of other species. Lion’s Mane were crab cakes eaten. Pink Oyster mushroom grow kits were made. Tours of our facilities were given. Friends and mycelial connections were created. Preparing for these workshops is a lot of effort. The day of the event, however, is nothing but bliss and marks some of my favorite days of the year.
Alongside all this teaching and growing, the extractions must nonetheless go on, so I pumped out untold gallons of extract in what I expect to be the final extraction runs of our Soxhlet extractors.
Why’s that, you wonder?
Well, this fall and early winter I will finally complete the transition from our current extraction processes to our new, improved, and vastly more efficient Ultrasonic-assisted extraction process. This is a game-changer. Each drop of these new extracts will not only be even more packed with medicinal compounds and mushrooms for you and your body; they’ll also be leaps and bounds more sustainably produced for the planet.
2025 has been a year of fine tuning the systems that make Mindfull Mycology tick, AKA making the experience of running Mindfull Mycology more enjoyable. 2026 will be all about making YOUR experience with Mindfull Mycology more enjoyable.
Phew, that was a lot! Sitting here to recount the month is shaping up to be a great exercise in recognizing the progress I’m making and the lives this endeavor is impacting. Of course, as I always make an effort to remember and mention, none of this is possible without you. I hope each of these little “wins” at Mindfull Mycology feel like wins for you, too.
On that note, I’d like to give a shout out to my selfless wife Sophie for being chief caretaker, chef, and grow kit chaperone at this past month’s workshops on her weekends off from work, no less! I would have lost my mind – and many other things alongside it – long ago in this journey if not for her. Thank you, Sophie!!!
That about does it for this month’s missive. I have some really exciting developments to share with you but I’m holding onto them for next month so stay tuned! Before I go, if you happen to find yourself near Alabama's gulf coast next weekend, stop by the Gulf Coast Fungi Festival and drop into my presentation about medicinal mushrooms on Saturday!
Until next month…
Mush love,
Sam