So... I mean yeah, but why?

Why a mushroom farm? Why would a successful blogger/entrepreneur/nurse/playboy want to settle down and start a mushroom farm?

Believe it or not, a lot of it is about waste and helping people. 

It's weird. I'm a nurse. I worked emergency room for years and now I work in pre and post op. Yet, I frequently don't feel like I'm really helping people. I help some individuals now and again for sure, but mostly it feels like I slap on a few bandages and toss you back out there with a chuck on the chin and a see-you-next-time-around-champ. 

But creating fresh, local food that is good tasting and good for you? That sounds like something everyone could use. Mushrooms are tasty and filled with good stuff that helps keep you healthy. It can serve as a wonderful accompaniment to meat helping people reduce their meat intake and still enjoy their food. I love eating meat, but it is problematic on a lot of levels.  So, if I can help with that I think of it as a win. Also, many mushrooms, like lion's mane and reishi have medicinal properties that can help people with the quality of their lives without having to spend a lot of money. And, on top of that, creating food locally helps reduce transport costs and reduces the pollution burden of getting necessary food to people. 

Speaking of pollution...

One of the things that I hate about working in the medical field is all the waste. Everything has to be single-use plastic wrapped and sterile. Since it is all corporate controlled and geared toward the most profit we tend to waste a ton of packaging and plastic because it is cheap to produce. The huge pile of plastic refuse I leave in my wake on a normal work day is not sustainable. I feel guilty every day that I am a part of this system. But, I have to eat too.

But, most of all, I decided a long time ago that I would never be happy working for someone else. The idea that the product of my labor supports a huge administrative and executive structure irks me. When I ask a supervisor or boss a question about what I do, I shouldn't get an answer about policy. It's done that way because it's the smartest way we could figure out to do it. 

Over the course of the next few blog posts, I'm going to describe what I have planned and how it fits within the above framework. I'm trying to build something here that is useful, healthy, sustainable, and beneficial to the environment. Hopefully it can turn a profit too. 

Only time will tell.