Fungus Among US
written by ANNA SUNDHOLM
captured by JOZIE DONAGHEY
For Jennifer Macone, each work day starts in the early morning, before the rays of sunlight streak through the sky. It doesn’t matter the time of year, whether out foraging or working on her farm, Macone’s day begins in the dark.
Macone and her business partner, Dustin Olsen, established their organic-certified farm, The Mushroomery, in 2007. Macone and Olsen would venture into the Cascade forests to hunt for wild mushrooms that they could sell in order to pay for the materials they needed to build the mushroom-growing facility on their farm. The main portion of their days were spent close to the earth foraging, and time off would be spent working on the structure.
They wanted to create a farm where they could focus on growing organically, as Macone wanted to move away from the use of chemicals that she had seen on other farms.
“We have wild mushrooms that people don’t have the chance to buy in grocery stores,” says Macone, 42, who lives on the outskirts of Lebanon, Oregon, roughly an hour north of Eugene. “I like bringing food to people, especially unique food products like this — grown without chemicals and all natural.”
A typical day filled with foraging will start by finding a place in the forest to hunt. Then, while armed with a sturdy basket, a brush and a sharp knife, Macone can spend hours searching low in the woods and up along the trees for edible wild mushrooms. The obscure hobby of mushroom hunting has become more well-known to the general public in recent years. Macone said that the hobby gets people out- side, but that it can also be dangerous if people don’t know which mushrooms they are hunting for.
“I like being removed and remote in the forest. It’s really fun and adventurous,” Macone says. “There’s pockets of places that I really like that may have older growth trees or feel a little more remote than others.”
For Macone, days filled with hands-on foraging have declined to weekly excursions to the coast or Cascades now that the farm is able to support the business. Wild mush- rooms are still an integral part of The Mushroomery, but the majority of the business is oriented toward cultivating fresh mushrooms specifically for their farm.
Macone admits that cultivating her own mushrooms for The Mushroomery provides her business a better sense of security, but she will always have an innate love for foraging in the forest.
“It’s pretty special to me to be able to go out and harvest our food. It feels natural,” Macone says. “It satisfies a primal instinct to go out and wildcraft your food, and to be out in the forest, which is just so serene and meditating and physically healthy. This is such an amazing experience to me, very spiritual.”