I had a certified organic banana farm in Missabotti for six years growing all kinds of fruits, vegetables and mushrooms. After I sold my farm I moved to the Blue Mountains where I refined my mushroom growing techniques and dreamed of having the space to set up my ultimate mushroom growing facility. I have found myself in a beautiful part of the Nambucca valley called Girralong turning my dreams into reality. I love the complexity and diversity that growing mushrooms can bring. They can offer a large variety of colours, flavours and textures and I am looking forward to sharing that with my local community once more.

Mushrooms are truly amazing to watch grow (keep a look out in outside the box as I might be offering some grow your own kits at some stage). There is something quite mysterious and intriguing about them. Animals and fungi branched away from plants about 1.5 billion years ago and animals and fungi separated about 9 million years after that. This makes fungi more closely related to animals and possibly why they produce so many compounds that have astonishing benefits to us. I encourage everyone to do a little research on the medicinal benefits of various mushrooms.

I grow a wide variety of gourmet and medicinal mushrooms and they all have their own intricacies that must be provided for to allow them to flourish. Mushrooms that I grow may include oyster (blue, king, white, tan, shimeji, black pearl, grey, phoenix, pink and yellow), shiitake, lion’s mane, reishi, maitake, nameko, chestnut (poplar) and the scaly flaming caps. 

You can check out more pictures on the Maddrake Mushroom instagram here.