Mushrooms in Hawaii with Malama Mushrooms
Alisa Nappa
In our fourth ever in person podcast episode we sit down with Ben and Amanda, the super rad brother and sister duo at Malama Mushrooms. We chat about what it's like throwing a mushroom festival, the ins and outs of having a functional mushroom start up, mushrooms in Hawaii, AI, memes, mushroom boofing and more. cha cha check it out.
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TRANSCRIPT
Alex 0:11 What is going on mushroom people? This is your host Alex door and you're listening to the mushroom revival podcast. We are absolutely obsessed with the wonderful, wacky, incredible world of mushrooms and fungi. Bring on guests from all around the planet to geek out with us and go down a rabbit hole. All about the lovely world of mushrooms. And today we have the beautiful magical folks from Malama mushrooms joining us in person in Austin, Texas. This is this is a unique experience. So how are y'all doing? Unknown Speaker 0:45 We were doing all right. Speaker 2 0:47 We're happy to be here. doing awesome. Thanks for having us, Alex. Alex 0:51 There, there might be a little delay we're around my kitchen table passing a microphone and others so yeah, this is this is gonna happen. It's gonna be great. First question, how did you all get into mushrooms in the first place? Speaker 2 1:09 Mostly from the mushroom revival podcasts. But secondly, I was a university students studying agriculture, I was very inspired by the slow food movement, disenfranchised with the industrial agriculture system and just navigating ways to remedy that system and heal the planet from the you know, apparent pesticide use amongst many other damaging attributes of that system. ruining the soil, you know, just there's there's many factors and around that same time so Uncle Paul's TED talk on how mushrooms can save the planet. And I'm sure many people attribute to that, that talk or that man and around that same time, grew my first round and had my first experience with psilocybin my dorm room in college and from then on just knew I wanted to make mushrooms my life. And new finding a job was like the best way to make that part of my life as you know, we work most of our lives. So no one was hiring for mushroom guy, so knew how to create the job myself. Yeah. Speaker 3 2:24 Yeah, mine was mostly through psychedelics and psilocybin initially that was kind of my first entry point. And then I started learning more about the remediate of effects, ecological opportunities through mushrooms, and by way of him kind of cultivating and yeah, the more I learned, the more I was just in it as it as it happens. Speaker 2 2:46 By the way, we're not married. We're brother and sister if you're wondering, the same lesson. Alex 2:53 I mean, we're also married but so why, why Hawaii? You have family in Texas, right? How did that all come together? Speaker 2 3:06 The family in Texas is new just as of the past year, but I had some what you call fungi family in Hawaii. And one of my best friends in college was working on a small farm on the Big Island. And just what he was reporting about the life out there was exactly what I was looking for finishing university being in the cold tundra of the Northeast for a little bit. And Wisconsin where we grew up. So it just seemed to check a lot of boxes and seemed like a very interesting place to you know, start my life. postgraduation. It's ecologically you know, renowned agriculturally rough place. Yeah. But yeah, just very, you know, like, interesting from an ecological and agricultural perspective, year round growing season. And it's a little microcosm for, like what the world can be because there's like a little bit of everything, there's 10 of the world's 12 climate zones, most of the world's soil orders, elevation from obviously sea level up to almost 14,000 feet. So pretty much any thing you can grow there, and being focused on agriculture, worked on algae farms, lettuce farms, and fruit farms and all sorts of things just like experience and it all Speaker 3 4:26 pretty much followed the business there. He had set up I was looking for any reason to leave Chicago and a grinding marketing job and right before the world shut down in 2020. I picked up and moved and it was the best decision I ever made. Alex 4:42 I didn't know it was that recent for you. I thought you were there for a while. Yeah, okay. Okay. Yeah, it's uh, yeah, we're all northeasterners we all know about the crazy winter and I don't think I'll do it again. I'm good. I think I've like I had my life. I'm worth of it. And I'm pretty checked out. Yeah, I'm yeah, we'll see how long I'm here in Austin. I'm kind of looking for the next lily pad but not anywhere with winter. I'll tell you that. Exactly, exactly. So I visited Hawaii with you guys for the mushroom fest, which is awesome. One thing I did not expect is that there's not a big wild mushroom scene, or it's just more sparse than I realized. But it seems like there's a bunch of people like into mushrooms still. What is the general like mushroom vibe across the islands? Speaker 2 5:43 Well, yeah, first of all, thank you for coming to the second annual Hawaii mushroom festival. It was an honor to have you It's our little version of you know, Telluride are these mushroom fests that happen throughout the world but more focused on our local community. We tried to like keep tickets just for residents of the of the state and community and that way we're just we're trying to boost the skills and interest in nurture that within the Hawaii within Hawaii because, you know, there isn't as you point out, it is kind of sparse like unfortunately most mushrooms people interact with our introduced species, you know, growing on woodchips or flowerpots like, and yet there is like an amazing biodiversity of native and endemic mushrooms that occur there. And part of our whole mission is trying to educate people on them and then study them more there's roughly like 60 endemic species that we don't know like the names of that occur there. So a lot of very interesting things there. But yeah, Hawaii mushroom fest what's it like living there interact with mushrooms spars? Yeah, like you to see anything really remarkable. You need to intentionally drive hours to like a national forest or state forest and like, get into the thick of it with you know, some old growth native trees, which there isn't an abundance of So, but luckily, there are some fun introduced edible species that that we know of, and some of them not sure if they're introduced or not like they lack the molecular data on them. But yeah, it's, I tell people like and as you've probably spent, I know you spent a lot of time in like tropical areas, and it's like, still abundant in mushrooms for whatever reason why maybe because it's a young landmass. Not exactly sure, but there isn't quite the abundance of mushrooms there. You're not going out with baskets, you're going out with a tiny tackle box looking for hours and preparing to be skunked. Yeah. Alex 7:49 Yeah, it is so weird because the plant life there is unreal. Like there's just so much abundance of plants, but then you look for mushrooms. I don't know if they're, you know, I'm sure like endophytic fungi abundant, you know, marine fungi probably abundant, but macroscopic fungi seems pretty sparse, which might do with colonization, and just like land disruption, and things like that. So throwing a mushroom festival, I've like been involved in quite a few music festivals, and then also mushroom festivals like it behind the scenes. It's always chaotic. And I don't think people like know if they've never been behind the scenes, like, what it is like throwing an event. It's a lot. There's so many moving parts. Everyone, you know, like bales last minute or they they're picky or whatever, and it's just so stressful for organizers. And then everybody else who goes is having a blast, you know, then people are like running with their head chopped off behind the scenes. Was that like, the same experience throwing this fast? What is it like? People ask me all the time if I all ever throw up mushroom fast? And I tell them hell no. I'll just go you know, and I just like, so much respect for people who actually throw them. So what has been your experience? You know, behind the scenes? Speaker 2 9:13 Um, yeah, it's definitely one of the hardest things I do every year is the mushroom festival for sure. Luckily, like if I was trying to do something huge, like I like you know, I just go back to Telluride like it's the oldest one I believe in the nation and like, they have a large capacity they can fill the holy one like I'm, I'm pretty set on like keeping that pretty intimate. Like, I think we did like 100 ish people a day for a two day event and like, that I can manage like if it was something like astronomically bigger than that. Yeah, I don't even know how we manage that. But we do have ambitions to do like a one day fungus fair because the white mushroom festival is a commitment you're going to the remote location. and on the Big Island to, you know, starseed ranch up there, and you're committed for a couple of days. Whereas, you know, we want to, like really bridge the gap to like someone that you know, just wants to pay 20 bucks walk around a fair learn, like a couple things, see a couple of talks and, you know, probably do that more in the city on Oahu and Honolulu. So, yeah, thank you for acknowledging the difficulty. I I know people will have harder times during bigger events, so I won't. Yeah, I won't take too much credit for like the event. But it's, it's it's definitely a labor of love for sure. Yeah. Alex 10:40 And what is it like working brother and sister like, I've worked with a romantic partner before and that had its own difficulties. I feel like I'm, I do business differently than the average person. So I'm, I definitely value personal life more than capitalism. Which helps a lot of just like maintaining these types of relationships of just having a different perspective on these structures, but I'm sure it's not crystal perfect sunshine, rainbows every single day, like what? What are the pros, cons difficulties? How do you guys manage it? Speaker 3 11:18 Yeah, you know, it's, it's been a really beautiful experience, I think we've always been close, we're only a year apart. And we shared a lot of same friend groups growing up. And we're in kind of a lot of the same circles. So I think, having that kind of as our foundation and we've always been like that as friends, pretty much all of our lives. So I think having that has been definitely grounding throughout the whole thing. I and also, to speak to Ben's like managerial style, I feel like he's a very, he's very hands off in a lot of ways. Like, especially when it comes to the creative creativity side, like if he's like, Yeah, I think that's an awesome idea. Run with it. So I think I have a lot of runway, which helps because I really don't like to be micromanage. But um, there have been times, especially when I first was kind of onboarding where I think it just communication, lack of communication, and, you know, typical, typical work dynamic stuff, but overall, I feel like, if anyone could do it, it's us. I'm sure not every brother or sister combo could do it. But do you have anything to add to that? Speaker 2 12:29 Just acknowledging in the beginning, you shaved a few years off my life, but it's cool. It's, it's definitely I feel like that positive and it isn't just us to to, like my mom and dad have gotten involved in like, helping with accounting and just like helping, like with forecasting and stuff. So like, they're very smart, capable people, too. So it's really a family business. And that, you know, I always make the comment, like, it's hard, because like, my mom calls me and it's like, I'm trying to talk to my mom not to like my account. So it's, it's interesting in that dynamic, and it's hard for everybody to turn off our brains and just hang as a fan, but it's, you know, you, like I said earlier, you spend a lot of your waking life, you know, working so, who better to do that with and people you want to you love them or spend your time with. So it's definitely a double edged sword for sure. Alex 13:25 Yeah, I've had my own relationship with my family, like entering the business, and then I've kind of pushed them out. Which is like, you know, it's all love, but like you just said, like, I just want to hang out with my mom right now, you know, and like, I don't want to talk business when we're on vacation. You know, it's like, there's certain boundaries that, like, when we're at work, let's work but like, when we're outside, let's just be human beings, you know. And I think like, no matter who you work with, even if you're related, like romantic, I think it's important to have those boundaries. Like, I think you should be friends with who you work with. Because, you know, I, we're all human beings living our life, like we shouldn't. We shouldn't just like hate people that we're working with for 90% of our life. Like, that's sucks, you know, but, you know, it happens and, and if you can choose that, I think, you know, that is huge. One thing that we you know, we're both in the functional mushroom space. One thing I think we both do differently is I'm more focused on E commerce online. You guys are retail brick and mortar all day. And so that's just not my universe. And I'm just curious, like, how has it been? You know, going through brick and mortar what has that journey been like since since day one? Speaker 2 14:50 Yeah, I think it was helpful to provide context that like I was overwhelmed with the idea of E commerce initially like you know, I'm not a Very digitally technical wizard. And that sense I knew would take that to really do it well. And one thing I loved and had experience was like living out my car being a rock climbing bum. Like, whenever I would do that, or like, go on road trips, I'd first place it goes to health food store and hang out. And you know, like, that's where you're gonna meet the cool people. So you're gonna get some nourishing foods. So I was like doing that I was like, this would be cool to incorporate into my job and then being in Kona, and like, being in that health food stores like, Yeah, I mean, there's many of these around the West Coast. And at the time, there was a volcano erupting on our island, and like, the air was pretty bad. And I was just getting some signs to, like, pursue it. And I was like, just hop over to Oregon and like, started going down the coast store to store and wasn't really successful at first. But eventually, it was like, Oh, this is kind of working. And like, I got to meet people. And just like, you know, I thrive talking to people and working with people in person. And it just that was found success, and we just kind of kept rolling with it. So it's been kind of an interesting, interesting thing. Speaker 3 16:04 Yeah, I think to speak to like that personal exchange, like getting to meet people who will still like, you know, years later be like, I remember when I met you in rainbow, you know, health food store and 2018. And I've been using your product ever since I think having that element of personal connection. And then meeting like the founder, too, is really impactful for folks. So I really appreciate that side of it. But yeah, also, the ecommerce side is essential. And that was kind of when 2020 hit, it was great that we were in a lot of brick and mortars, because folks were still getting access to the grocery store. But that kind of was the catalyst to pivot more towards e commerce just to reach more folks. Alex 16:45 Then I have a funny story about a, I'll keep them anonymous, but I went into a store in Austin, because there were a mutual friend. And they're carrying your stuff. And I was like, Ah, they're homies, whatever. And they're like, oh, you know them, like, like, and I guess all their employees are our girls. And they're like, they're like, oh my god, he skis come to visit a couple times. And like, all the girl employees are like really excited that like this, like, cute. Hawaii guy is coming and lace so funny. But yeah, I It's funny, like, I'm not, I don't really shop, brick and mortar. So it's so foreign to me. And like, I pretty much buy everything online. And so that, to me is like so natural. And maybe it's like a different generational thing. And like, I just, you know, will eventually go into retail, but it's for now, it's just this not anything that we've explored. And yeah, so it's, it's always interesting. What? And take take this question any any way you want. But what's what's been the hardest part of this journey, and it could be day to day or like, one night in particular, where you're like, I wanted to just give up that one. You know, all of our product went bad or whatever, like, that place caught on fire. Like what I did a Speaker 2 18:10 great question. And I want to circle back to something about e commerce and a story about you after but just to answer that. Yeah, luckily, there hasn't been any huge, like, horrendous moments where it was, like, you know, sleepless nights for a while, but I would just say it's like, the general chronic toll of like, constantly being, you know, on on something like having a lot of people, you know, you're the bottleneck for so many people, they like, they need something from you in order to do their job, or for something to go successfully. And you you know, at the end of the day, like want to turn off your brain for a second. And but you don't always have the luxury to do that. So I think it's just like the general chronic, total of that. But you know, I know, like I've, I've been reading, like, unintentionally, we'll read books about businesses that have had it way worse than me and like, I know, what we're going through is like, pretty chill in the grand scheme of things. So it's, it's not, it's not too bad. But yeah, it's, it's, yeah, we do a lot of the operations stuff ourselves in and so like, you know, we're packaging things. We're shipping them ourselves, we're storing the warehousing. And I think that's different than a lot of companies. And it in some ways enables us to be more nimble and flexible. But at the same time, we are owning a lot more and it just comes with more opportunities to make mistakes, but also have more successes. So it's an interesting yeah, interesting thing. Alex 19:52 It's all easy for you. Yeah, no It is it is a ballot. And it is funny for, like people who don't work in a mushroom business or don't have their own listening to this right now. And I always tell people who want to get into, you know, either working for a mushroom business or starting their own. And they're like, super starry eyed. They love mushrooms and like, well, and this is, you know, for anything like music, you know, I used to be really into music, and there was kind of a fork in the road where it was like, do I pursue this professionally, or have it as a hobby, and not at all? And it was like, well, and I've talked to a lot of people, and they're like, well, there's always that, that chance that you pursue it professionally. And then it becomes really draining, you know, and you get burnt out, doing the thing that you thought you loved and you like, never want to trade that, you know, and there's a chance you don't and it's like, you just gotta realize that it's funny, like I thought I was going into mushrooms and then you learn eight bazillion things and you're the master of all trades, and you're a master at packing and retail and online and all this stuff that you thought you just were getting into mushrooms and then you know, you gotta learn everything. So it is a funny journey. For people that are wanting to start their mushroom business or like want to start this is a good, good thing to listen to. Because it's it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes it is but you know, it's hard. It's hard. On the flip side, what is the most rewarding part of this journey? And it could be like one moment again or day to day. Speaker 2 21:40 I think it's very much related to Hawaii mushroom festival is is that is like being able to be a hub and like community spotlight or spotlight on our community doing awesome. Mushroom related things. I think the biggest one that comes to mind is the micro remediation aspect. We had this last one was there was a generator on the premises that lead diesel into this local kalo, which is a traditional Native Hawaiian agriculture system of growing taro or Kahlo, and this, like happened like a month or two before the mushroom Festival on the same site. And it was horrible, but it was an incredible opportunity for us to apply, you know, these techniques who are voyage like, Yeah, we were going to be presented on anyway, but it just gave us this applicable, you know, action to take. And that was incredible. And we had Hannah and Sanaya, and Tay all contribute to that. And there was a this organization reef to ridge that did all the processes, and we tested the soil after and there was, you know, reported zero contaminants left. So that was really cool. And that's I guess that's been the part that's awesome is like, like you're saying is you want to get into mushroom business, but you're like just know, you're, you're managing people and numbers and like all these other things that aren't mushrooms, but it's these moments of stuff like that, where things can actually help the community even more and those guys are all collaborating now on the Maui bio remediation stuff in the hyena which is something Yeah, I wanted to talk about today is like yeah, all this burnt you know, material that is a lot of synthetic like herbicides, plastics, all this stuff and a rain hasn't happened yet. And the rain is bound to come and like trying to get ahead of that and these guys myco Maori by the Maori bio remediation group are you know, drafting a proposal to affect change in that and so is really cool bigger project stuff that we get to be either helping nurture or part of that make it all way more worth it for sure. Yeah. Speaker 3 23:54 Yeah, totally intact that I think just like community in general like I feel like just mushrooms bring the coolest people like gravitate the coolest people gravitate towards mushrooms and mushroom communities. So just the people we've met through working in this space, the events we've been to and like the synchronicities that have come to play like feel like it's very aligned and you know, it's just joyful. You know Alex 24:20 if you could restart knowing everything you know today from day one, just you know, restart button. What would you do differently? What wouldn't you do? What would you like double down on? How would it go down? Speaker 2 24:39 Great question, Alex. crypto. I don't know I don't think I can honestly say I changed much like I acknowledge it hasn't always been easy. But I don't know if I would change much like, I don't. I don't think we've taken any major missteps that I've regret and Yeah, well, it's, it's never quote unquote easy. It's definitely like, I think it's a true expression of us and our style, you know, being like small, scrappy and bootstrapped. And, yeah, I've been grateful to kind of, you know, do it independently, even though independently is always a little harder. It's it's more freedom and true expressions. I don't think I, I could, maybe if I thought about it a long time, I could think of a few things. But in this moment, that's my answer. Speaker 3 25:36 Yeah, I think I think it's easy to get caught up. And like, you know, we're, we don't have any investment in VC funding or anything. And I think, since mushrooms are having a moment, you see, all of these companies come in with tons of money, and they're just got this flashy packaging, and they're in Erawan, who, for some reason, will still not take us. And yeah, it's easy to get caught up in that game. And like, well, you know, how do we how do we compete? Or how do we, you know, differentiate ourselves. And I think the lesson has just been like, it's okay to be small, doing it on your own, like, you attract the right people. And I think, yeah, we have a very scrappy, grassroots style. And the people that we've met through the journey in in pursuing it that way has been amazing. So just I think, reminding myself my earlier, earlier versions of me that that's okay. And that's like, that's the route and that's where we should stay. Alex 26:33 And maybe that's the answer. But I have another question about, like, how do you feel about this space? And how it's emerging, it seems like the last couple of years, it's really taken off with COVID. And there's a lot of, you know, we I think we all agree about, where, you know, mycelium versus fruiting bodies and that whole debacle. But you know, there's also a lot of companies just popping out of the woodwork and like, just having a million dollars in funding day one, and just blowing up and getting into Erawan. And whatever. And maybe just like, knowing absolutely nothing about mushrooms just starting a mushroom company. What? Yeah, what are your thoughts about the emerging field of not only functional mushrooms, but mushrooms? in whole? Speaker 2 27:24 Yeah, yeah, I've pretty much equity and everything you just said, like, things have really changed over the past couple of years. There's a lot of things popping up. And yeah, you can tell or you can just look into it and see, the quality's not always there. But yeah, I guess, like, obviously, rising tide floats all ships is, you know, a great motto. But yeah, it is a little worrisome. I think I'm more worried about the like, more like the psychedelic space, you know, things and like, I wasn't at the Denver maps convention, but like, so I can't really validate those, but like, you know, there's always like, the suits, they're rubbing their hands together, like trying to get a piece of the action of this, like medicine that is like, you know, has has kind of like a history of like, being corrupted by, you know, the West. And yeah, so I guess I'm more concerned about that space. And then people just like, using it properly. And, you know, things get a little crazy if in a black market, so like, just, yeah, I guess I get more, you know, anxiety about that. And we're not in that space right now. And it's, yeah, I'm just like, watching and wondering. Alex 28:53 So I hope I'm not the only one, I don't think I really want but there's been so many projects, where I'm pumped for, and I spend so many, you know, hundreds of hours and like, we're so excited, and we have so many meetings about it. And you know, so many iterations, so much r&d, blah, blah, we finally release it, and it's crickets, and it just flops and like, it's not the reaction that we want. And I'm so excited about it, and like no one gives a shit. Like, and I'm like, oh, okay, um, have you had those projects before? Or products or whatever it may be where it's just, you were pumped, and it just flopped like and what what were they Speaker 2 29:37 one recent one off the bat was we have mushroom chocolate bars and like, we really wanted to help our friend who's a habanero pepper grow. He was like this. This pepper sorry, this like hot sauce line. And he grows a lot of these Hawaiian habaneros himself and like, I'm going to help you let's make a spicy Hawaii like chocolate bar and Yeah, last year and like, yeah, it's it hasn't been doing awesome. But I was like, I was probably wondering, like, something I was most stoked on. Like, it's so great to be able to help you help these guys. And like, it's like, just a drop in the bucket for them like, yeah, that that's one that comes to mind most immediately. Speaker 3 30:17 Yeah, I guess to speak to that phenomenon, Instagram, like, sometimes there'll be a real that I spend too much time on, and I'm like, this is sick. This is gonna hit and like, it's like three views. And then like, I make a shit post. And so and it just pops off. So I feel like, but it's kind of the fun element to it, like, you know, the dynamicism of it, and like not really knowing exactly what's gonna hit, but just like being creative and getting to try different things is like, part of the beauties of having your own business, you know, so, highs and lows. Alex 30:51 And speaking of highs and lows, how, you know, working in a business is hard. The world is weird. How do you guys balance work in life? Speaker 2 31:04 Yeah, I think we were just talking today about like, screen time. And like, how that's really like, I think the hardest part of life probably for a lot of people right now is like unbalanced screen time to like actually being in your body with like, tactile experiences. So I mean, I always feel the best. Like just being out outdoors in whatever way and so jujitsu Serophene, like anything that's just like, very, like raw and tie up and into something primitive primitively fun, you know, like, and like, ideally, with community with others. So, yeah, physical movement, like, generally, but those activities specifically, Speaker 3 31:46 yeah, we're very fortunate to have the ocean, you know, as like a little baptism. So even if it's like, I can jump in for 30 seconds in the middle of my day, it's like a reset for me. But we're both big on like sunlight exposure first thing in the morning, we have an ice bath at the warehouse. That's mandatory if you work for us. And just kidding. But yeah, just just movement, sweat, sunshine, salt elements as much as possible. But yeah, I will be the first to admit that it's extremely hard. And I am doing it imperfectly, but I'm working on it. Alex 32:19 I think we're all in the same boat. It's funny, you talked about how you pack everything. And like, it's different than a lot of businesses but and there's pros and cons, I back when we used to do everything packing house and grow the quadriceps and extract and all this stuff. I think it was way more burnt out. And physically just holding on to one string of my adrenals. But I felt amazing. Like, I felt incredible because I was moving my body all day. And like I just was constantly moving and doing stuff and using my hands, but also working over 100 hours a week, and never had a day off. And so burnt out. But I was so happy. And like passionate and it's you know, now I work a fraction of the amount but I don't it's a lot more screen time a lot more just zoom meetings. And you know, and it's like, there's pros and cons. And I haven't figured it out either. And I'm trying and I think it's I want to meet someone who has has it figured out because I gotta I gotta learn some stuff. What I don't know if you can tell people but any, any exciting plans in the future. Speaker 2 33:35 Right now we're scaling our local cultivation efforts just to like really boost that we're just starting to do a farmers market in my man north north part of the island. And like getting more, yeah, just connected with the local community, like doing talks at schools with like, talking to the youth, just trying to like, inoculate the next generation of mycologist in Hawaii and try to get that going. And we launched a grow kit recently. And that's been like a really cool like, way to inspire them, like be able to have them have that experience growing the first mushrooms. So I think it's really like digging inward instead of outward, like we're still like, out here, you know, obviously like meeting with stores and stuff, but it's really like the local community and like trying to double down there. And, you know, we don't even have like a psychological club on the island. So we're hosting the first mycological club meeting in September and just like trying to do all these things to get the community like, we don't want to be the people that know the most about the mushrooms. It's like we want people to talk to you and obviously, you know, there are some local academics that know way more than us but a lot of people have left or like are getting older and like they need someone to pass the torch on to and so just trying to like really do that. But as far as like New Product Innovation and all that we're nothing nothing too crazy. I mean, I guess a life size mushroom outfit of our logo. That's pretty sick. I'm excited about that one. Actually, I think yeah. Yeah, exactly. That'd be cool. That'd be some sweaty sweaty days. But yeah, that's that's pretty much the extent of it. Yeah, I'm very much excited to grow more lion's mane and sell more of that fresh to our community and just like yeah, kind of get off the hustle of like shipping things off the island it just like really, you know, keep things homegrown. Speaker 3 35:42 We're also releasing a rap album soon. That's not true. But if you do rap and you want to rap about mushrooms, you should come to the Hawaii mushroom festival and perform and I variety show. Alex 35:56 Yeah, that that cipher was pretty sweet. Wait, what is your employees name? Oh, Jeremiah. Jeremiah. Helvin. Oh, my God. So good. Yeah, I mean, everyone was pretty good. But Jeremiah, just, yeah, if you're listening to this fucking Yeah, you killed it. If you had unlimited resources, team time, what would you do? And why? And you can answer that in a couple of different ways. If you want. Speaker 2 36:26 Probably, like, have a huge regenerative agriculture project in Hawaii, that is completely closed loop. And, but also, like, growing food for our local economy. And also, I think the bigger thing is working on remediation of our of a lot of like, the damage the military industrial complex has done in Hawaii. But obviously, like, if I have abundant resources nationally and globally, that's a big one is like, yeah, Red Hill, the military leaking all these like 1000s of gallons of fuel in Honolulu, and got a hyena and and just all the hundreds of years of mismanage agriculture projects from, you know, the plantations of sugar cane and pineapple, yada, yada, that have like really damaged the local ecosystem there. And just like wanting to remedy that, I would say, that is probably the biggest of the biggest things. And obviously, spreading mushroom medicine, like, organically grown and good for people throughout the world is is like up there, too. But yeah, I think those things are, you know, the precedent, or the priority rather. Speaker 3 37:47 Yeah, I mean, well said. And then if we had, you know, enough resources, where someone's running the show, maybe goats, maybe go to Asia and just like, spend some time observing how the organic mushroom farms are done over there and really just soak up that tradition and that ancestral wisdom. Alex 38:08 I mean, both both geologists spent some time in, in Asia recently and your your brother is in Hong Kong, right. How did he get to Hong Kong? What does he do in what? What's the lowdown on that? Speaker 2 38:24 Shout out Rob. We love you, buddy. He's He's not that into mushrooms. He's Yeah, he's a professional. He's working in New York, Boston, New York and now Hong Kong in the finance industry. So yeah, we're trying to inoculate him. He's overdue for his first experience with psilocybin but it's it's coming. Alex 38:48 Where, where do you see the space in five to 10 years. And he'd be functioning mushrooms. And then we talked a bit about psychedelics. Micro remediation what whatever mushrooms in general. Speaker 2 39:03 Feel like I'm interested to see pure mycelium. I feel like pure mycelium is gonna be a thing and like, that would be a well welcomed, you know, chain change to mycelium on grain. Like, I feel like that would be interesting. I feel like that's the way things are going to potentially not go but like, there'll be the addition of that and like, Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about it. But I feel like that something's going to come out in the west with that. And, yeah. Speaker 3 39:35 I have hope for transparency as well. And like labeling and just education. I feel like it's the more that it's popularized, the more that folks are just like engrossing themselves into the mushroom world. I think it will, it's inevitable that folks will know exactly what they're buying exactly where it's coming from, what it's doing for them. So that's a hopeful aspect for the next five to 10 years. Alex 39:59 You It's, it's hard. Yeah, I the one thing that I've seen recently with these new companies coming up is a lot of these mushroom gummies are, they're all manufactured from one manufacturer that I've been talking to. And they, the manufacturer didn't even know that it was mycelium. And so they were labeling it fruiting bodies. And, and then so, you know, you just buy, it's white labeled. So these companies, they're just like, Oh, give me give me, you know, 5000 bags of these gummies, or bottles or whatever. And they're labeling it fruiting bodies, they think they're doing the right thing. And they're like, Yeah, we have great stuff. And it's not bitter at all, you know, and like, you can taste it. If if you know, and it's, and even even the manufacturer doesn't know. And so it's like, it's, yeah, it's, I think one thing that I was hyped on with the blockchain was just like, although it's not sustainable at all, it's just transparency from the beginning, and having it pretty much, you know, you can see from from the farm to table and I think, you know, keeping things local and, or, or just as transparent as possible with anything from your food to, you know, medicine to whatever it is, I think, is super important. Yeah, we'll see. And, um, I didn't go to the Denver event, either. I've heard stories. I am conflicted. You know, I'm like, I, there's a lot of bullshit happening, and just I have a pact with the mushrooms that I can never make a single dime off psilocybin mushrooms for the rest of my life. And so if I don't know, I feel like it's so important for people, for most people to have psilocybin in their life, but I don't know, in what way I can be in service. And so I'm still trying to figure that out. But it won't be a way that I'm going to make money. I'll tell you that. And I think that's the only way I can like, ethically stand in that space. But we'll see. I don't know. We'll see. I'm also kind of like waiting on the sideline, I got my bowl of popcorn ready. I'm just, I'm like waiting for a I'm already seeing so much drama go down and the space hasn't even started yet. You know, and like people are throwing each other and patenting and left and right. And it's it's funny, it's a space you know. Funny question, if you can embody one mushroom for a day a year, whatever. What mushroom would you embody? And part to that question. Which one would you embody? And which one do you think you are? But wow. Speaker 2 43:08 I was gonna say asked for a rubra. So people don't leave me alone. Unknown Speaker 43:15 Stinky, Speaker 2 43:17 Little Stinky flies around me and I don't want people to mess with me. Just leave me alone. Yeah, it's very. Yeah, I'm gonna go with Astro rubra. Or mine. Yeah, I think I think it'd be interesting for both that you embody just just the one I'd want to embody for the day I have my and the one I think I embody, I have a really strong connection with the native lit tourists that grows on the islands. It doesn't have a name yet. And we're working with Mark Banik UW to give it an Amy's guide, doing little bro stuff. And I just have a very special connection with it. I like confined it. I know when it's fruiting, I can sense it. Like, yeah, we've just had, like many long drives to volcano to find it and like, come up successful every time and maybe that's me looking too into it. But we have a special connection in that little phrase. So Speaker 3 44:19 I've always been smitten with Amanita muscaria. Like I just find it so beautiful. And like the My name Amanda and Amanita like I've just always felt like this kinship with it. And I've recently like integrated it into my life as like a micro dosing protocol. I've used it to solve who's like that skin issues, and it's just been so like, it's just served me greatly. So I feel like that's my spirit. But if I were to embody one for a day, I mean, it'd be super cool to be a court just absent just get freaky and just just understand the zombification. Like, viscerally like I just think that would be it's one day I could do it. Yeah. What about you? Alex 45:02 Same with the quarter steps. I don't know. They seem pretty toxic, you know? I mean, it's the whole journey is fucked up. I mean, it is crazy and the more I study them and more, the more I'm like holy This is fucked up. But but that's what I'm so fascinated about because it's it's a crazy journey with just the evolutionary journey of like all these defense mechanisms and you know, they're both just sending crazy drugs to each other both the insect sending drugs to the fungus and vice versa, trying to get the other one high and like all this stuff, and they're all just a it's it's a wild journey. I think it's the wildest fungus for sure. So definitely just just to just the experience that firsthand, not that I like the attributes of that. And I think I potentially embody Lion's Mane just because my hair I just grows really fast. Like when I watched Lion's Mane growing and like, yeah. Um, yeah, I think those two for sure. Have you guys had a full trip with Amanita? muscaria Speaker 2 46:18 I found some in New Jersey ones that I dehydrated and I forget how much I ate my trip logs. Yeah, I wouldn't say I've had a full immersion. I definitely felt like the inebriation like took a nap and was like yeah, feeling an abbreviated but yeah, I'm very curious to learn more about because I've heard like, you know, maybe work grows in Siberia or in Europe is like totally different molecular biochemical compound than what we have in the states and probably, you know, within the coat, like which part of the state to get it. So, long story short, no, but I've tried. And Speaker 3 46:57 I also have not had a full journey but our mom is from Poland. And I would love to just like have this European like Amanita foraging experience like I remember Bob Shaw had those like, adorable, Amanita muscaria jars like that, that get bigger and bigger in her kitchen. And you know, it wasn't really like keen to mushrooms at that time. So just having kind of this ancestral pilgrimage with that would be especially over there would be amazing. Alex 47:26 That's awesome. I've only eaten it once. And Larry Evans was the culprit who gave me and it was only a bite it was only by it was an after after party at Telluride and he just went around carrying a fresh Amanita muscaria to every single person it was like ticket by taking a classic classic was not wearing shoes. Of course. I don't think he owns a pair of shoes. Yeah. Speaker 2 47:56 This is circling way back to talking about mushrooms in Hawaii. And like what what it's like to, you know, survey or collect there is from your podcasts hearing him make a comment about I forget where he was, but just because there's a high activity of bacteria in the soil because it's the tropics and it never has that like die off period from the temperature that being attributed to potentially why, you know, maybe because it's such young land, but also that and we I know it's way earlier in this just like out of that. Yeah, that's not why there's not a lot of like, macro fungi activity. Yeah. So call back. Thank you mushroom revival podcast. Alex 48:41 Larry bringing it back. Wait, I love Larry He's so funny. I haven't asked this in a really long time and I think you two are good for this question. But if mushrooms had the mic and could say one thing to the whole human race what would they say? Speaker 2 49:05 I feel like they would say it's okay. Like it's your you're freaking out like you're so caught up with like your, your physical representation of yourself you're like your wants that you think our needs and like your your stuff and your screen and your image. It's like, it's okay dude. Like relax, like surrender. Like, I got this. Listen to me You're fucking up and you need to you need to seriously think about what you're doing right now. Speaker 3 49:43 You took mine but the alternative would be booth me I was gonna say surrender. But then you ended up saying surrender ACC Yeah, surrender booth me. Um, but yeah, I think just like, trust like oh like Yes, we got you like things are aligning perfectly as they're supposed to and just fucking also get off your screen please. Alex 50:08 I love it. So where can people follow you? You're in stores all across the US all over Hawaii, Puerto Rico. Anywhere else and where? Where can people you know, check out this fungus fair, quiet mushroom fests all the stuff. Speaker 2 50:30 Well, mushrooms on Instagram or website Malama mushrooms.com. Yeah, we're in stores in almost every state and we have a store locator on our website. You can always order off our website too. But don't sleep on, you know mushroom revival extracts as well. They're all good. Maybe the Hawaii mushroom festival is. Again, I mentioned earlier, we try to keep that for residents. But if you're super jazzed to check it out and or have something to contribute, you're more than welcome to reach out about it. That is something we host as Malama mushroom so you can just contact us through those portals. I again want to plug Maui bio remediation group our friends summer Tae Chen chase my AMEA who are some of those folk are from coal renewal who have contributed to the fires in California and probably, you know, have done other amazing things, but please check them out. I'm just gonna pull up the website real quick just to make sure they're plugged. Believe it's Maui bio rem.org And this is bad radio. Yeah, my Maui bio ram.org. Please check those guys out. If you have anything you want to contribute, if you have experience or just want to donate monetarily to the remediation of mowing, please go to that website. But yeah, Milam mushrooms Unknown Speaker 52:00 long mushrooms Alex 52:03 What's your MySpace and SoundCloud? Speaker 3 52:07 Are only funds is Malama shirts. Alex 52:11 Subscribe today. Yeah. Love it. Love it. This is great. Yeah love you guys. I think this is like our third person podcast ever over the past I don't know how long we've been doing this but this special? Yeah. In first in my living room too. So this is great. What third fourth in line for like five minutes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Nuts. I think this is like the fourth lifetime though. We've been around the block for sure. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you guys for tuning in and trimming in for another episode wherever you are on Planet Weird Earth. And keep it weird. Keep it fungal. Keep loving mushrooms. If you learn something in this episode or another episode, or you're just ecstatic about mushrooms, which I hope you are, please tell your friends and family. One fungal fact today. If you are going grocery shopping, tell the cashier one fungal fat get them inoculated. Tell that weird aunt who hates mushrooms get get her into the mushroom world. And if you want to check out Malama mushrooms, they are incredible. Check out mushroom revival. We have a bunch of free ebooks and blogs and punch of fun goodies. If you want some free goodies. We have a giveaway going on. So check it out link in bio and you can check out my newest book that's on the website to the little book of mushrooms. Super cute. And apart from that, any other plugs mushrooms are great. I hope everyone has a beautiful day and as always much love and may the spores be with you Transcribed by https://otter.ai
