Adam’s Mushrooms: an interview with Adam DeLeo

In 2012 I lived at the Findhorn Foundation, a retreat center and ecovillage in the north of Scotland. Findhorn is spiritual community that focuses on daily meditation to stay in connection with spirit or the ‘still small voice within’. It was my second ‘tour of duty’ volunteering at the Foundation. In this incarnation, I was a chef at Findhorn’s Cluny Hill Hotel, making meals for the many guests that flowed through the building. Cluny was an imposing grey Victorian structure on a hill above a town that Macbeth’s witches passed though centuries ago. Before belonging to the foundation, the hotel had been known for being a place to take the waters and was outfitted with gigantic bathtubs on every floor.

In this time period I met Adam and Astrid. The pair met during Adam’s ‘experience week’ which was the foundation’s introductory workshop. In 2012 Astrid was working in Cluny Garden, teaching guests to plant and weed the many flower beds and veggie plots that surrounded the hotel. She is from Denmark and spent her high school years living and working at Findhorn. Adam was volunteering in Cluny dining room, offering tea service twice daily and running a Kitchen Patrol that the guests volunteered in. Eventually the kitchen team convinced him to join our ranks. He is from Gig Harbor, a community in Washington state, and had commercially fished for salmon in Alaska.

Each few years since then I have had the privilege of dropping in for a visit with Adam and Astrid. I’ve watched their lives evolve from volunteering at Findhorn to growing a family and a mushroom business on the West Coast of the U.S. In November 2013 they started selling by mushrooms, grown by others, at market. At the time of writing, they are putting the finishing touches on their own mushroom farm. In March I spoke with Adam about how he heard and acted on his vocational call. This interview is edited for length and clarity.

Western Friend: I remember when you started growing mushrooms in a small bedroom at Cluny Hotel over a decade ago. I also remember that before you got started Paul Stamets spoke at the Universal Hall and I was wondering if his talked influenced you to start growing mushrooms?

Absolutely, there was a direct connection. We went and watched him give his presentation and I had this reaction in my system. There were goosebumps and the odd tear welling up. I was moved by it. I thought “Well, let’s look into this”. I had been actively considering what to do with my life and I didn’t want to go back to commercial fishing. Paul Stamets has a couple of books about growing mushrooms so we ordered a few of those and started to put together the basic kit and I started dabbling in my room.

Was there anything specific that he said that got you?

No, I don’t remember a specific thing, it was more of a recognition that I could see myself growing mushrooms and not hating life. I had a really low bar to clear in terms of what to do with myself (laughs). I imagined that I would have met a person in Scotland with a business who I could work for but then this came along. I decided to look for opportunities to work with mushrooms and see what we could make of it.

Western Friend: At the time you were sitting with yourself and trying to figure out your life, did Findhorn create an environment for that?

That time at Findhorn let a lot of the business from my prior life settle out. I was fairly intent on finding a path forward from that experience. I was as there for two and a half years, towards the end of it, I was tuned into the silence and inner listening. There was a space that opened in me that was ready for a seed to be planted. Findhorn was the right environment for it to grow out of. I got excited about the mushrooms and we, I mean it was mostly me at this point, Astrid probably though I was being weird… but I was able to engage my interest in a zero-pressure environment. From there I discovered that this is something I could happily spend time doing.

Findhorn was a rich environment for a new direction to come in and take root. The community is structured around internal listening and acting on what comes up. Paying attention to inner promptings was such a big part of the Findhorn life that I would have had to have been pretty ignorant to have missed the nudge on that one (laughs).

Western Friend: I was remembering you pasteurizing hay, to inoculate with mushrooms, on the prep tables in Cluny kitchen and also that you ordered a humidifier for your project from the States but the wattage was wrong and it blew out.

“Oh there’s some steam…no that’s smoke…no that’s dead…there’s no coming back from that” You get those adaptors so you can plug it in but they don’t convert the voltage, I quickly learned that was a no go. The was the first of many obstacles to overcome, there’s been a lot figuring out to do. The kitchen at Cluny was perfect for getting into growing mushrooms. At first, I was just grabbing used coffee grounds from the dining room and using those. When I got into pasteurizing straw it was great to have that massive empty kitchen with all those pots and pans.

Can you describe how the project started in the states when you got back?

Before I got back my parents were aware that I had this budding interest and my mom, as parent’s do, sent me a newspaper clipping about a farm back here called Green Mountain Mushrooms. It was two miles away from my childhood house, I had never heard of it and through that was pretty neat. I reached out to them and asked them “What do you do with all these mushrooms?”. I’d also applied for an internship that Astrid and I got. That was how we got started working with mushrooms because you can’t just up and start growing them out of thin air. It’s a very demanding endeavor in terms of infrastructure, space and finances.

It was humbling to realize that initial dream of “we’re going to go back to the states and start growing mushrooms, it’s going to be awesome” need to be tweaked to match the reality of what we were getting into. Lo and behold there’s this perfect opportunity to work with mushrooms, figure out the sales, and go from there. It was a very clear first step and it asked nothing of us financially except whatever mushrooms we were working with that week. We could get 5 pounds of mushrooms that week and if we sold them, we could get ten pounds the next week. That’s how it started to gain momentum.

The following summer my dad and I built a grow house in my parent’s back yard that gave us room to grow mushrooms there. We were living with them at the time. It wasn’t enough to run a business off of but it always felt important to keep that seed alive from my initial interest in mushrooms, which was growing them. Every year since we have grown them in that building and at this point in the business is a symbolic effort. The significance of it is more than x amount of poundage it produces, it more about keeping engaged with that seed that we planted all those years ago back in Findhorn. Once the farm is functional, this will probably be last year we harvest out of that building.

Western Friend: I want to organize something in time that I wasn’t aware of: you and Astrid did an internship on growing mushrooms?

That was down in Nevada, it was a big company that didn’t fruit mushrooms. They were essentially growing out the mycelium or the cultures in grain and letting it fully colonize the grain. They dehydrate that, grind it up and it’s what goes into many of the mushroom supplements Is that myelinated grain product. So, we did this program and it was called “Advanced Spawn making” was the internship, and it was pretty funny.

There was a disconnect between when you see “advanced spawn making course” you tend to assume that you’re going to be spending a lot of time in a lab, going over different techniques. Frankly, most days we found ourselves in the production line. The best resource available to us were the people. We learned a lot, the people working there were passionate about mushrooms and are all guys that I still stay in touch with.

And the dude that was running the operation said “Hey, look, but you don't need a mushroom farm. You need some cash flow.” Honestly, that was one of the most important pieces of advice I received down there from him specifically. You can’t have a mushroom farm unless you have some means of creating and running it.

I was fairly naive at the time about farming. I didn't understand the realities of creating a farm. Look, you can grow mushrooms without spending a lot of money, but you can't grow mushrooms in a way that's like sustainable for a long-term endeavor on that small scale.

I'm sure there are some examples that would prove that wrong, but I've seen a lot of small-scale operations go for it and then after a year or two, they say “I just can't keep doing this” You’re not growing enough mushrooms to generate a living wage and the systems are inefficient. And if you try to generate a living off of a small operation, you're just working yourself to the bone.

We are trying to scale this farm that we're building now to be self-sustaining. I don't want to be the biggest mushroom farmer on the West Coast by any means. That's not the target. It's finding a sweet spot where we can produce abundance and have an efficient system at the heart of the thing that allows us have some sense of balance. I love spending time with my family. You need to be able to take a break or a trip and still have the operation run.

Western Friend: How did you fund the business to start?

When I left Findhorn, I did go back and do a summer season on a fishing boat up in Alaska. I had no money when I left Scotland. Astrid came over to the states after the fishing season and we did the internship. We drove down the coast and went out to Hawaii. Lisa and Roland, our friends from Findhorn, ended up marrying us out there. That was really cool.

It was intense because we were saying yes to an awful lot back then and we didn't really know what we were getting into. We moved in with my parents, so we didn't have to pay rent. That was huge. Fell in with this farm, Green Mountain Mushrooms, so we didn't have to build our own, which was also huge. We had an enthusiastic market to sell into from the beginning.

We were able to buy mushrooms, bring them out to market, and then get more mushrooms with what we sold those mushrooms for. It really came down to the numbers working out. We just keep repeating that cycle so it was self-funded in a lot of ways. But again, not paying rent was a huge help. As was being able to stay at home and eat with my parents, as we didn't have a lot of expenses in the early days.

It took a couple of years, obviously, to build it up to something substantial, which was a terrifying time because I was all in. Suddenly, I had to make something happen of it. There wasn't a plan B per se, neither of us have college degrees.

Western Friend: What were some problems you faced as the business began and what are sustaining issues?

Yeah, the biggest problem in the beginning was keeping the faith that this was going to work and that we were going to eventually be able to move out. You’re in your late 20s living at home with your parents and your new wife moves in with you to the in-law apartment and it's just kind of like: This isn't going to work forever. We were on the launch pad and it felt very high pressure get on down the road with it. Okay, you're going to support yourself with mushrooms. Well, let's see it.

It was pretty terrifying. We had a clear sense of direction and were seeing the numbers getting bigger. Even with that growth we were nowhere near the goal of moving out of my parent’s house. In the second year, we were like “Let's do as many farmers markets as we can and really go for it!”. We lost all balance whatsoever in about midsummer. There was a heat wave and we were doing a market and I went down with serious anxiety attack issues. Behind the crisis there was this thought: I don't know if I can do this. I couldn’t work that way anymore. I couldn’t try any harder, I couldn’t push any harder. I had to find a different way of getting this thing moving up the hill again, or it just going to roll me over and it's done.

I don't have the same struggles nearly as intensely back then. That’s the challenge of putting yourself out there: You're on the edge doing what you believe in, what feels 100% like the right thing to do, but there's no guarantee that it works.

Western Friend: When was Astrid pregnant in this process?

Agnes joined us in August of 2017. We had a series of housesitting gigs for two years that allowed us to live in a house for like nine months of the year and then step off. And then move back in and then move back out. It was a hot mess with the moving around and we really wanted our own space but couldn’t afford it. So, Agnes was born just down the hill at a neighbor's house because we were living there.

At that point that I’d rounded my big internal corner: we had enough momentum and I was assured that the mushroom business was the right thing to be doing. Our long-term house-sitting gig fell apart that summer. We ended up living at my parent’s house again with Agnes. And shortly after we had Agnes, we purchased this lot that was just up the hill from my parents. We had a solid plan: we're going to build our home up there. While homebuilding was a two-year process, it took some of the (stomach) butterflies out of the equation because we had a clear direction.

Western Friend: What were some of the happy changes over the years?

Becoming a fully sustainable business was just a huge relief. Agnes and Alma later on were very happy changes. It’s happy settling into our groove with the business. In the beginning it’s all survival and then you learn how to swim and then you realize there are some things you actually really love doing. Leaning into those things that you love to do and becoming more efficient at the chores that you have to do.

I've also discovered the wealth of wild mushrooms and wild food in general that grow around here. From foraging I am able supplement our income while participating in these harvests that have been going on for millennia. Foraging is definitely a happy thing. That comes also networking with other foragers so that you can supply a decent sized market without throwing yourself under the bus. You can only do so much yourself. That's one thing I like about mushrooms is that mycelium is a big network. With any business the better network you are, the better it works. The expanding awareness of the lay of the land of the land our particular niche in the world is fun. You get a little more comfortable. Suddenly you're like riding your bike. You're not worried about skinning your knee. You're like, hey, look, no hands.

Western Friend: Could you share what plants you wild harvest?

Right now, we're harvesting nettles. Because there are a lot of nettles around and they’re so nutritious and flavorful. I really like drinking fresh nettle tea. I don't think they're as huge of a hit with my family so like we don't eat a ton of them. We did a nettle cream sauce and enchiladas once it was just out of this world. It's kind of like a cooked spinach.

My favorite things to harvest generally are like the ones that I can walk my door and hit some local forests and find. Nettles are a big one right here on the Key Peninsula. And then chanterelles when they're in season and huckleberries. Those are my big three.

I have a couple of favorite things that I'm willing to drive for: mainly Porcini. I love picking those things, it’s a blast. That'll take you clear out to the coast. I love being out there too so it’s the old mixing business and pleasure. You can find like a yurt at a state park and go spend a couple of days picking in the fall. It’s a really nice time.

Western Friend: Porcini mushrooms have to be harvested wild?

Yes, a lot of the wild mushrooms dependent on a tree for their life cycle. They exchange sugars and nutrients with the trees and provide a host of other immunological type roles. Different species of mushroom provide linkages where like trees can communicate chemically amongst themselves via mycelium. This is not my expertise, but I know these things happen. They can tag carbon and then trace it between different trees in the forest and watch it go through these mycelial networks.

Wild mushrooms like chanterelles, lobsters, and porcini, which are the boletes, have these symbiotic relationships with the forest and you can’t reproduce that in a lab or on a farm.

The ones we grow on farms tend to be the wood rotters. They’re the stomach of the forest floor. They eat downed trees and debris that fly down so that it doesn't just build up and up forever. The debris keeps disappearing into the forest floor, you can mimic that on a farm pretty easily and keep those dudes happy.

Western Friend: How does your family play into Adam's mushrooms and do you feel connected to the community in coastal Washington because of your mushroom business?

Astrid has had direct roles in the business and then indirect roles as well. My family is why I'm not living in a cabin somewhere growing mushrooms in my closet. That exit was 100 miles ago (laughs). All I want to do is support these kids and Astrid to create a life that we can all enjoy together while we have it. That’s the heartfelt motivating factor for me.

Astrid helps out with bookkeeping. She used to do all the markets and deliveries and everything. When we had the kids, it made more sense to shift gears and we ended up hiring someone on to help us out. I really hope that as the kids get a little bit older, that she continues to take the business in her own direction. There's a missing piece of the puzzle that I think Astrid would excel at because she's really good at communicating for one, never my strong suit, and organizing. You have to do both to interface with the public. A workshop has to be organized and thought through to be beneficial. There's so much interest in mushrooms and there are so many people in the community that have questions or want to do workshops with us.

While I'm not in survival mode like I was in the beginning, there is still a lot of basic upkeep. People ask “Hey, can we come out and see your farm” or “Can we do a workshop?” or “Do you take people out foraging?” I have say, “No, I can't do that right now.” You can’t just let people come and go on a working farm…and it would be fun to be able to do that.

I feel funny like claiming to be part of a community because we do business with the community. Findhorn is one end of the spectrum where you're in community for the sake of being in community. Outside of a retreat center there’s the necessity of providing for yourself… you gotta survive, man (laughs). But everyone's in the same boat. We get to meet a lot of different people that we would never meet otherwise.

Western Friend: How long have you been building the mushroom farm?

I think we started like the dirt work a little over two years ago. And we purchased the land maybe four years ago. It's a little shy of 6,000 square feet of covered indoor space. The site is 1.3 acres and we use utilize more of it than just the buildings. It’s a little over half acre of active operational space and the rest of the property is up the hill in the woods a little bit, which is really neat too. The new farm isn't actually in production yet. It is getting very close.

This comes back to Findhorn, I'm so grateful that that experience enabled me to like say yes without knowing what would come of it. This farm is rounding the final corner, but I feel leery to even say it because I’ve said that before only to find another corner. I’ve had to focus on the personal growth aspect of building this farm. I have to say yes to doing whatever it is I'm doing in the moment. A huge part of this process is taking on the next task. “Ok, put on your plumber's hat for the next couple months and get after it”. It seems like a lot to go through just to grow mushrooms, to be honest, I can't just be about growing mushrooms at this point.

You can find Adam’s Mushrooms at: Proctor Farmers’ Market in Tacoma, WA on Saturday Mornings.

Puyallup Farmers’ Market in Puyallup, WA on Saturdays starting April 20th.

Broadway Farmers’ Market in Tacoma, WA on Thursday mornings starting in May.

Or online at https://adamsmushrooms.com/