BLUF (bottom line up front): Fungi is everything; at least for us.
And never let anyone stop you from pursuing your passions, no matter how wild they may seem 😉
Try our fungi and let us know how we’re doing!
I love food. I mean, who doesn’t love to eat – am I right?! No, but I REALLY love food. I love it the way some people love music. Or traveling. Or golfing; or football. Like I get an intense feeling of joy when I make, experience, or share great food with others.
So, naturally, I got a culinary degree and started my career at some of the best restaurants in Dallas.
I’ve worked with some of the greats – Chef Bruno Davallion, Chef Kent Rathbun, Chef Chris Patrick, and Chef Daniel Burr – and this is where my appreciation and respect for mushrooms began.
It started with food; but mushroomed (pun intended 😉 as my knowledge of fungi – and all the incredible things it can do for our bodies and our world – expanded.
If you don’t know that the only reason life is able to exist and thrive on Earth is because of fungi, you’re missing so much.
If you don’t know that fungi and mushrooms can truly save our planet and heal our bodies, then you need to check out our other post “Why Mushrooms?”.
Fungi is everything. Period.
To me, at least.
But back to the story… Well, fungi is, in fact, the story.
But how I arrived at that story, the story before the story, started in the kitchen.
A top-notch kitchen is run like a well-oiled machine, and not much differently than a military unit. There’s a lot of shouting, intensity and anxiety involved in producing impeccable plates. It can be challenging achieving a standard of perfection over and over for hours on end, day in and day out.
But it can also become a beautiful, flow-state of chaos with miraculous, delicious art born of that chaos.
And when you work at high end spots such as Abacus or The Mansion on Turtle Creek, part of the resulting art of that beautiful process is the mushroom.
The mushroom can be the cherry on top – finishing a fantastic dish with the perfect artistic pop! Or it can be the base – the foundation of a soup or creamy sauce, or the foundation of a house itself…
Yes, there really are people building houses with spent mushroom substrate!
Mushrooms can be almost anything. They are amazing, full stop.
As I discovered the diversity and versatility of fungi in the kitchen, I also started learning the value of its flavor profiles. Just like a good wine, mushrooms can bring out magic when paired correctly.
From there, the nutritional knowledge and how shrooms can positively impact our health, also developed. The more I learned about mushrooms, and then fungi, the more in awe I became.
As this passion intensified, and as my understanding of the restaurant scene in DFW developed, I realized there was a real need.
Not only were restaurants searching for a top-notch, local supplier they could count on for delicious, gourmet mushrooms, but the DFW community was also in need of the healing properties fungi could provide –
whether that be through incorporating higher-quality fresh mushrooms into their diets, or through the use of trustworthy, quality fungi products such as tinctures, powders, or even growing equipment for our grower friends.
I started looking for this high-quality, local supplier, and then it dawned on me: this was a real opportunity to live my passion.
The needed supplier could be me.
During my time working as a chef in Dallas, I had gone back to college and was working toward a finance degree. This realization, no, this calling – that I was meant to be a mushroom farmer – came to me in my second to last semester of that degree at UTA in 2016,
and Texas Fungus was born.
Imagine how it sounded to my parents when I said:
“Guess what, guys? I’m quitting school with only 1 semester left to be a mushroom farmer instead”!
Yeah… everyone definitely thought I had lost it for a while.
I continued anyway.
When everyone said “Who’s going to buy enough mushrooms to make a whole business out of that?!”, I continued.
Without a farm, I continued.
Without money to start the business, I continued.
When I couldn’t find proper suppliers or the materials and equipment I needed, I created what I needed instead; and I continued.
What started as a garage-sized project in Dallas Uptown producing 30-40 lbs/week quickly expanded into a full-scale operation growing over 500 lbs of mushrooms weekly by February 2020, largely fueled by restaurant orders.
When the pandemic hit, our restaurant accounts tanked.
Doing business the way we had been up to this point wasn’t possible anymore, and we almost went under. So many hardworking food industry professionals lost everything.
But we pivoted and innovated – we created new products and expanded into new markets; and I continued.
I had to fight, and fight, and work, and work, and work – 70-80 hour weeks for the last 5 years straight to build and sustain this company.
Day and night, living and breathing mushrooms – literally. (always wear a respirator!)
And I would do it all over again because I know what we are producing is needed, is valuable, and can actually make a difference in people’s lives.
From growing just one type of fresh mushroom in those early days,
producing only tens of pounds,
to now growing a thousand pounds of multiple varieties of mushrooms and selling top-notch products such as equipment and tinctures;
to say we’ve come a long way is an understatement.
I’m really proud of all we’ve accomplished and the high quality we provide.
But what matters most is where we’re headed; and we invite you along for the ride!
So…
Subscribe to our blog;
Check us out on Facebook or Instagram;
Try your hand at growing your own shrooms.
See the difference one of our tinctures could make for you; or
Schedule a visit to the farm.
However you choose to join us on our fungus journey, we’re glad you’re here. As a token of appreciation, use this special code TFORIGIN20 for 20% off your order – and welcome to the Texas Fungus (TF) family!
Sincerely,
Jordan
Texas Fungus Head Mushroom Farmer, Founder and CEO