She goes by "Rachel the Mushroom Lady" on Instagram, and that is because her passion project has become a family business. The veteran-owned company is getting ready to celebrate another anniversary — eight years of growing mushrooms in Georgia. If you're a little funky at heart, growing mushrooms might just be up your alley. And if you don't know how to grow mushrooms, you might just be inspired by someone who does — two people who do.
Rachel Braden and her husband Dalton are the owners of Bella Vita Mushrooms. "I call this kind of like the library, this is all of our blocks after we inoculated them. They come in here and rest for two to 12 weeks," said Rachel.
The two are veterans, and they came into mushroom farming by chance and have never looked back. "You literally start from a myceliated grain with some sterilized substrate, and it turns into this amazing fruiting body mushroom," said Rachel.
They say about 2,500 pounds of mushrooms leave the farm a month, they go to local farmers markets and restaurants. "Being able to show our kids that this is possible, anybody can do it," said Dalton.
"So, we have our Oyster and Lion's Mane all on the lower shelf. These guys will be ready in two weeks and fruit 10 days from getting put into the fruiting room and then on top, we have Shiitakes and Chestnuts," said Rachel, "I have had so many people say I want to stick this on my dining room table and just look at it."
Read the entire article at Atlanta News First