Today we’d like to introduce you to Jor’El Schustrin.
Hi Jor’El, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
We got into mushrooms about 7 years ago when I heard a mycologist talk about the benefits of lion’s mane mushrooms. My stepfather has Parkinson’s disease. After hearing the mycologist talk about the benefits of lions, and mane mushroom, and how it promotes nerve growth in the brain we decided as a family that we should try this. I started ordering tinctures and capsules for my stepfather.
After seeing the benefits and reducing his pill intake from 13 pills daily down to 3 I knew mushrooms are powerful and extremely healthy for us and the planet. Since he needs a larger amount of lion’s mane the tinctures and capsules started to become expensive. So we started to order ready-to-fruit kits and we started studying mushrooms and how and what they need to grow. A lot of information was not available on the internet at this time, so I read books and read blogs on the internet.
After trying to grow mushrooms in my house for family and friends which consumed my whole house, (started in my closet and spread from there) my brother was moving back from the east coast with his family. He’s a chef on the east coast and when he was moving over here we were looking into buying a deli. Then I would’ve had a spot to sell our mushrooms with the storefront, but then Covid hit. We did not know what Florida was going to do as we watch the rest of the country start shutting down.
We then took a little investment money from the deli and decided to move the mushrooms out of my condo and go into a warehouse to grow more mushrooms for Naples restaurants in farmers’ markets. As we started to grow more mushrooms, the space in the warehouse after the first year started to become scarce so we were starting to look into bigger spots to grow more mushrooms as we are looking for new warehouses or storefronts then we got hit with hurricane Ian which we received three to four feet of water through the whole building.
After we moved everything out of that warehouse because the walls were covered in mold, we were shut down for about three months as we looked for new spots in Naples and once we got the machinery out and our grow rooms into storage we found a new spot with a storefront and the warehouse where we grow mushrooms behind it, it was always talked about that we would want to start something of a mushroom store and have a little deli storefront for the Mushrooms as we grow in the back.
So we believe it was a blessing in disguise that we lost the first warehouse and got into something that we eventually wanted to do anyway. We specialize in growing gourmet medicinal mushrooms for southwest Florida. At some point with both my brother’s background we would also like to open up a small cafe with everything mushrooms. That is our ten-year plan, owning our land and growing local fresh mushrooms for SWFL.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Some of the struggles along the way include going from just growing mushrooms at my house to growing on a larger scale. The hurricane was also devastating but a blessing in disguise. Trying to educate people about mushrooms and their health benefits and the way people look at food. We are also learning to be better in all aspects of the mushroom world.
We all have different ways of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
I define success as being happy, and what you do in life. Mushroom growing is a lot of work and most people don’t understand that. But for me, it’s not working because I love it so much even though the hours are long days and late nights, I don’t consider this work because when you love what you do, that to me is the definition of success.
Pricing:
- chef boxes we start at $18 a pound with a 5-pound minimum
- Market prices range from $20-$25 a pound for Fresh
- We also do powder seasonings tinctures, and that range anywhere from $15 to $30
Contact Info:
- Website: Strophariamushroomfarm.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stropharia_mushroom_farm/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strophariamushroomfarm
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@strophariamushroomfarm1035
Image Credits
Stropharia Mushroom Farm
