September was such a whirlwind month! Collar City Mushrooms continued to myceliate, connect, and expand! We had several events, officially released a few new products, and even gave a couple talks! It was a very full 30 days!
We expanded our home grow clientele to include people attempting to facilitate the growth of mushrooms at a variety of different stages through sterilized grain bags, pre-poured agar plates, sterilized substrate, and ready-to-fruit grow bags.
Our “of the earth” skin care products are now on the shelves, as are logo t-shirts made by Troy Cloth and Paper, a variety of teas and salts, and several dehydrated and powdered mushroom varieties.
Myceliate, the card game, finally got some attention and the revised mockups were playtested successfully. An actual copy from Gamecrafter was ordered for final review and should arrive in mid October.
September was a banner month for foraging: The Collar City Mushrooms team found, consumed, and sold many pounds of wild mushrooms! In addition, several knowledgeable foragers brought mushrooms in and bartered or sold them for our purposes. We moved chanterelles, chicken-of-the-woods, hen-of-the-woods, and giant puffballs through the store!
We also completed our first mail order transaction! This is something that many people have asked about and will be rolling out a little more as we establish a regular inventory of items with shipping options (unfortunately no fresh mushrooms).
And the culinary team successfully incorporated Powdered Lion’s Mane into both cookies and pancakes. Making these baked goods a smidge more healthy with a boost of mushroom power!
9.4 The Final Event for Armando’s art featured the musical stylings of The Deadbeats Duo, and DJ Stark Raving Mod, and pizza and “wings” by DiFamiglia. Nearly 100 guests came and celebrated together outside by the beautiful Hudson River.
9.12 We hosted the Second Sunday open mic again and served up some mushroom tea and poetry.
Dan Wilcox, one of the hosts of the Second Sunday reading writes about every poetry event he attends, you can read his blog here: https://dwlcx.blogspot.com/2021/09/2nd-sunday-2-september-12.html?spref=fb&fbclid=IwAR3kKFlCUDOFj42yzaNgzV_lob35L1VoybBL2z_16bcDOodcYdTdqJKdBkA
9.16 Collar City Mushrooms hosted the poetry open mic “what is poetry?” and a small but enthusiastic crowd took turns reciting poems and discussing their content.
9.18 We were able to do a second Troy Farmers Market Pop-Up and talked to many new mycophiles and curious customers.
9.19 Troy Veg Out (an all vegan festival) featured our mushrooms at Difamiglia Pizza’s booth where Dylan turned them into pizza toppings, and “Angel Wings.”
9.21 Avery gave a talk at Balance Massage and Healing Arts Studio in Delmar on the healing benefits of mushrooms.
9.22 The 14th annual Autumn Evening in the garden fundraiser for Capital Roots Paired Collar City Mushrooms with Chef Matthew Joyce from Prime at the Plaza. He turned Lion’s Mane and Oyster mushrooms into delicious dishes which completely sold out.
“So glad to be paired with Collar City Mushrooms. I’m looking forward to collaborating more in the future. What you have at your farm is a gift to the Capital Region culinary community.” – Chef Matthew Joyce, Prime at the Plaza
“Thank you for providing such incredible food. The mushrooms were a crowd favorite!” -Capital Roots NY
9.23 Avery gave a talk on different ways to grow mushrooms in Sand Lake to the Sand Lake Garden Club.
The City of Troy’s October Recycling Newsletter featured an interview with Avery about sustainability and how mushrooms can help the environment. Read it here:
Subculture vegan deli in Albany started buying our mushrooms for their mushroom ‘po boy sandwiches.
Collar City Mushrooms was able to Sponsor two local projects in September:
Albany Poets, a long standing poetry promoting institution in the Capital Region has been producing a podcast called “Next up to the Mic.” Collar City Mushrooms is proud to help spread the word and support this ambitious release of decades of documented local poetry performances.
The Empire State Metal Detector’s Club is a local group of metal detecting enthusiasts and their Annual fall hunt was held on September 25 at the Berne Town Park and we helped supply their event with snacks and drinks.
The Mushwagen finally got some work and may be making deliveries around Troy before the winter arrives. This 1967 VW Split window camper has been in storage and slowly coming back to life for years, but now that it has a purpose, work on it has really started to fly.
The Meadowlark Catering launch event included our mushrooms as part of the 7 course sample meal to showcase what this all plant-based company will have to offer. Our farm grown mushrooms and wild foraged maitake were turned into giant raviolis by Chef Chris.
And finally, we started installing John Zoccoli’s art for our next Music and Creativity Celebration!
Coming up:
October 9th: Troy Farmers Market Pop-up. 333 Second Ave will be closed for the day: Please find us at the Waterfront Farmers Market.
October 10th: Second Sunday at 2pm Poetry and Prose open mic.
October 16: Out of the Darkness Music and Creativity Celebration
Our Facebook Event Page: https://fb.me/e/PRBXKpad
October 21st: Avery will be featured on the Nick Bisanz Live Stream Show. He’ll be talking poetry, Mushrooms, Art, and More: https://www.youtube.com/user/DanteDDL67/featured
October 30th: River Street Market Block Party from 11am – 4pm 433 River Street (Behind the Hedley Building) So our Farm Shop will be closed at 333 Second Ave)
A few new things developing in the mycelium:
Pre-packaged Risotto kits will be out by the end of October just in time for Thanksgiving meal planning! We are also working on a “Being Thankful” salt that will include garden grown herbs as well as wild foraged ramps. Meaty Max Vegan Sweet Meats is working on a special “mushroom madness” stick to include in their repertoire of products that we are carrying.
Collar City Mushrooms 