September rolled through with some absolutely fantastic successes! From getting a second container, to our dinner on the farm, to huge movement in the efforts to create legal access to psilocybin-containing mushrooms. Read on to find out how the month unfolded and discover some ways to join in!
Chef David Stein served up an incredible feast from the Clear Mountain Room. It is such a beautiful venue for gathering. It is often occupied by weddings, graduation parties, anniversaries, and our dinner events! Our November and December dinners will be held there. Tickets available soon!
We found lots of wild mushrooms in September and offered them up to our customers at the Troy Waterfront Market, the Corner Spore at Indian Ladder Farms and restaurant partners. Lots of Chicken of the Woods, Giant Puffballs, Meadow Mushrooms and many non edible fungi were discovered and appreciated.
New Customer alert! Brand new troy pizza coming online at 625 River Street. Pizzeria Mari will be open soon! Check out the pies they’ll be slinging HERE.
Our Mushroom friends over at Shroomscape had their game finally hit Kickstarter:
Check it out HERE
Shroomscape: The Mycelium Mindset Board Game is a new tabletop game where you play as mushrooms, growing across the board in unique patterns, gathering resources, and adapting to shifting conditions, with one ultimate goal: sporing to survive. The design and mechanics are thoughtful, hand-made, and inspired by real fungi and their ecosystems.
We brought in a new investor whose funds allowed us to purchase a second container for our farming efforts. This second container (Mr Blue Sky) will be half storage and half cultivation. The next few months will include building walls, running electricity, and insulating it for use!
We launched a soup product for sale at Indian Ladder Farms that has been wildly received! Stop into the Farm store to pick some up…or buy the ingredients and make it at home! Eliza from Ovenbird Baking brought back her incredible mushroom stencil sourdough boules too! Delicious and also super cute!
Avery and Amy attended the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York’s annual fundraiser and networked with dozens of regional chefs and culinary appreciators. We finally got Chef Ric Orlando to settle on a date for his Mushroom Experience Dinner. It’ll be in March of 2026! Stay tuned for details.
While camping in the Adirondacks Amy discovered a fully intact Cordyceps militaris growing from its beetle host! We delicately pulled it apart and dried it for educational purposes!
Amy helped pour ciders and beer at the Autumn Evening Capital Roots Fundraiser. Supporting food insecurity organizations is so important for our mission of providing quality ingredients to the Capital Region.
Every Saturday we vend at the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market. Located around Monument Square, it operates from 9am to 2pm.
Most Wednesdays we vend at the Helderberg Mountain Brewing Company with a selection of fresh mushrooms and a few other products. Stop by from 5 to 6:30 or so for a tasty cold beer and delicious fungi without leaving the hill towns!
New York Farm Bureau Public Policy Director Kat Slye-Hernandez visited to brainstorm mushroom farming specific policies to create a section of Farm Bureau Policy dedicated to fungi production.
Our Instagram posts have gotten almost 100,000 views over the past 30 days! People are really interested in the fungi happenings of the capital region!
We started a new Instagram profile specific to our supper club mushroom experience dinners. Follow CCM_Supper_Club to get direct notifications about our events when they go live!
PSILOCYBIN CORNER
September was a huge month for spreading the word about how psilocybin-containing mushrooms can impact a person’s health and wellness. Our Monthly NYMHA meeting featured lawyer and advocate Corinne Carey and a discussion on how passing legislation works in New York. You can watch the entire meeting HERE.
Our October meeting will feature NYS Senator Julia Salazar and a discussion on all the activity from September and where we go from here! Meeting in Person October 14th in person at Indian Ladder Farms or through ZOOM from anywhere.
During the Mushroom Mania event at the Adirondack Experience Museum in August the local PBS station did a piece about the festival and asked Avery a few questions about psilocybin-containing mushrooms. Watch the whole piece HERE.
Avery was interviewed by Tamara Star with News Channel 13 for a longer piece on the NYMHA legislative efforts and the various bills that have been proposed in New York. You can see the entire piece HERE.
Assembly member Amy Paulin (D, 88th district: Westchester) Chair of the Assembly Committee on Health put together a hearing that gathered experts in psychiatry, nursing, psychology as well as people who have used psilocybin to help build a case for legal access to psilocybin-containing mushrooms.
The full hearing is split into two parts. Available for streaming here: PART 1 PART 2
All written testimony from participants of the hearing and others who could not attend in person will be available later in the month.
Here’s the official Press release from Assembly Member Amy Paulin’s Office:
| PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release October 1, 2025 Assemblywoman Amy Paulin Chairs Health Committee Psilocybin Public Hearing Researchers, medical experts, stakeholders spoke of the potential medicinal value and risks of psilocybin New York, NY – Assemblywoman and Health Committee Chair Amy Paulin (D-Westchester), chaired a public hearing in New York City on Tuesday, September 30th to examine the potential medicinal value and risks of psilocybin. “The testimony at today’s hearing makes it clear that psilocybin shows great promise for treating debilitating conditions like cluster headaches, depression, PTSD, and chronic pain, which have been resistant to traditional therapies,” said Assemblywoman Paulin. “As we consider legislation to expand access in New York, our priority must be establishing framework that maximizes safety and ensures proper oversight for patients and providers.” Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound produced by fungi known for its hallucinogenic effects. Currently, psilocybin is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, however, in October 2018 and November 2019, the Federal Food and Drug Administration designated psilocybin-assisted therapy as a “breakthrough therapy” for treatment-resistant depression and major depressive disorders, indicating that the therapy may offer improved results for such conditions over currently approved treatments. The FDA further signaled growing recognition of psilocybin’s therapeutic potential in June 2023 by publishing its first draft guidance on the use of psilocybin for psychiatric/substance use disorders, presenting considerations to industry for designing clinical trials for psychedelic drugs. Tiffany Farchione, M.D., director of the Division of Psychiatry in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research stated in the 2023 FDA guidance that “Psychedelic drugs show initial promise as potential treatments for mood, anxiety and substance use disorders.” This federal movement has coincided with policy changes at state and local levels. Denver became the first U.S. city to decriminalize psilocybin in May 2019, with a subsequent city review finding no significant public safety impacts. Since then, momentum has grown across multiple states: Oregon became the first state to both decriminalize psilocybin possession and legalize it for therapeutic use in 2020, reporting an 87% reduction in psilocybin arrests, while Colorado followed with personal use legalization in May 2023 and New Mexico authorized medical use in April 2025 for conditions including treatment-resistant depression and PTSD. Alongside these policy changes, recent clinical research studies have demonstrated psilocybin’s effectiveness in treating major depression, alcohol use disorders, and chronic pain conditions like cluster headaches and Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). Following are quotes from several attendees who provided testimony at the hearing. “The research demonstrates that psilocybin, when administered in legal and treatment-oriented settings, is both safe and effective.” said Dr. Bill Brennan, PhD psychologist, psychedelic researcher, educator, and author. “I’ve witnessed with my own eyes the hope it can bring to those who have suffered the most—our depressed and addicted loved ones, neighbors, and fellow New Yorkers. I very firmly believe that making this breakthrough medicine more widely available is one of the wisest and most compassionate choices we can collectively make.” Avery Stempel, President and Co-Founder of New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives said, “New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives (NYMHA) thanks the Assembly Health Committee and Chair Amy Paulin for its attention to this important issue. As a statewide nonprofit dedicated to educating citizens and lawmakers about the potential of psilocybin-containing mushrooms in health and wellness, we are encouraged by the growing conversation in New York. We look forward to continuing our work with lawmakers as they explore safe, equitable pathways for legal access to these promising substances.” “Our current tools to offer patients with existential and spiritual despair are limited. Psilocybin in a supportive, relational container allows participants to create meaning and improve quality of life in their final days and years,” Dr. Stephanie Van Hope, DNP, RN, Holistic Psychedelic Nurse Collective Co-Founder. “When combined with the proper safeguards and follow-up psychotherapy, psychedelics can help our patients in ways that no conventional intervention can. They can save lives and restore purpose and meaning to those lives,” said Dr. Casey Paleos, M.D., board-certified psychiatrist with close to 20 years of clinical experience working in hospital-based and private practice settings in New York City and Long Island. “In the midst of the mental health crisis that is plaguing our state and our country, it is therefore unethical, in my opinion, to continue to perpetuate the prohibition on psilocybin.” “The brain works like a city’s electrical grid,” testified Dr. Kristel Carrington MD, Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, Psychopharmacologist and Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology. “Billions of wires (neurons) and switches send signals to power things on and off. Some circuits carry everyday signals (like habits, emotions, perception) and some circuits are powerful “reward loops” that can trap the system in addiction. Addictive substances like opioids or alcohol, flood and overload those reward circuits by sending a surge of electricity into one pathway again and again until the system is stuck in a loop. Instead of overloading a particular circuit, psilocybin redistributes the power across the grid. New connections light up, areas that usually do not usually communicate with each other start sharing signals. It does not overload the brain’s addiction circuits, so it doesn’t trigger the compulsive drive seen with addictive drugs.” “New York is facing a dire health crisis, and we urgently need innovative solutions,” said Corinne Carey, Board Secretary and Co-founder New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives. “The old approaches to health and wellness are failing us. I applaud Chairwoman Paulin and the NYS Assembly for exploring the healing potential of psilocybin as a new path toward wellness.” “Too many New Yorkers are suffering from mental health conditions and chronic pain without adequate relief,” said Paulin. “It’s time for us to explore how we can safely expand access to this therapy while protecting public health. We have an obligation to pursue every avenue that could bring relief to those who are struggling with debilitating conditions.” ### |
New York will be hosting the Northeast Alliance on Psychedelic Access at the end of the month. Advocates across the region are coming together to share resources and successes. New York certainly has a lot to celebrate this month!
COMING SOON
New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives Monthly Meeting, Tuesday, October 14th 7pm – 8pm. This monthly meeting will feature NYS Senator Julia Salazar (D, 18th District) sponsor of S5303. We’ll also recap the Dinner put together by the Microdosing Collective and the Hearing in Manhattan for the NYS Assembly Health Committee. The meeting will be in person at Indian Ladder Farms in the Yellow Rock Cafe or online via zoom from anywhere.
Join remotely via zoom here:
Mushroom Experience Dinner Featuring Ruchi. Friday, October 24th, 6:30 – 8:30pm. Served in the Corner Spore at the Yellow Rock Cafe. Full Menu on the below flyer. Only 20 tickets are available for this Celebration of Diwali dinner by Ruchi! Vegetarian, NOT Vegan. This dinner will include dairy.
Tickets available here
Food Vending for ILFC&B Oysterfest, Saturday and Sunday 10.25 and 10.26. We’ll be serving up Oyster Mushroom Po’ Boy plates and a few other treats.
Meet the Mycologists, Saturday, 10.25 1- 3pm. We’ll be vending for Oysterfest, stop up to the pizza garden and chat with our team about different ways to cook mushrooms!
Mushroom Experience Dinner featuring Chef Dave Chaiken, Saturday, November 22nd, 6pm – 8pm. Fully Vegan. Tickets coming soon, here’s a sneak peek at the menu:
Feast before the Feast
Graze
An assortment of Vegan chzes, mushrooms, veggies, and dips
First Course
Collar City Forest Floor Soup with Leeks and Dill. Crisp Cheese Cracker
Second Course
King Trumpet Millet Cake with Apple Pepper Sauce
Third Course
Collar City Mushrooms’ Stew of Many Mushrooms with Crispy leeks.
Final Course Dessert
Flammerie with Candy Cap mushroom
Mushroom Experience Dinner Featuring Chef Jake Robins, Saturday, December 13th, 6pm – 8pm. Tickets and menu coming soon.
Collar City Mushrooms 