December marked our first full year of occupying space at Indian Ladder Farms. We are so grateful for this opportunity to grow together. 2025 provided many challenges (redesigning and relearning our grow conditions in the new space) and many successes (see below). December finished with a bang!
Amy and Avery attended the NY Farm Bureau State Convention and introduced a few more mushroom specific policies. These were all accepted after a few rounds of discussion and a brand new mushroom specific section has been created. The Farm Bureau team put together a great one pager of all the policies (see way below).
Amy and Avery attended the Cornell Small Farms Mushroom Farmer Summit in Manhattan the day after the Farm Bureau Convention concluded. Avery was able to update everyone on the progress towards legal psilocybin use and advocated for everyone to look into joining the Farm Bureau.
Someone from our team is at the indoor Troy Waterfront Farmers Market every weekend. The winter market is in the Atrium building between 3rd and 4th streets in downtown Troy. Stop by 9am to 2pm.
We tried out a new grain supplier from Maryland called Baltispore! After having some grain spawn issues we are trying out a few other suppliers and starting agar work again. We also started rebuilding our grain run arc in order to be more self reliant in 2026.
The Indian Ladder Farm store held some open house sampling days during December. We served up a different type of mushroom dish every session. Look for these next year as they were very well received!
We started getting our Golden Enoki in. These tall stringy shrooms are perfect for soups and stews, but also saute well (very quickly)!
The Cidery and Brewery Tasting room started up their own food service for the last two months of the year. Options included our Autumn Harvest Soup and a grilled cheese
Check out this really cool research article about growing mycelium batteries!
2025 in reflection:
Mary Banning Opening Exhibit
Foraged New York Year 4
Adirondack Experience
NYS Assembly Health Committee Hearing
Troy Farmers Market
Bolete-topia
Farm Bureau Policy Section
Re-establishing our mushroom experience dinners
Rebuilding our mushroom production team
Goals for 2026:
Build out and activate Mr Blue Sky (our second grow container)
Bring back our poetry series (4th Sunday of every month at 3pm in the ILFCB Tasting Room
Host at least 1 art show at Indian Ladder Farms
Foraged New York year 5
Cornell Cooperative Extension research: growing on Black Walnut Shells, and using Apple Pomace as substrate.
Additional Farm Share deliveries
Continue Saturday Troy Farmers Market
PSILOCYBIN CORNER
2025 was an incredible year for our psilocybin advocacy. A new bill was introduced in both the senate and assembly (S5303 / A2142: essentially Advised independent home use). The NYS Assembly Committee on Health held a 5 hour long hearing on psilocybin as a potential healing tool. We held another lobby day at the Capitol, Meetings resumed in person at Indian Ladder Farms with incredible guest speakers, and we connected with the Microdosing Collective to host some educational and fundraising dinners in New York City. David Gustina from WAMC’s Capitol Connections hosted Avery twice for updates, and we were featured on dozens of radio programs, TV news clips, and articles. Avery talked about the NYMHA efforts during the mushroom farmer summit hosted by Cornell Cooperative Extension Small Farms and got some more farmer support for the movement to legalize psilocybin access. We’ll be forming an organized alliance of New York farmers. 2026 is lining up to be an incredible year.
In December NYMHA partnered with the Microdosing Collective to host a second dinner. Check out the summary reel on INSTAGRAM .
Avery was interviewed by Nate Hackle for the podcast ‘The Search for the Shift’ through the Altered States Alliance. We talked about the efforts in New York to create legal access for psilocybin-containing mushrooms. Watch it HERE .
We featured Chelsea Coyle as our monthly meeting guest speaker. She told us about her journey to find healing and how she discovered the effectiveness of substances that promote neural plasticity.
NYMHA Monthly Meeting Dec 2025 Featuring Chelsea Coyle
We were finally able to publish a wonderful promo video that we’ve been working on for the last year or so. Mostly recorded before A2142 / S5303 were introduced.
Assembly Member Amy Paulin and former New Yorker Ranger Daniel Carcillo wrote an opinion piece that was published in the Times Union called “Breaking the Trauma Cycle.”
If you subscribe to the TU you can read it online HERE.
Here are some very interesting articles that came out recently:
From April, 2025, about people using psilocybin to treat fibromyalgia:
A longer article on psilocybin use for mental health based on the legal treatment centers and research facilities in Colorado.
Here are two articles about legislation moving in states around New York. The Northeast Alliance for Psychedelic Access has been meeting monthly and discussing ways to share resources and how to prevent out-of state investors and interested parties from co-opting the efforts of our various grassroots campaigns.
Legislation moving forward in Massachusetts.
Legislation moving forward in New Jersey.
COMING SOON
New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives Monthly Meeting, Tuesday, January 13th 7pm – 8pm. This monthly meeting will be fully on zoom. We’ll discuss some of the things we have planned for 2026 and talk about successes and challenges in the states around us.
Join remotely via zoom here:
Mushroom Experience Dinner Featuring Chef Kate Ray, Saturday, January 17th, 5:30pm – 7:30pm. Tickets available now! DINNER WILL BE AT THE HELDERBERG MOUNTAIN BREWING COMPANY TASTING ROOM IN EAST BERNE.
Mushroom Experience Dinner Featuring Chef Dave Chaiken, Saturday, February 14th, 5:30pm – 7:30pm. Tickets and menu coming soon. Visit our EVENTBRITE page for details. Dinner will be served in the Tasting Room at Indian Ladder Farms.
Mushroom Experience Dinner Featuring Chef Ric Orlando, Saturday, March 21st, 5:30pm – 7:30pm. Tickets and menu coming soon. Dinner will be served in the Clear Mountain Room at Indian Ladder Farms.
Collar City Mushrooms 
Beautiful and informative newsletter. Love all the photos
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