In this moment I am grateful for the Monday morning abundance and friendly volunteers at the Tavistock Community Fridge and for the warmth of the library which is my office for the day.
Feels good to be back in the office and sharing some more news and stories with you. On Saturday I ventured back into Plymouth for the first time since my gears broke and went on a mission to connect with some people. I spent a couple of days there for the first time since I moved down to this part of the country and found some amazing places, met some lovely folk and got really inspired by all the opportunities I saw to offer my work there. I decided to go retreat to the moor for a bit of rest and integration time before heading back to continue the adventure recharged but my gears broke and I wasn’t able to go back.
On Saturday I visited Farleys Food Coop where I had a lovely chat with one of their customers and treated myself to a discounted loaf of rye sourdough from Heyl Bakery which is very tasty, with a noticeable sour edge which I appreciate. I get a bit disappointed by how little sour flavour I get from a lot of sourdough bread. Could definitely be more sour for my tastes though 🙂
I also dropped into the Buddha Hut coffee shop to say hi and had a lovely connection with Joe who started that business. They’ve recently moved from their first location to a very spacious premises on Cornwall Street. They serve CBD infused coffees and a range of other food, drink and other CBD based products. I have a deep connection with the beautiful Cannabis plant, from which CBD is extracted, so I’m grateful for a space where I can go hang out with folk who share that connection. I was very grateful to Joe for taking me over to visit The Little Hemp Shop’s stall, in the undercover market opposite Buddha Hut, when we discovered we all have a passion for both cannabis and mushrooms. The Little Hemp Shop sells some medicinal mushroom products and Joe seems interested in incorporating mushrooms into what he is offering. That got me dreaming into what opportunities there are for collaboration. I felt like both these businesses are coming from a place of wanting to collaborate for mutual benefit and that really excited me. Buddha Hut serve the coffee that The Little Hemp Shop produce and they both signpost customers to the other business which feels like a really lovely way to do things and definitely the approach I want to cultivate with The Lovely Fungus Company. I’d like to carry on building connections with these businesses (and their humans) and I’m curious to see where that leads us.
Other news is that I have started putting together some offerings related to mushroom cultivation so if that is something you’d like to get involved with or know more about then please do send me a message and keep looking back at the ‘Offerings‘ page.
I’m also considering doing a pre-sale of fresh oyster and/or shiitake mushrooms that can be purchased now and will be delivered in September 2022 (that’s this year). I did a small experiment with this when I was working on Megys Orth Fungi and it went really well so I’m wondering whether to do it again on a bigger scale. By getting the money now and having until September to deliver the product I would gain access to the money now, at a time when money is a resource that I have very little of and none coming in currently. Having the foundation of enough cash to cover my basic needs (I live simply and relatively cheaply) would enable me to focus on building this business and give myself a sustainable, actually regenerative, livelihood to support myself and others long term. Let me know if you want to help by taking up one of my offerings, telling me what I could offer you that would be of value to you or messaging me with any other offers or ideas of how to support me. Thank you in advance – you’re awesome!
Thanks for reading this and I look forward to sharing some more exciting news and stories soon. Feel free to send me your mushroom and fungi stories – that’d make my day really special.
Peace and Mush Love,
Chris Forest
🍄 The Lovely Fungus Company ❤ 