Build an Urban Mushroom Farm
Donation protected
Become a node in the mushroom network! Donate to our indoor urban mushroom farm located in Troy, New York.
Who We Are
My name is Avery, an avid mycophile since my days growing up in the Helderberg Mountains running barefoot through the woods. Amy is a mushroom lover who began growing her own Shiitake from logs in a forested plot of land in 2012. Ian is a funguy who has been enamoured with fungi from a young age. Ed has worked with two other local mushroom growing operations and leads professional foraging walks. Jacky is a marketing and social media guru who adores mushrooms too! We are 5 dedicated fungi lovers seeking to bring locally grown, medicinally powered, always fresh mushrooms to the 518 area.
Our Motivation
The Covid-19 crisis resulted in the loss of our various jobs and crashed the national food supply system. As any true mycophile is aware, a sudden shock can often cause the mycelium to fruit. Having been shocked ourselves, we are using our newly found free time to dedicate ourselves to improving the local food economy and providing jobs for people in the Capital Region.
What We’re Up To
We are securing a building that will be devoted to Collar City Mushrooms. It will house our grow rooms, science labs, a retail space, as well as support local community events. We will be seeking our G.A.P. (Good Agricultural Practices) certification while we fit up our grow spaces, to produce clean and ready-for-consumption mushrooms.
We will also be making various other goods from dehydrated excess mushrooms, such as seasonings and salts, and partnering with local businesses to make mushroom powered chocolates and coffees!
Our operation will grow from providing local, fresh mushrooms, to having our own retail space for mushroom enthusiasts and hobby cultivators, to housing a mycological education center and cafe where you’ll be able to have exclusive dining experiences, as well as a casual cup of mushroom infused tea or coffee.
It is our dream to not only provide culinarily tasty mushrooms, but also to teach others about the life cycle and environmentally impactful benefits of mushroom cultivation. Hosting school trips and doing in-class lessons will be part of this phase of our business.
How Your Donations Will Help
With your donations we will be able to accelerate our opening timeline and be serving the community by early October! Anyone that donates to help our mycelium to grow will receive our undying gratitude, a small boost of serotonin knowing you helped support the development of the local food economy, and:
Subsequent levels will receive all lower donation awards as well as their donation tier (except for the Fresh Mushroom Pickup levels of Lion’s Mane and Chanterelle, 5lbs replaces 1 lb) .
$1 - $9 Button: Your name on our wall of Mycelial Supporters (an actual physical art piece which will be showcased in our retail space)
$10 - $24 Portobello: Vinyl sticker with our logo on it
$25 - $49 Oyster: A digital version of our Mushroom Coloring Collection (Hard copies will be available for purchase at our retail space when we open)
$50 - $74 Lion’s Mane: FRESH MUSHROOM PICKUP: Up to 1 lb of mushrooms / month for 12 months from direct pickup at our farm (as soon as they are available - you will be notified when mushrooms are available) (anticipated October 2020 - October 2021)
$75 - $124 Grifola: Tote bag with CCM logo
$125 - $499 Porcini: Invite to attend one of our upcoming forage walks
$500 - $999 Chanterelle: FRESH MUSHROOM PICKUP: Up to 5lbs of mushrooms / month for 12 months direct pickup at our farm (as soon as they are available - you will be notified when mushrooms are ready) 5 lbs replaces the 1lb of Mushrooms from the Lion’s Mane level. (anticipated October 2020 - October 2021)
$1000 + Armillaria Ostoyae: For our largest donors you will not only receive all of the previously listed awards, you will also receive a $50 gift certificate to be used in our retail space once we open (Expected in early 2021: items can be shipped for non-local donors, shipping cost to be calculated at time of sale) AND you will get 4 passes for our curated intimate dining experiences (expected to start in late 2021 or early 2022): a value anticipated to be $400!
If we raise $5,000, we’ll be able to double the amount of grow rooms for the initial set up and produce many more fresh mushrooms every week.
If we raise $10,000, we’ll be able to put a significant downpayment on the purchase of a delivery vehicle to ensure rapid distribution of local fresh mushrooms.
If we raise $20,000, we’ll be able to expand production further, purchase higher quality packaging for our fresh mushrooms, and create classroom kits for mycology visits to local schools.
Any money in excess of $20,000 will go towards the new vehicle purchase or will roll into our first year of operating expenses and will go a long way towards ensuring the sustainable growth of Collar City Mushrooms.
For more information:
Follow us on Instagram as collar_city_mushrooms
Like us on Facebook: Collar City Mushrooms
Or visit our website: www.collarcitymushrooms.com
Fill out our brief mushroom questionnaire to tell us what kinds of mushrooms interest you and get your name on our newsletter mailing list:
Collar City Mushroom Interest Questionnaire
Who We Are
My name is Avery, an avid mycophile since my days growing up in the Helderberg Mountains running barefoot through the woods. Amy is a mushroom lover who began growing her own Shiitake from logs in a forested plot of land in 2012. Ian is a funguy who has been enamoured with fungi from a young age. Ed has worked with two other local mushroom growing operations and leads professional foraging walks. Jacky is a marketing and social media guru who adores mushrooms too! We are 5 dedicated fungi lovers seeking to bring locally grown, medicinally powered, always fresh mushrooms to the 518 area.
Our Motivation
The Covid-19 crisis resulted in the loss of our various jobs and crashed the national food supply system. As any true mycophile is aware, a sudden shock can often cause the mycelium to fruit. Having been shocked ourselves, we are using our newly found free time to dedicate ourselves to improving the local food economy and providing jobs for people in the Capital Region.
What We’re Up To
We are securing a building that will be devoted to Collar City Mushrooms. It will house our grow rooms, science labs, a retail space, as well as support local community events. We will be seeking our G.A.P. (Good Agricultural Practices) certification while we fit up our grow spaces, to produce clean and ready-for-consumption mushrooms.
We will also be making various other goods from dehydrated excess mushrooms, such as seasonings and salts, and partnering with local businesses to make mushroom powered chocolates and coffees!
Our operation will grow from providing local, fresh mushrooms, to having our own retail space for mushroom enthusiasts and hobby cultivators, to housing a mycological education center and cafe where you’ll be able to have exclusive dining experiences, as well as a casual cup of mushroom infused tea or coffee.
It is our dream to not only provide culinarily tasty mushrooms, but also to teach others about the life cycle and environmentally impactful benefits of mushroom cultivation. Hosting school trips and doing in-class lessons will be part of this phase of our business.
How Your Donations Will Help
With your donations we will be able to accelerate our opening timeline and be serving the community by early October! Anyone that donates to help our mycelium to grow will receive our undying gratitude, a small boost of serotonin knowing you helped support the development of the local food economy, and:
Subsequent levels will receive all lower donation awards as well as their donation tier (except for the Fresh Mushroom Pickup levels of Lion’s Mane and Chanterelle, 5lbs replaces 1 lb) .
$1 - $9 Button: Your name on our wall of Mycelial Supporters (an actual physical art piece which will be showcased in our retail space)
$10 - $24 Portobello: Vinyl sticker with our logo on it
$25 - $49 Oyster: A digital version of our Mushroom Coloring Collection (Hard copies will be available for purchase at our retail space when we open)
$50 - $74 Lion’s Mane: FRESH MUSHROOM PICKUP: Up to 1 lb of mushrooms / month for 12 months from direct pickup at our farm (as soon as they are available - you will be notified when mushrooms are available) (anticipated October 2020 - October 2021)
$75 - $124 Grifola: Tote bag with CCM logo
$125 - $499 Porcini: Invite to attend one of our upcoming forage walks
$500 - $999 Chanterelle: FRESH MUSHROOM PICKUP: Up to 5lbs of mushrooms / month for 12 months direct pickup at our farm (as soon as they are available - you will be notified when mushrooms are ready) 5 lbs replaces the 1lb of Mushrooms from the Lion’s Mane level. (anticipated October 2020 - October 2021)
$1000 + Armillaria Ostoyae: For our largest donors you will not only receive all of the previously listed awards, you will also receive a $50 gift certificate to be used in our retail space once we open (Expected in early 2021: items can be shipped for non-local donors, shipping cost to be calculated at time of sale) AND you will get 4 passes for our curated intimate dining experiences (expected to start in late 2021 or early 2022): a value anticipated to be $400!
If we raise $5,000, we’ll be able to double the amount of grow rooms for the initial set up and produce many more fresh mushrooms every week.
If we raise $10,000, we’ll be able to put a significant downpayment on the purchase of a delivery vehicle to ensure rapid distribution of local fresh mushrooms.
If we raise $20,000, we’ll be able to expand production further, purchase higher quality packaging for our fresh mushrooms, and create classroom kits for mycology visits to local schools.
Any money in excess of $20,000 will go towards the new vehicle purchase or will roll into our first year of operating expenses and will go a long way towards ensuring the sustainable growth of Collar City Mushrooms.
For more information:
Follow us on Instagram as collar_city_mushrooms
Like us on Facebook: Collar City Mushrooms
Or visit our website: www.collarcitymushrooms.com
Fill out our brief mushroom questionnaire to tell us what kinds of mushrooms interest you and get your name on our newsletter mailing list:
Collar City Mushroom Interest Questionnaire
Fundraising team: Collar City Mushrooms (6)
Avery Stempel
Organizer
Raised $2,710 from 36 donations
Troy, NY
AMY HOOD
Team member
Raised $870 from 7 donations
Kathy Stempel
Team member
Raised $500 from 1 donation
Mark Armstrong
Team member
Raised $50 from 1 donation
Ian Longthon
Team member
Raised $10 from 1 donation
