about the mushroom farmers

What first started out as cooking meals with mushrooms during their first dates grew to buying mushroom grow kits bought from hardware stores to becoming co-owners of Elsinore Mushrooms. 

Brandyn and Winnie were in a long-distance relationship for more than a year, so there were many long conversations of convincing, brainstorming, researching and a lot of daydreaming. Soon after, they started their endeavor before the pandemic started in early spring of 2020. During quarantine, they spent countless hours on experiments and continuous research in farming and cooking recipes. 

By August of 2020, Brandyn and Winnie sold their mushrooms for the first time at Old Town Farmers' Market with only several pounds of mushrooms. They are now growing and selling between 50 to 75 pounds of mushrooms for that single farmers' market every week. 

Due to their dietary restrictions, gourmet mushrooms opened a new door and world for them. Both Brandyn and Winnie live a gluten-free and plant-based lifestyle. Because other conventional mushrooms are typically grown in wheat-based or animal-based media, they experimented with other methods, containing neither. These gourmet mushrooms are simply grown from mushroom spores, wood, soy and water.

Brandyn and Winnie are now the owners, farmers and mycologists (or mad mushroom scientists) of Elsinore Mushrooms.

Although it's been only a few years since they started, they seek to bring the community together for the love and curiosity of mushrooms, inspiring others to create new recipes, adapting a healthier and sustainable lifestyle with alternative protein and reigniting their compassion for the environment.