I first heard about Life Cykel and the National Mushroom Network in late 2018 on a podcast Ryan was part of. I’d done some experimental growing of mushrooms previously so I knew a bit about the process and science behind mushroom growing.

I fell in love with the model straight away, especially the whole concept of distributed food production. This coupled with the circular economic model resonated with me big time. I believe we should tread as lightly as possible on this planet, but we always have to eat, you cannot tread much lighter than growing your own food on waste material. 

I've approached growing mushrooms as a hobby, I've been slowly ramping up production over the last six months and regularly producing a surplus on top of our family consumption. I've got a good barter arrangement going on with the local organic butcher for surplus stock. The next step for me is to link up with local shops and start marketing to the community. I've just set up Merridong Mushrooms named after the street I live in. My goal for the next is to become cost neutral where proceeds from sales cover the costs of production. It’s been great to be part of the National Mushroom Network, there’s a great online community for ideas exchange. Ryan and the team are also super supportive.  I’ve also been getting into the supplements produced by Life Cykel, especially the Lions Mane that stuff really works.