Gather ye round children of the internet and listen to this tale;

of Maria, made of mycelium, and with a Raven’s heart, leaving spores wherever her path leads,

of fantastic fungal friends: Lion’s manes, Hens of the Wood, Black Trumpets and a host of other charismatic fruiting bodies,

and of Tyler, a man who grew his own giant mushroom, and made a shop out of it. 
 

 Issue #17: A Kingdom of Their Own

Life as we know it wouldn’t exist without fungi. 

They are as important as any other piece of the puzzle we call Earth, but for a long time science underestimated that importance, sweeping fungi under the plant kingdom. 

Mushrooms became a kingdom of their own in 1969, the same year mycology, the study of fungi, was born and the same year a human landed on the moon. 

There is still so much we don’t know about fungi. Which is exciting news, there’s a whole fungal world out there to learn about and explore. 

Yet, we still focus on and understand flora and fauna, much more than funga. 

Although mushrooms are starting to pop up into the spotlight, fungal fanaticism is catching on and you can see it in mushroom folk, their passion palpable, and you can see it in a small store in Somerville, Massachusetts.

But to talk about all that we have to talk about-

i. spores

I spent a lot of my life knowing, but one mushroom. The simple white-ish, grayish mushroom. 

Over decades I only learned of a handful of other kinds. 

For context there are about 14,000 described species in the world. A small percentage of these are safe to eat, (4-5%) and even less are poisonous (2%). 

And they all start out as microscopic specs. 

In this kingdom life starts with spores, tiny particles that allow fungi to reproduce. They drift down like snow and are carried off by passing wind. Spores will go on to produce complex subterranean webs that bear enigmatic fruit.

They’re so small you can’t see them until they begin to pile up by the thousands, like a snow drift, but instead of snowflakes, it’s single cells. Each mushroom produces billions of spores. 

And I think a few arrived in my life and took root. 

When I met Maria Pinto (Craterellus coraxia).

Maria is a talented writer and avid mycophile who I consider a good friend. She’s taken me out on my first ever foraging experience and was the first person to tell me about “the Shop.”

Maria is a huge part of the inspiration for this story and a reason I have begun to understand mushrooms and their wonders.

I love this idea that inspiration is like spores, we can pass it to one another or find ourselves catching it on a gust of wind. 

I’m grateful to Maria for her myco-introduction and for the passion and knowledge she continues to spread, like so many spores.

Speaking of which I asked Maria for some facts that might open your eyes to the wonders of the fungal world.

Enjoy:

in a ~teaspoon~ of healthy forest soil, there can be around 6 miles of fungi.

fungi are both world-makers and world dismantlers—more than 90% of plants depend on a fungal partner to become one with their roots and supply them with nutrients and protect them from pathogens--this makes fungi a more fundamental aspect of planthood than fruit, flowers, leaves.

evolutionarily, fungi are more closely related to animals than they are to plants

one of europe’s oldest naturally preserved mummies, otzi the iceman, had two polypore mushrooms in his backpack (he may have used them as tinder, medicine, and a strop)

mushrooms grow on every continent

there’s an estimated 3 million plus species of fungi in existence, of which only a little under 150,000 have been named by science. to put that into perspective, there are a little under 400,000 species of plant

fungi do everything from remake soil after fires, partner with photosynthesizers to make them effectively immortal, hijack the nervous systems of animals to puppeteer them and make them into spore vectors, terraform infertile earth to make it able to sustain life, etc.

that’s not the only mind-blowing spore fact—fungi in the genus Pilobulus have sporangia that can go from 0-45 mph in the first milliliter of their flight. Ganoderma applanatum (the artist’s conk) can release 30 ~billion~ spores a day throughout the year

ii. mycelium

Mushrooms are a way to look at and experience the world differently. 

They can take you off of life’s trail into the less seen corners of the forest, where the unexpected awaits.

When you start out anything new, it’s an exercise in diving into an ocean of the unknown. It can be scary, and you will need some time and determination to understand. 

It’s all alien at first.

Then you begin to understand the binomial nomenclature (one fun party game is to see how quickly you can work this phrase into a conversation) and you feel like a mushroom-mad scientist, it’s quite fun. 

One day on a walk through the woods with your Dad you spot the orange signal of a Chicken-of-the-woods, you harvest some, take it home and try it together. It’s tasty, and even better is the experience: walking into nature and finding food to enjoy with people you love. It’s the type of shit you wish you could experience your whole life. 

Maybe it’s how things are meant to be. 

Things progress until you find yourself sniffing the breeze for cinnamon and gym socks, the smell of the mysterious Matsutake (Tricholoma matsutake). 

There’s so much I don’t know about mushrooms and I’ll never know it all, but you can certainly still enjoy the ride.

Life’s like that.

What you see and think you understand is often a small part of much larger story.

As with mycelium. 

Mycelium is a network of fungal threads known as hyphae. It is the mycelium and their ever-reaching hyphae that break down the soil for nutrients. It is a crucial and massive part of life on Earth. 

The largest part of fungi lie underground, a root-like web that constantly reaches outward and expands.

There’s even a Honey Mushroom (Armillaria ostoyae) with a mycelial network that spreads across 10 square miles, making it the largest organism on the planet. 

Mushrooms emerge after the mycelium finds itself stuck, out of space or nutritional sources, it starts to save energy and nutrients and when the time is right, they pop up.  Often a catalyst is needed: a change in temperature or life-giving rain. 

So, if spores are inspiration then they grow and interweave and take sustenance until they become something much more huge and beautiful: an idea. 

Years ago mushrooms found Tyler Akabane (Semper inquisitione). And his life was changed. His spark moment, the moment the spores took root, were when he found a huge stand of morels on his college campus. He began foraging, his skill grew, he took in knowledge..energy was stored, and then a pandemic hit and a mushroom delivery business fruited, a precursor to what was to emerge next…

The Mushroom Shop (Fungus tabernum edulis)

iii. fruiting bodies

If Tyler’s love and passion for mushrooms were mycelium, they would be a huge wave of webs, fruiting into a beautiful little mushroom shop, all red and gold. 

In the same way that spores lead to mycelium which give us mushrooms:

inspiration can lead to ideas which can fruit into reality. 

Your mushroom can be anything. 

After years of learning from fungi, the fruit of Tyler’s idea is a place of whimsy, one that bears the wonders and gifts of mushrooms for all to see. It’s a welcoming place, with charming people who are prepared to help you see what fungi have to offer. 

And in that way the shop keeps giving. It spreads the wonder of mushrooms to all who enter the Shop. And sometimes those little inspirational spores find homes with people.

They did with me. 

And from the inspiration of Maria and the ideas and fun brought into my life at the Shop, there fruited a project. 

This one.

The following is an adapted version of the pitch I sent to editors:

Tyler Akabane and the Mushroom Shop have brought parts of the natural world to the city of Somerville.

The Mushroom Shop specializes in culinary mushrooms and mushroom-items. The Shop’s fungal selection is made up of cultivated fungi from local and nationwide farms, and foraged selections which arrive to Somerville directly from the natural world. 

Mushrooms represent a mysterious and enigmatic kingdom. Neither plant nor animals, fungi have a variety of nefarious reputations such as: they are poisonous and they are psychedelic, both of which can be true, but in smaller percentages. 

Similarly the percentage of mushrooms considered “choice” is low, about 4-5%. But the ones that are, can be downright delicious. 

The clientele include high end restaurants, local, devoted fungal fanatics, and hopefully, a new audience who previously had no means of diving into the wonderful world of fungi. 

As ever more natural spaces are lost it becomes increasingly important to find ways to connect with our environment, especially to those who have less access to the wonders of the natural world. The Mushroom Shop offers a gateway to a mysterious and wonderful kingdom, one full of amazing flavors, medicinal benefits and names such as: Lion’s Mane, Black Trumpet, and Chicken-of-the-Woods. 

The whimsical store and its passionate staff are happy to remind customers that “all mushrooms are magical.” 

These photos, this newsletter, this project, they’re all mushrooms that grew from the spores brought into my life by amazing people and the wonder of nature. 

The Shop itself is full to its mushrooomy gills with character, but what really makes it a magical place is the people. The staff Celine, Mady, Liam, Octavia, Robin, and Tyler who are genuinely themselves, and that’s infectious. 

It’s in the air like spores and it’s lovely. I wish everyone could work like that. 

Since hearing about the Mushroom Shop I’ve been enamored with the idea that there’s a store bringing fungi to a community that may not have otherwise accessed it. I still am. But what made me love this story is the life in the shop itself, and it’s from the people, the decorations, the notes of mushrooms in the air. 

I realized the other day that the photos from the shop, when grouped together as a project, remind me of a children’s book, and I couldn’t think of a higher compliment for this story. 

The Shop, like many places has been a point for people to connect like hyphae as we drift through space on this giant rock, what’s magical about what the Shop does, is that it’s tapping into one the areas, the kingdoms, in life that are still relatively shrouded in mystery, and it’s shedding light and spreading fungal joy.

Thank you to: 

The Good Folks at the Shop 

Tyler (Semper inquisitione)

Robin (Tremella polymorpha)

Octavia (Octavicybe bennoides)

Liam (Boletus sensilibis)

Mady (Blazillaria bombycina)

Celine (Radulomyces copelandil)

Maria (Craterellus coraxia)

And to you for reading, or looking,

 and taking some time of your precious life to be here. It’s very nice of you.

and I love you for it.

I hope these newsletters are covered in their own spores of inspiration and I hope you’re storing energy in your fungal network because that thing you’re working on, it will one day fruit. 

Love, Billy (Gymnopilus luteofolious)

-Iaritza Menjivar (Nocturnus fungurali menanjeris)

Hola, my name is Iaritza Menjivar and I am a documentary photographer and visual storyteller. Among other projects, my photography has mainly centered on documenting the experiences, pressures, and complexities of multiple generations in the immigrant community. I love how art and photography becomes a tool to enable these important conversations. The current focus of my work has been shifting towards a different but similar direction. Being a daughter of immigrants I always centered my identity around my family; now I am exploring what identity means under a different lens.

Come visit me at my studio in Washington St Art Center in Somerville, MA. Lets collaborate!

Iaritza was chosen as WBUR’s The Makers: 15 artists of color leaving an imprint on Massachusetts. She also was featured in a documentary film We Are Here Too, about women artists in Somerville.

Iaritza and I met through the woods, which is just my favorite thing. We had originally connected through our mutual adoration for Stella Johnson and I think this was the first time I had met someone in real life after already being instagram friends. How fun! 

She's an incredibly talented photographer, and I tried to come up with a latin binomial based on how well she reads and interacts with light in her work...and then she came up with the amazing one you see above.

Iaritza is a huge part of the Somerville arts community, an important role that keeps art and its magic alive for people to participate in and enjoy.  

A few year ago Iaritza had a photo exhibit in a community garden in Somerville. It was so wonderful. Iaritza's beautiful work was printed out on weather proof material and placed around a garden. 

I was enjoying art and bumble bees were dancing by, it was a revelation. 

Iaritza also let me and my family in to take a photo with a print I had in a show during off hours, the only time we could all get together, and it was so nice of her and I'm grateful for that and for participating in this. : )

Follow Iaritza on ig @iaritzamenjivar