September 25, 2015

Our 10 Days at a Mushroom Farm

What goes on in a mushroom farm? And of all the possibilities, how the hell do you decide to get into this field?

Like most things we’ve found in our travels, is that people are figuring things out as they go. For the most part, everything just seems to happen “organically,” so to speak.

We arrived in cloud-covered Germany, finally wearing pants, after months in the Asian sun and the Turkish heat waves. We were excited to start our third Workaway volunteer experience. We met our host, Sander, a very hard-working, father of three from Holland who is now living in Germany for the past 10 years. He’s been running a mushroom farm, OfflingerPilzHof, with the help of a few volunteers, some temporary employees, and the children running around but at the end of the day, he’s still the last man standing at the farm. We couldn’t help but ask him how this all started.

It started out with Sander going to school for organic-dynamic agriculture. He bumped into the idea that he could perhaps grow a few mushrooms on the side and sell them to restaurants as a source of extra cash in his pocket to help support his family. And he did this all-the-while maintaining a full-time job at a factory.

He began by growing mushrooms off fallen logs at his in-laws home, but it quickly became clear that growing mushrooms the natural way would be slow and there are other farming practices that are way more practical. So he invested in a property in Oberofflingen and set up a system of growing stations in his barn. But this wasn’t an ordinary barn, it had previously been a slaughter house. Before he could start growing mushrooms he had to completely renovate the property with supplementary heating/humidifying systems and sanitize the entire place because mushrooms need sterilized environments.

Once he had things up and running and King Oyster and Shiitake mushrooms to sell, Sander would drive 200 kms to deliver 10kgs of mushrooms. It was exhausting and not efficient! His creative necessity kicked in and he found he could find dealers who would come to his house and then sell his product to big night markets. Well demand became bigger, as a result so did the farm!

So this guy with a wife, three kids and a full-time job decided to put the work in and floored it until the mushroom farm income replaced his full-time job. Five years of hard, deliberate work and a large investment — he was able to quit his job and focus on his other priorities.

Sander and his family have built this organic, sustainable system of fungus friendly food and is now in the works of expanding. It all comes at a cost though. It really is an integrated way to live. You eat, work and as we’ve realized — dream about mushrooms when you’re at OfflingerPilzHof. There’s the highs and the lows of being a business owner especially when it impedes your work-life balance. But if you can get a handle on that balance the reward from doing your own thing and giving something awesome back to the world gives a person real purpose – so ‘Prost’ to that!

Understanding the story of a person moving to a new country and giving there all is a tale told time and time again. Paulina’s parents have even done it when they packed up the kids and moved from Poland to Canada with little to nothing. We think packing up and going is a great opportunity because you have no identity anymore, you have no comfort zone, now you’ve crossed into new territory and your life’s dimensions change.

I’m sure you can relate when a new scenario comes into your life and the persona (that mask you’re usually wearing) changes instantly. Maybe you’re a wallflower expected to give a speech at your sister’s wedding, or you’re the quiet, shy guy on the hockey team. We put on a mask for different scenarios and that’s okay! It’s not that you’re not being yourself, it’s just showing one of the many personalities that we all have.

We are creatures of adaptability, our abilities as human beings show so much more when you are placed in unfamiliar territory. Our self awareness kicks in and we function out of our zone of boredom.

If you wanna see what you are capable of, structure your life in a way that it puts you in a corner and see how hard you start swinging; see how hard you fight back. I’m sure you can think better, cope with more, and be able to take action on your ideas more than you ever thought you could.

This is an example of how external scenario’s can really turn a piece of coal into a diamond. Putting a little pressure in some areas of your life will give you the raw juices you need to thrive.

It’s almost a misuse of life if we are confined to our own worlds and stop exploring and discovering. Like Henry David Thoreau says:

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them”.

Make a deal with yourself in some area of your life to put on a different mask, to go learn something you will remember forever. Examples are all around us, Sander was one of them for us and we’re happy to be reminded once again. So play your music loud, until the record stops.

That’s what we’re attempting to do on our thirst for first journey.