The Holiday season is packed with festivities and so is this newsletter! We have the perfect gift idea for your fungi loving friend and introduce a new mushroom tincture. Let’s get to the good stuff. 🎁⬇️

Grow-your-own-Mushroom Kits

The perfect gift is here! Get a Grow-your-own mushroom kit while we have them! For $30, you will receive a 10 pound block of ready-to-fruit Blue Oyster mycelium with a mini instruction manual and a complementary glass misting bottle. We typically yield over 2 pounds of Blue Oysters, if not more! These kits will be available for pick up at either the Northside Farmers Market December 17th or Hyde Park Farmers Market December 21st. Please reserve your order by filling out the form linked below! You will need about 1 sq ft of counter space per mushroom block in a bright room. If you want one for yourself too, we are offering 2 blocks for $50. Fill out the Order Form below:

New Tincture Drop!

I am really excited to share our new mushroom tincture, Whole Body Harmony. This blend combines the benefits of Reishi, Maitake, Comb Tooth, and Shiitake to create a well-balanced infusion of mushroom magic for both body and mind.

Each mushroom brings its own supportive strengths—Reishi for calm and resilience, Comb Tooth for cognitive nourishment, Shiitake for organ and gut health, and Maitake for hormonal balance. Together they offer a synergistic boost that feels grounding, nourishing, and steady. We can’t wait for you to experience the whole-spectrum support of this harmonious new tincture.

Also, in the spirit of gift giving, we have a unique promo code for tincture purchases only! Show us this newsletter at the farmer’s market or use the code online for $5 off each tincture you purchase! Use the code word FUNGIDAYS and get your discount! If ordering online, we ship with USPS, so be sure to order ASAP for shipping time. Offer valid through December 31st.

Holiday’s Mushroom of the Month

In the spirit of the Holiday season, we are flying back into history to talk about a very interesting mushroom that may play a significant role in the origins of Christmas decor, Amanita Muscaria.

Often called the fly agaric, Amanita muscaria is instantly recognizable with its bright red cap and scattered white spots—an image that feels strikingly familiar when we look at classic Christmas artwork. Many historians and anthropologists have explored the theory that this mushroom may have influenced elements of holiday symbolism: from Santa’s red-and-white suit, to flying reindeer, to gifts delivered via chimney-like structures. In northern Europe and Siberia, where Amanita muscaria grows abundantly under old spruce and pine trees, Indigenous groups such as the Sámi used the mushroom in winter solstice rituals. Their shamans were known to wear red-and-white ceremonial clothing, gather the mushroom at midwinter, and enter homes through the roof or smoke hole to share spiritual visions, imagery that echoes through modern Santa folklore.

The mushroom's connection to flying reindeer is equally intriguing. Reindeer are known to seek out Amanita muscaria and exhibit lively or unusual behavior after consuming it—something Sámi herders observed for centuries. This natural interaction may have contributed to stories of magical reindeer that could leap or “fly” through the sky. Even the tradition of hanging ornaments on trees may trace back to the practice of drying Amanita caps on the boughs of evergreens to dry in the cold winter air, creating a scene nearly identical to red-and-white holiday decorations we still use today.

Beyond Christmas, Amanita muscaria shows up symbolically in other December and winter celebrations as well. In Europe, it is considered a good-luck symbol and appears frequently in New Year’s decorations, greeting cards, and charms—especially in Germany and Eastern Europe, where the red mushroom is known as a Glückspilz (“lucky mushroom”). Its striking appearance and association with protection, renewal, and the hope of brighter days ahead make it a natural fit for winter solstice celebrations across cultures. While its exact role in holiday traditions may never be proven, the Amanita muscaria continues to color the season with mystery, folklore, and a touch of ancient magic. ✨

Decorating?

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, or your own unique jubilee, you can participate in decorating within a fungi theme! Twinkle lights know no limits!

On the farm, Pete and Emalee have shaped a piece of scrap fencing into a mushroom. Then they wove twinkle lights into and through the sculpture for a sparkling outdoor eye-catcher.

If you are confined to indoor space, remember Emalee’s salt dough recipe for mushroom ornaments. You can make the dough, mold it, bake until hard then slap some paint to make it come alive. Click here for a salt dough recipe. This year, I am cutting apart the colorful egg cartons from Rich Life Farm, drawing gills and dots on the cap and gluing them onto cinnamon sticks to make another kind of mushroom decoration to attach to my garland.

If you have any festive fungi decorations, share a picture! Happy Holidays!

Partner Spotlight: Baker’s Table

If you need a break from cooking, visit Baker’s Table in Newport. Pictured is a moody outside shot of the restaurant with cozy lighting spilling out from the inviting interior. They serve high-end farm fresh food with a rotating menu to align with each season’s vegetables.

Luckily, we can grow mushrooms year-round! Currently they have a mushroom dish on the menu. Right now, they are using our mushrooms in a Canape of Kennebec chip, mushroom duxelles and creme fraiche.

There are a couple things that make Baker’s Table unique. They support local food systems, do not use any single use plastic in their kitchen, offer living wages to their staff, just released a Sourdough Cookbook and have a special Dining Club Membership for anyone to join. Interested? Visit their website.

Open for reservations or walk-ins at 5pm Wednesday - Saturday (the Holidays may affect these hours).

Farm Fun Fact

We raised some more Cornish Cross Chickens to nourish us for the next year! This second time around was more successful than the last for a couple of reasons. 1. No raccoon attacks—all, but one, chickens were healthy and grew to maturity. 2. More experience—we were much more efficient and proficient at each step of the processing. 3. Upgraded equipment—Pete souped up the enclosures making them easier to move to fresh grassy patches daily and easier to open so the chickens had more wandering room. We appreciate the life of these chickens. We took caring for them seriously, so we could give them the best life possible. 💖 Got meat?

Happy fungidays!

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