Fun Fact: I Used to Be a Mushroom Farmer! The Story of a Crazy Startup Gone Wrong

Before my dad started Chiro1Source, he subscribed to a bunch of entrepreneurship magazines. Every few months, he found a new business idea in their pages and decided to try it! He was always making or selling something exciting on top of his day job as a chiropractor, but there’s one particular venture I’ll never forget: The time he grew mushrooms.

In one of his magazines, Dad read an article about how lucrative it could be to grow gourmet culinary mushrooms and sell them to restaurants for a profit. The growing process looked easy, and there was even a number included in the article you could call for help starting your wholesale business. Dad was in — and pretty soon, our garage filled up with plastic bags, straw, and mushroom spores!

I was about 13 then, so I helped Dad oil the straw, stuff it into the spore-filled bags, and hang the bags from the garage ceiling. We poked holes in the plastic and sprayed the bags down every day to keep them moist. Pretty soon, mushrooms started to grow through the holes!

Within a few weeks, our garage looked like the set of a sci-fi movie.

Then, things went off the rails.

Dad tried to call the wholesale helpline, and it was disconnected. He couldn’t reach the company that had sold us the mushrooms, either! Unfortunately, we had to assume we’d fallen into a scammer’s trap. Since we couldn’t trust the mushrooms we’d grown — if they were part of a scam, were they even safe to eat? — we ended up hauling all the bags to the trash.

It was a pretty sad day. Fortunately, Dad isn’t a quitter. He picked himself up, dusted himself off, and went right back to the business drawing board. Eventually, he started Chiro1Source and became an entrepreneurship success!

I thought about this story recently when I stumbled upon a mushroom booth at the Boone, North Carolina, farmers market. The booth was selling mushroom-based tinctures, extractions, and a wide variety of mushrooms! I was fascinated by the options — the grower had a tincture to promote sleep, another for energy, and a third for overall well-being.

I hadn’t thought about mushrooms in years, but after that day in Boone, I started seeing them everywhere! I read in Forbes about lion’s mane mushrooms that fight cancer, reduce high blood pressure, keep blood sugar in check, and literally slow down aging. Then, I saw a cancer center talking about reishi mushrooms. Apparently, they can boost your immune system, make you stronger, increase your endurance, and even lower your cholesterol!

Mushrooms are having a moment right now, so maybe it’s no surprise they’ve made their way into chiropractics. This summer, my team added a new mushroom-based product to our lineup at Chiro1Source: a topical Pain Relief Cream from Myco Clinic made with camphor, menthol, botanical extracts, and functional mushrooms! Right now, we’re offering a great deal on a starter pack of the cream with a nice display for your lobby.

It’s funny to think that after all these years, I’m back in the mushroom business! Fortunately, this time I’ve done my research, and I know Myco Clinic is the real science-backed deal — not a magazine scam. To learn more about their Pain Relief Cream, click here!