Maya Mushrooms is a social and environmentally focused start-up which recycles spent coffee grounds, hardwood sawdust and agricultural straw by-products to grow organic gourmet mushrooms in specially converted shipping containers in Fishponds, Bristol.
We aim to provide jobs and training opportunities to less advantaged people in the local community whilst also teaching home mushroom cultivation methods and actively promoting the importance of nutrition for better physical and mental well-being to the wider community.
Founded in 2017, our mission is to supply nutritionally dense, locally grown, raw and unprocessed produce to the local marketplace whilst also creating educational and employment opportunities to disadvantaged members of society, people in education, those struggling to find work and the elderly.
We also strive to develop people’s interest in mycology and the health-promoting properties mushrooms and other raw fine foods can offer.
(in development…)
Home Gourmet Mushroom Cultivation Course
Working alongside our daily operations, we will run our online home mushroom cultivation course which will teach people the fascinating yet straightforward art of growing gourmet mushrooms in the comfort of their own homes.
This course will be made free to the unemployed, the elderly and the disabled. Profits will be used each month to support local, nature-based community engagement programmes.
We offer supported self-employment opportunities to selected graduates of our comprehensive online home mushroom cultivation course (which will remain free to the unemployed, the elderly, and the disabled). We believe this will provide a structured work foundation to those in greatest need, a stepping stone that could lead to other paid work, a career in the mushroom cultivation business (either independently or for our business) or to simply continue as a hobby to increase ones overall happiness.
Selected graduates will be offered the chance to become a ‘trusted cultivator’ for our business. We will invite them to grow mushrooms in the comfort of their own homes, giving them the option of selling any mushrooms they grow direct to our business for fixed market rates; we will later sell these mushrooms on to our customers.
Community Engagement Programmes
As part of our social aims, we offer nature-based community engagement programmes, a way for people of all ages to relax and enjoy their time outdoors, make new friends, learn new skills and develop their connection with nature. With an initial focus on fungal education and expert-led, hands-on activities, groups can spend quality time together, working for the benefit of their community, giving a sense of achievement, empowerment and self-satisfaction at the end of an enjoyable day out.
An example programme we offer would be our tree-stump recycling programme. A simple process of drilling holes in tree stumps and fallen trees, then plugging them with edible mushroom spawn (which our business would supply for free). After the fungi have colonised the tree, hundreds of kilos of fresh gourmet mushrooms will be produced for the community to harvest and enjoy, for free, for many years to come – Healthy and delicious food, grown in the wild, available for communities to enjoy for free, just as mother nature intended.
Interactive community food maps, safe fungal identification, and estimated harvest dates will all be made available on our website along with our home mushroom cultivation course and further resources being made available to those wishing to develop their knowledge.
We also look to raise awareness of fungi and fungal science at all levels through the provision of educational resources and extra-curricular activities to schools, colleges and other educational establishments.
Partnerships with Community Farms & Schools
With an eventual goal of establishing partnerships with local community farms, we aim to supply specially converted shipping containers direct to partnering farms so that they can grow mushrooms themselves, direct for sale to their customers. This will create numerous paid employment and volunteer opportunities to people within the local community whilst also providing an ongoing and guaranteed revenue stream for the community farm.
We also look to raise awareness of fungi and fungal science at all levels through the provision of educational resources and extra-curricular activities to schools, colleges and other educational establishments.
