Meet the Producer - Alex Felix (Earthrising Mushrooms)
At Lyttleton Stores we’re passionate about connecting customers and producers, so that we all have access to fresh, seasonal, locally produced, organic produce. We work hard to building genuine and mutually supportive relationships with local farmers. And there are few things we love more than seeing new and exciting producers emerge and contribute to our local growing landscape!
Earthrising Mushrooms⤻ is a low-tech mushroom farm based in the Blue Mountains, focusing on producing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms for the local community.
They also develops growing kits, and run workshops to educate more people to grow their own mushrooms at home and join the mushroom revolution! And their mushrooms are now available in Lyttleton Stores!
Self-portrait - Finalist in the Blue Mountains Portrait Competition
Who are you and what do you farm?
My name is Alex Felix, I was born in France and grew up just outside of Paris. In my 20s I lived in Berlin where I was able to develop my artistic sensitivity, expressing myself in different mediums such as painting, sculpture, ceramic, and anything else that attracted my curiosity. This is also where I met my partner who is Australian, and we decided to move to Australia just 2 years ago. I was in need of nature and big spaces, avoiding life in cities with all the stress that comes with it... Moving to Australia was part of a big shift in my life. At the same time as my move to Australia I also became a father, this coincided with a new passion and business I have never done before : give life to mushrooms!
What do you most enjoy about farming?
Having my hands dirty! I spent too many years behind a computer, playing games, learning things and even working... The fact is that to have direct contact with organic matter is such a primitive and therapeutic feeling, to heal wounds that modern society leaves within us all. In mushroom farming I especially really enjoy how many different activities happen within the same goal of growing mushrooms: Working in the lab with spores is very interesting, then I move on to creating the substrate and sterilize it; then I inoculate it with spores and let the mycelium do his thing before the mushroom fruits.
Mushroom farming is also very exciting because it opens many doors to other sectors with a lot of potential for the future, mushrooms are used in so many ways these days. For example: in medicine, thanks to all of their medicinal compounds and benefits for our health. Another more surprising use is in architecture and the construction sector. By using mycelium bricks to build structures you can even create furniture and design objects in mushroom mycelium. Mushrooms are delicious and good for us, but they can also be a very versatile product that can be a solution to many problems.
What do the Blue Mountains mean to you?
Coming from Europe, where everything is overpopulated, too many people crowded into small spaces, too many cities and buildings and not enough nature. I feel that living here in the Blue Mountains has allowed us breath, to stretch, to see the endless glorious bush and horizon. We can be more aware about the environment where we live because of its diversity and vastness. The Blue Mountains is a nature sanctuary where humans don't dominate, in fact the opposite is true! This fact in comparison to where I was born and grew up is what makes the Blue Mountains special to me.
Who or what inspires you to work in farming?
I grew up in cities and over the last 7 years my curiosity to learn more about how we grow food increased year by year. One day I finally had my own garden to experiment with and this is where I started to learn, and naturally I came across permaculture practices and couldn't stop until I had learned about how everything is intertwined and works together. I was fascinated about how easy growing things are when you know what you are doing, and then from permaculture to mushroom farming was just the next intuitive step in my journey. I just followed my instinct and went deep diving into it, and here I am.