About Us

After graduating high school together, Dillon spent a few years serving in the Army National Guard and training in Water Treatment. In that time, Emily earned her degree in Integrative Biology from UC Berkeley. Both were interested in eventually working within their community and finding new ways to improve the health of themselves and those around them.  When they moved to Cool in the summer of 2019, Emily and Dillon began the preparations to establish their indoor mushroom farm. Their time was spent building the walk-in cooler, incubation room, laboratory and waterproof grow room - where the humidity is kept up to 90%! In the summer of 2020, Dillon began selling his first harvest of gourmet mushrooms at local farmers’ markets. Soon, Cool Mushroom Farm began selling out at the markets and the demand for their product continued to increase. Farm stands, farm-to-fork restaurants and grocery stores began reaching out to place wholesale orders. Since then, Cool Mushroom Farm has increased production and is now growing at their capacity of producing over 100 pounds of fresh mushrooms weekly.  Now, Dillon grows gourmet mushrooms full time, and Emily teaches Biology at Oak Ridge High School. They work many hours together building their business, working on the farm and harvesting mushrooms. Growing gourmet mushrooms was new to them, but they took the risk in order to provide their community with a fresh superfood. The varieties they grow include Lion's Mane, Black Pearl Oyster, King Blue Oyster, Chestnut and Pathfinder.  What’s their favorite way to eat them? Dillon and Emily say that most nights they add the mushrooms to a skillet with other fresh vegetables from surrounding farms.