marita smith – milton mushrooms

Woodburn, NSW

I’m an author, editor, gourmet mushroom-grower and total gay-mo. I live in a tiny house on the NSW South Coast, where I write young-adult science fiction, culture bioluminescent fungi, and hang out with my donkey, Mindy.

I started Milton Mushrooms in 2014, thanks to the happy confluence of several factors: taking a gap year after finishing my science degree to vagabond around Europe working on small farms, and returning to study horticulture and work as a market gardener at a local restaurant (St Isidore). The proprietors, Jo and Alex, knew I was a huge science nerd and sent me to do a mushroom-growing course. I loved it! For me, growing mushrooms is the perfect intersection of science and permaculture.

For the first four years, I focused on growing a variety of gourmet mushrooms for farmers’ markets, selling mixed mushrooms at two markets per week. I love the colours of oyster mushrooms (white, pink, yellow) and will never get sick of fresh mushrooms sautéed with garlic and paired with scrambled eggs and parsley, nasturtiums and warrigal greens. Heaven.

Over the past two years, I’ve changed my focus to medicinal mushrooms, as I have two sisters with autoimmune diseases. It shocked me to learn that the majority of mushroom powders available in Australia aren’t grown here – they’re imported from China! I wanted to grow an Australian product that was completely dairy- and gluten-free. Medicinal mushrooms such as reishi are fantastic immune boosters with strong anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties. I now sell primarily online, shipping my locally grown medicinal mushroom powders Australia-wide!

miltonmushrooms.com.au