Whether you’re opening your third eye or frying up a full English, mushrooms are incredible and mysterious beings. Foraged around the world for thousands of years, and featuring regularly on plates at the world’s best restaurants, mushrooms are a world unto their own and once you open the lid on these fungi, you’ll never look at the humble mushie the same.

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Not only are these beasties delicious, they are more closely related to humans than they are to plants, their massive underground networks may also be a means of the organisms communicating with each other via electrical impulses, and there’s growing evidence to suggest that various mushrooms species like Lion’s Mane could be a useful natural medicine for those living with ADHD and other neurodivergences. 

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When some mushrooms are exposed to ultraviolet light such as from sunlight or an ultraviolet lamp, they produce a nutritionally significant amount of Vitamin D which means you can consume the ‘sunshine’ vitamin, and plenty of groundbreaking companies around the planet are using mushroom fibres to make building mediums, soundproofing, vegan leather and insulation. 

Outside of the many environmental and health benefits of mushrooms, they’re also damn tasty treats. Someone who knows a thing or two about the wonderful world of mushrooms are the founders or urban farm, The Mushroom Guys, Adrian Acquado and Derek Novak.

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Based in the city of Perth, WA, these two are on a mission to not only produce beautiful gourmet mushrooms in a boggling amount of varieties, they’re saving the planet while they’re at it. The sawdust that Acquado and Novak use to grow their ‘shrooms are byproducts of the WA milling industry, and since their establishment in 2018, the pair have been diverting almost 30 tons of sawdust annually.

Vibrantly hued yellow, pink and blue oyster mushrooms are some of the Mushroom Guys’ most popular offerings but they’re far from the end of the list. Swordbelt, coral tooth, shiitake and the dramatically named scaly flamecap are also in high demand for the duo whose produce has been recognised for excellence when they were named as finalists in the 2023 Harvey Norman delicious. Produce Awards.