Chris Parker: The Man behind the Mushrooms Part 1
Meet Chris Parker, co-founder of The Forest Farmacy, and a positive almanac on all thing’s fungi!
Chris originates from Western North Carolina and is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. He has spent his life in the mountains and forests of North Carolina growing mushrooms, making medicine, learning about plants and creating a successful online mushroom cultivation business.
Now he has turned his hand to sharing his knowledge with fungi enthusiasts, people interested in the medicinal properties of the amazing mushroom, and anyone that wants to grow or learn about this incredible kingdom we share our lives with.
Chris hopes to bring many different fungi varieties to the wood of his home at The Forest Farmacy. He also wishes to share this home with others and build a community where fungi growers and enthusiasts can learn from each other.
He starts by sharing where it all began for him, fungi-wise.
What sparked your interest in Fungi?
Aged 5, in Hope Well, near Cherry Mountain in North Carolina, Chris played in a deep gully near his house. Overlooking the gully was a ridge of young pine tree. It was here, in the soft needle carpet that Chris had his first encounter with mushrooms:
There was “a whole mass coming out the ground, literally the next day I go down there....they went from a lump on the ground into this tall mushroom and I was just amazed they changed that fast. It seemed like it was four feet tall to me...it was very striking.”
The mushrooms were a cluster of Destroying Angels. The sight of these beautiful but deadly mushrooms touched something deep inside Chris the child, which he carried with him into his teenage years and beyond.
Chris got to reignite and deepen his interest in high-school when he took a course as part of the FFA – Future Farmers of America program - where he learnt about farming mushrooms. He was fascinated by the idea of “seeding something and getting those crops over a long period of time” as mushrooms can keep giving for 5 -10 years after inoculation. From there his journey continued and by the age of 15 he was cultivating his own.
What is your favorite thing about mushrooms/fungi?
“ My favourite thing...is their ability to adapt and their ability to create different compounds, medicinal compounds mainly”
Chris has many favourite things about fungi. Cutting them down into a list was no easy task! As well as adaptability and medicinal compounds, Chris talks passionately about the mushrooms ability to break down toxins, and the possibility that “these beings” maybe able to help humans clean up the mess we have made of our world.
Why do you want to teach others how to work with mushrooms?
Chris is clearly dedicated to getting the mushroom message out there for many reasons. He talks about the power of fungi:
“fungi are master chemists – once you introduce something to a mushroom it will work and work and work to make enzymes to break it down so it can use it as a food source, or so it is not harmful to their environment,”
And that it is important people can have strains from their own bioregion. He wishes to empower people to be more self-sufficient and to grow food for their communities in their communities.
His knowledge sharing is also a rallying cry to the scientific community, a desire to create a diverse and rich pool of people and therefore knowledge around mushrooms and fungi so we can start to really understand their benefits to our world. Maybe then we will start treating them with the respect they deserve.
Chris wants to share his knowledge and teach “so other people can experiment, we need a lot of different eyes on mycology. The more people we get involved the more perspectives we can have, and the science can move forward.”
Next week Chris will share his ideas about why growing your own is so important and tips and ideas about what to do with mushrooms when you have them.