Do you know the mushroom man? Vale of Paradise Mushrooms offers fresh fungi at the Farmers Market

If you’ve visited the Seaside Farmers Market lately, it’s more than likely that you’ve seen a brand-new vendor. Vale of Paradise Mushrooms offers fresh mushrooms as well as grow kits, jerky, fresh mushrooms, medicinal options, tinctures, powders, and more. We caught up with the owners to find out how they started putting the fun into fungi.

Founder Joseph Bohler started growing mushrooms after attending the Telluride Mushroom Festival in Colorado in 2018. When he was at the fest he quickly “realized there might be a need for something like this” back home in Florida.

As he drove more than 27 hours back to Florida, he researched Mycology. He then went to El Paso, Texas, where he studied under Eric Myers of Myers Mushrooms and then Vale of Paradise was born.

Joey started selling his mushrooms at farmers markets all over the Emerald Coast, where he’s originally from. He met his bubbly girlfriend Alexis Wroten while he was a vendor at the Rosemary Beach Farmers Market and they started dating and are now business partners.

Joey explained that while it might seem difficult to grow such a variety of fungi in Florida, because they have an indoor facility it gives them options. “There’s thousands of different types of mushrooms and you can find what you want to grow indoors. Most of ours grow in a 55-degree area but otherwise you can’t grow outside here because of the bugs.”

Stop by the Seaside Farmers Market every Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm to get your ‘shroom fix, whether you’re looking to harvest your mushrooms fresh or pick up a package.