Mushroom Adventures began in 1996 in a San Francisco basement garage. The founder, Donald Simoni, had been growing mushrooms for over five years, when he needed more equipment: a pressure cooker that cost over $400.00. This seemed like a lot of money at the time to spend on a hobby, so Don made a few mushroom kits to sell at the local mushroom fair. Mushroom Kit sales went very well and Don earned half the money for the pressure cooker. Shortly after the San Francisco mushroom fair another mushroom fair in Santa Cruz was coming up so Don attended it and sold more mushroom kits.  So began the business, Mushroom Adventures.

A Kit Just for You

Each year Don continuously made improvements on the instructions and the manufacturing of the mushroom kits until he felt they were perfect. By talking with the customers over the sales table, Don received a good feel for what people wanted and expected out of his products. He then set out to deliver the best product he could.

By 1998, we had the first mushroom kit boxes printed. In 1999, we began wholesaling our first mushroom kits. This went well and by the year 2000, we had acquired our second wholesale account. In 2000, we out grew our basement operation and moved the production portion of our operation to Petaluma, Ca. There we had more room and we were closer to our raw materials.

Being in Petaluma afforded us more space so we acquired Emus for mascots. They are the second largest bird in the world. They weigh 130 pounds each. We hatched them in a small incubator. We started with 3 birds, but now we have 4. They have been an enjoyable pleasure and distraction from work when we need it.

Kits, Kits and More Kits

We still sell kits at fairs and special events, including wholesale, retail and mail order sales. Our product line has increased by adding new mushroom kits and removing some that proved difficult to maintain. We have been going through growing pains as the company sales have increased which has continuously forced us to find better ways to handle higher volume and to make a better product. We have future plans of acquiring our own property and relocating our entire operation on our own land. This would give us the ability to build our facility to suite our needs. This may be several years down the road, but it is an objective to strive for.

Mushroom Adventures Photos

Check out our Photo Gallery of Mushroom Adventures pictures.  We have included pictures in the gallery of our operation, Mascots and most of all the people that have contributed to our success. Our business is seasonal and therefore most of our help are seasonal as well, but many of them have been contributing seasonal for many years now.