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Fungi galore from The Easterday Mushroom Company
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A fried mushroom sandwich from Sweet P’s featuring Lion’s mane mushrooms from The Easterday Mushroom Company
History: Justin and Dima Easterday had both settled into their museum specialist and tech sales careers when a fungiculture fixation overtook them. Together with Justin’s brother, Steffen, the spouses pored over mycology books. As their passion for mushrooms grew, so did shiitake mushrooms — in Steffen’s apartment closet. In 2023, the trio dove headfirst into mycelium, ditching their Washington, D.C., and Virginia Beach homes for an agriculturally zoned Richmond residence. The self-taught fungus farmers officially established The Easterday Mushroom Company in April 2024.
Justin Easterday with a pink oyster mushroom
Specialty: The Easterday enterprise supplies chefs at local restaurants, including The Roosevelt and Sweet P’s, with more than a dozen exotic, organically grown mushroom species. “Our dream is to grow beautiful products that our community can use to create amazing dishes,” Dima says. “Lion’s mane is an all-star for texture — they’re delightful vegan meat alternatives. Chestnut mushrooms are great light accents in hummus with their distinct nutty flavor.”
Production: Two acres of humidified grow tents in the Easterdays’ Sandston backyard are sites of low-waste fungi cultivation. Their company embraces wood-based agricultural processes. At their household lab, they inoculate sterilized grain with liquid mycelium culture before adding them to grow blocks made of oak and soy hull. In approximately a month, market-ready mushrooms are ripe for harvesting.
Where to Buy: At Dorey Park and Birdhouse farmers markets and online year-round at birdhousefarmersmarket.luluslocalfood.com.
