Transcript 0:00 [singing] Que pasa mufasa. Welcome to the Mycopreneur podcast. 0:16 This is a podcast about people solving problems with mushrooms. I'm your host, Dennis Walker. Let's get down to business. [singing] Que pasa mufasa. What's up everybody? 0:32 I'm delighted today to welcome Omar Dasco Uribe, who's of course of the OHMS Collective, and perhaps most notably the upcoming Ojai Mushroom Summit, which I'm very much looking forward to and also participating in, and that's going on from October 12th to 18th. 0:48 We're gonna talk about all the things today, and I gotta kick off by saying, Omar, I'm so grateful that you're out there doing what you do in this age of craziness, confusion, and just flat out absurdity. 1:01 It's really wonderful to know that Omar's out there running the show, doing his thing, holding it down. How are you, my friend? Great to see you. Thank you so much, Dennis. I really appreciate the whole introduction. 1:10 And, uh, yeah, I'm doing really well. We're, we're on the last final stretch here of the Ojai Mushroom Summit, first ever. I am so excited and thrilled and just so dialed in and focused every day to get this done. So 1:26 thank you. Well, let's get into it, man. So you've been living in Ojai, like, 30-plus years. Yeah. 1:31 And for anyone unfamiliar, Ojai is a bucolic little ranch town that's in the Santa Barbara area of Southern California, about an hour from LA. It's a beautiful town. I've driven through. 1:43 This will be the most extensive time I've ever spent there. Right. And I know there's quite a rich psychedelic history as well in the town that maybe a lot of people don't recognize. 1:52 So can you set the table for us by telling us a little bit about the town of Ojai, some of its history, and your connection there? Yeah, of course. Of course. Yeah, I think you've, you got it right, pretty much right. 2:02 Been here for, like, 28, 29 years. Um, it's a really beautiful town hidden, um, off the coast, uh, from Ventura, about, like, 30 minutes in. Like, yeah, hour, hour and a half from LA. 2:15 Um, just really gorgeous nature here is the big thing that's, like, really accessible for us. Um, I've grew up downtown my whole life, um, downtown Ojai, and we're literally, like, two blocks from the mountains. 2:30 You literally just, like, walk out your door, walk up the street, and you're in the mountains. There's endless trails. You can go hiking for, you know, 20-plus miles. It's really, really beautiful and amazing. 2:41 And yeah, we do have a really deep, uh, spiritual presence here and history of a lot of, um, spiritual leaders and influencers, um, that have come through the town, specifically Krishnamurti. 2:53 Uh, if you're familiar with Krishnamurti, he's a, a free thinker and a, um, 3:01 just, like, um, a leader in the, um, kind of, uh, what is that, theology society, I believe it's called, and just, like, the creation of religion. And so back in, I think it was 19... Might get this date wrong. 3:17 Like, the 1950s, uh, he was out here really holding it down with, um, Aldous Huxley and Ram Dass, Tim Leary, um, just, like, a lot of other great, um, couple different chiefs from some Native American, um, 3:35 uh, tribes. Um, we just had a lot of deep spiritual, uh, practices here, a lot of spiritual folks here. Um, psychedelics have definitely, you know, in and out, a lot of retreats here, a lot of ceremonies here. 3:51 A lot of people just really holding it down in that space, and, um, I just feel really blessed to be here. It's, it's truly... 3:57 I've traveled a good amount, maybe not as much as you have, uh [laughs] but I definitely have traveled quite a bit. 4:03 And every time I get back here to Ojai, I'm just, like, so blessed to be here, and to just be living here is really, really amazing. It's, it's just, it's gorgeous. I, I don't, I, I can't go more into it. 4:15 You gotta come, come out and experience it yourself 'cause it really truly is a special place. Everyone I've met is super cool who's involved with this whole production. 4:23 I got to kick it with one of your good friends who's living on the land where a bunch of the summit's taking place. 4:29 He was out in Telluride with us, and you and I actually kicked it in Mexico City last year or the year before. That was a wonderful surprise. Yes. 4:36 That's why I always like to share an Instagram story or share where I am, because you just never know who else is gonna be there. And I remember you hit me up, you're like, "Oh, I'm in town." 4:45 And we've been running it back for a minute, dude. Like, I first met you, I believe, at Reggie's event of Oakland Hyphae. I think that was in Los Angeles, but I've probably seen you out in Oklahoma and maybe Miami. 4:56 Uh, you know, the, the dates and the locations blur, but one thing that's for sure is every time I've interacted with you, Omar, it's always a great time. We have a great night. 5:05 There's great chemistry, and that extends to the group. There's always cool people around. Yeah. So I feel like I, I'm extremely confident in saying that this is gonna be a spectacular event. 5:15 And let's get into some of the specifics of it. So it's a whole week, first of all, which is impressive and daunting to undertake a whole week. 5:23 You know, a lot of people do a one-day event or half-a-day event, and you said, "Fuck it. We're gonna go in. We're gonna do a full week." 5:30 And you've got people traveling from all over the place, all kinds of specialized knowledge, activations. There's a koji dinner. We're doing a comedy show that I'm a part of on Saturday night. 5:41 There's a mushroom puppet show. And you as an executive chef, of course, probably have a lot of other tricks up your sleeve. So let's get into it. What are we going for there? 5:49 What are some of the programming specialties in Ojai? Yeah. Yeah. I really, I really love that. I definitely, you know, starting this out, I was wanting to just, like, really bring more life to Ojai. 6:02 I feel like there's a lot of things going on, but there's kinda like this joke around town where, like, you kinda walk the downtown area and then you're like, "Okay, is that it?" Like, what else is going on in Ojai? 6:12 So, um, I wanna kind of like, yeah, pull that out more and show people really, like, what's happening here as far as, like, the culinary scene and the regenerative grazing and the farming, and yeah, we just have a whole list of, uh, amazing people from out of town and here in, in Ojai. 6:31 Um, as you mentioned, we're doing a, uh, koji master chef class at the, uh, Messermeister location here. 6:38 Their headquarters are actually here in Ojai, and they have this really beautiful demo kitchen that we're gonna be gathering in on Tuesday, October 13th, with Chef Wade Fox from Tennessee. 6:50 Um, and it's gonna be a four-hour hands-on class all about koji. We're gonna be curing meats, we're gonna be curing veggies, we're gonna be making, um, [lip smack] 7:00 a quick shio koji that's just, like, pure, really, really delicious, way better than the stuff that you get in the store that's, like, liquidized alcohol and salt pretty much. 7:10 But we're, like, really wanting to bring more of that, um, just, like, flavor town culture of developing flavors and taking ingredients past their points and just really having a fun time in the kitchen. 7:24 I mean, I'm, I've been in the kitchen for 14 years, and it's a, it's a struggle, you know? It's not, it's not light work. 7:31 So when we all can get together and have fun and really just, like, geek out and nerd as chefs and, and foodies, it's just so much fun, and I'm, I'm really excited to, um, to have that class and to collaborate with, with Chef Wade. 7:43 That's gonna be really, really exciting. Um, also that Tuesday evening, we have a free talk with Edward Crowe, uh, also from Tennessee, and, uh, Stephanie Carzone. She's here locally. 7:56 Um, she's a neuropharmacologist, an amazing speaker, just such a great interviewer and really knows what she's talking about. 8:04 They're gonna go really, really deep into the origin stories of, um, [lip smack] the Campfire Astronaut, AKA Psychonauts. Um, [lip smack] and that's just gonna be such a great talk. Again, I just, I... 8:18 I've gone to a lot of these different events, I've gone to these, a lot of these festivals, and I really wanted just to pull, like, the best of the best and kinda curate a week that I would really enjoy. 8:29 [lip smack] Um, and I think in that, I've made sure that there's a little bit of everything. You know, it's not just mushrooms and cultivation or mushrooms and food. 8:37 W- we're also doing, um, a panel on sustainable building where, uh, that Saturday the 17th, um, on Ojai Day at the Playhouse, we're bringing in a lot of, uh, cob specialists and, uh, mycelium myco specialists who are gonna be talking about the collaboration between, uh, mycelium and cob in natural building. 9:01 Um, this is really important for us here specifically because of the fires and a lot of rebuild, you know, wanting to do it the right way as opposed to just the same generic, uh, kinda chemical buildup, if you will. 9:13 So that's gonna be really t- fun. Uh, Rascal Turbeville will be moderating that panel. It's gonna be an hour and a half. We're gonna go deep and really get into some juicy content. 9:22 Um, and then, uh, later that day, on that same talk w- or same, [lip smack] uh, event, we're gonna be, uh, doing the comedy special with you and Robert Johnson, which I'm really, really excited about. 9:36 Um, I think they've maybe done, like, two other comedy s- specials there at the Playhouse. Um, so I'm really, really excited. 9:44 That's right downtown, and after we're done, we're all gonna roll out into the Mushroom Block Party/Ojai Day celebrations, and they block out all of downtown Ojai. 9:54 I think it's, like, seven blocks that are completely blocked out. You can't... You have to walk through. It's a whole fair. There's kids. There's, um, activities for the adults. There's bands. 10:05 There's, you know, a bunch of beer gardens. We're gonna have the Mushroom Block Party, um, a bunch of classic cars, vintage trailers. It's gonna be so much fun. 10:14 It's gonna be a full, full day, and I'm really excited for that. Um, yeah, we have a, a cactus class that we're doing with, uh, Christopher Paully from Tryptomics is coming out, which I'm really, really excited about. 10:26 He's gonna be teaching a class with Enrique Juarez, which is a local friend here in town who's a, a cactus guru, if you will. 10:35 Um, and then, uh, David Poplin from, from Los Hongos is gonna be coming out from Portland, uh, Oregon, to, to come moderate and, uh, take part in the cactus class, and he's also gonna be leading the mushroom cultivation class after that. 10:52 Um, and we're bringing in all the flow hoods. 10:54 We're really gonna bring in, you know, a lot of hands-on practical stuff for people who are wanting to get into the lab and really, um, up-level their skills and, uh, their applications for working, you know, 11:06 in front of a flow hood to, from maybe not working in fro- front of a flow hood or doing something, like, in their bathroom or, or whatever it is that they don't have. 11:13 But to be able to just show people what it, what it's like working with a flow hood and just, like, how much more efficient it is. Um, [lip smack] so yeah, it's just, it's just a packed day. 11:22 I've, uh, a packed eight, eight days, uh, of a lot of fun, a lot of great education, a lot of people from, you know, all over the States, and, um, really, like, all, all my friends. I'm really excited. 11:35 I'm just excited for everyone who's gonna be in town. I mean, 11:39 if it was just, like, all, I just invited all my friends to Ojai, I think it would just be such a fun week to just, like, run around and have these deeper conversations and get to network, and it's just, yeah. 11:49 [chuckles] It's gonna be good. Dude, it's stacked. That's what it's all about. You know, we were just out in Telluride, Colorado together for the Telluride Mushroom Festival. 11:58 I probably went to four of the programming sessions, and yet it was one of the greatest weeks of my year because it's all about who's there. Right. 12:05 I've been seeing this trope that if you're trying to plan a party or plan an event, the guest list is the event. 12:12 You know, people nickel and dime and get worried about, you know, the venue and about the presentation and all that, but, like, truthfully, the guest list... 12:19 whoever's coming to this event who's already on the poster, and I'm sure there's more names to be announced, that's what makes the event, and this one's absolutely stacked. 12:28 Also, we gotta shout out Danielle Adams, Lady Hyphae. I think she's gonna pull up. You mentioned David Poplin, just such a genuine person, a great friend of mine. Been fortunate to work with him on a number of occasions. 12:41 Edward Crow, are you kidding me? You got Edward Crow coming out from Nashville. You gotta see what this guy's all about if you haven't come across his path yet. 12:48 He's a force of nature, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. You mentioned Stephanie Carzone Abrams, like this is gonna be a party. Chris Pauley, come on. The, the list goes on and on, dude. Rascal. 12:59 So I cannot wait for all my impromptu meetings, all of the lunches. You know, people ask me sometimes, it's sometimes, it's daunting to go to an event. Everybody knows each other. I don't know people there. 13:11 Like, I'm not sure how to approach this. I say, "Just show up. Just get there." You'd be surprised how often people will just welcome you into their group. Like, "Hey, we're gonna go grab a bite. 13:19 Why don't you come along?" All of a sudden you're part of the party. All of a sudden you got this whole new network. Like, and you really can't replace that online. That's another thing. 13:28 Uh, good mushroom entrepreneur friend of mine, shout out Gabe Hardy from Amintara. They do the Amanita Muscaria mushrooms and a whole bunch of other stuff. 13:36 He mentioned to me today how he's like, "You know, the deeper I get into this marketing and running a mushroom business, I realize it's literally all about relationships. It's all about the relationships you have." 13:46 And when you're trying to build those online, it only goes so far. I feel like, you know, if you and I only had a online connection, I'd be like, "Oh yeah, that's, that's kinda cool what he's doing." 13:55 But like having met you in person, having been in your presence, having connected with your friend circle, all of a sudden it's like, all right, Omar calls, I pick up. What do you need? What are we doing? Right? 14:03 And that's what it's all about, and you've gotta do that in person. So, dude, I'm elated. I'm over the moon to be a part of this. And then this comedy show, dude. Like Robert Johnson, that dude is hilarious. 14:13 And shout out Micro Boost. He's got the awesome mushroom coffee and the gummies and all that. Like this is the spot to be, man. That Saturday night, I'm getting people out from LA. 14:23 You know, sometimes they're like, "I don't know, Ojai's kind of far." It's like, "Yeah bro, you're gonna sit in traffic in LA every day for an hour, bro. Make the trip out. Come on, come hang with us." So yeah, dude. 14:32 I was about to say, it probably takes them just as long to get into downtown LA to, than it does to get out to Ojai. It's about, it's about the same time. A little bit longer- Turn up, dude... I don't know, but you know. 14:42 [laughs] Well dude, I had a sidebar when you were talking. I realized I was trying to explain koji to my wife last night, and like I have a general sense of what it is. 14:49 Like it's a fungus and they use it in Japan, and it's used in culture, and I think it's used in soy sauce. We're at this dope Japanese restaurant and I'm like, "Oh yeah, there's koji being used here." 14:58 She's like, "What's koji?" And I realize I'm just inadequate at explaining it. Can you take a swing and share with people who might not be familiar? Like maybe they heard the concept, but what is koji? Yeah, of course. 15:08 Um, my understanding, I'm, I'm still, uh, a beginner at this. It's, it's like similar to like even cooking and mushrooms. 15:16 You know, masters are like in this who have been in it for like 15, 20 years, who are really like the masters of it. So I consider myself still a beginner. I'm learning a lot. 15:25 Um, koji is a fungi that grows on white rice, and it's a about, it's a three-day fermentation process, um, or cultivation process. 15:37 Um, and then that koji is transformed into miso, soy sauce, and sake. That's sort of like the three main kind of common things or uses for it. 15:49 Um, [lip smack] Chef Wade Fox has introduced me to shio koji and really transforming, uh, just this 15:59 fermented fungi rice to become an application for curing meats, um, which is a really big deal as a chef 'cause it, you know, it, curing, curing meats takes like anywhere from 65 to 80, 90 days to cure like a proper steak. 16:16 And this koji method takes two and a half to three days to get a 65-day old like flavor profile on like meat or fish or, um, what we did, we did pork chops the other day. They were just like, I was blown away. 16:34 Like I was like, I just, I can't even fathom or like start to begin to describe the flavor profiles. It's just like, it's umami, it's miso, it's tender, it's the best cut of meat. 16:47 I mean, I didn't use something that's like kind of like medium grade and it ends up being like this high grade piece of meat that you're like, "Where did this come from?" And it's like, oh, koji. 16:57 It, it's pre-digesting the enzymes and breaking them down so that everything becomes more bioavailable. And I think that's the biggest reason why Chef Wade is so deeply invested in koji, is because 17:10 he's making it more bioavailable. 17:13 And in the mushroom world, a lot of these different like extractions and tinctures and things of that nature are, are in, you know, doing that, making that possible for people to have like more potent experience. 17:24 But I really feel like koji is like this secret ingredient that could even be added to maybe tinctures or added to different, uh, honey extractions or, um, I think the food world and the mushroom world, food and medicinal, um, 17:43 are just ever-growing and I think koji is just like a such a big part of making the tie between, you know, the culinary world and the mushroom world just mesh together a little bit more. 17:55 Um, and yeah, I mean I, I haven't attempted to make miso yet. It's something that I definitely really want to do, um, with the koji, and that's a, you know, fairly easy process. Uh, it does take time. 18:09 It's like three to six months, sometimes 12 months. 18:12 Um, but I've had chefs that have, uh, bought koji from me, uh, when I was cultivating a, a couple years back, I got into it and started cultivating koji and was selling that to local restaurants, and they were taking that and had a couple chefs make, uh, miso From that. 18:27 And it turned out really, really lovely. 18:29 And, um, yeah, I'm just, uh, really, really excited to dive deeper into the koji world and, uh, to, to bring more awareness to other chefs here in the region about koji and mushrooms. 18:42 I think talking to people in Telluride too, noticing that there's just such a huge gap in the education in food and mushrooms and just like how, how do we incorporate more mushrooms into the menu? 18:54 You know, how do we incorporate more mushrooms into just regular, you know, schools and hospitals, and like just get more people eating mushrooms, more recipes out there that are just easy and accessible. 19:07 And, um, I think that's a lot, a big reason for, you know, my, uh, passion for cooking is, is really making the delicious food really accessible and easy for, for common folk. Um, so, yeah. 19:22 You explained that brilliantly, by the way. I have a much better framing for how to communicate what's happening in the process of koji, so thank you for that. Also, shout out Chef Wade Fox. That dude's amazing. 19:35 I've tried a few of his different products. He had like some lion's mane molasses that he was doing, which was fantastic, is fantastic, and he's part of a emergent trio called The Three Aminos. 19:46 I'm not sure if they've really done their, like public debut yet, but I saw two of The Three Aminos out in Pennsylvania at MycoFest, and of course, that's Nick from Red Flower Fungi out in Miami, and Drew Zimmerman, I believe is his last name, Uncle Fungus, right, who's based in Pennsylvania. 20:02 And they had this just outrageous hot cuisine, like the, the most beautiful sandwich I've ever had, which was this, it was a, a Cuban pork sandwich, and they had lion's mane molasses in the bread instead of traditional pork, pork lard, which is how it's done like in Cuba, drawing from Nick's roots there, and his family is Cuban. 20:25 And they used, I think it was like lionswood inoculated smoked pork from, or it was smoked pork from lionswood inoculated oak, and then, uh, koji in the fermented shiitake sauce. 20:39 It was just this outrageous flavor pairing, and to me, what it really did was take Michelin quality cuisine and make it accessible in a festival format. Mm. And that's so cool. 20:50 And I would like to hear from you, like what are some of your favorite dishes to cook? Let's say like a low-key mushroom dish, just for the homies getting together, something easy. 21:01 What's a dish that might fit that profile? And then let's say you're trying to flex a little bit and you're like, "All right, I'm gonna really step this up." What's a dish you might cook there? Yeah. Yeah, of course. 21:09 Uh, you know, it comes top, top of my mind, I, I, uh, I really love maitake. It's such a flavorful, easy mushroom to work with. Um, I think... Yeah, I love mushrooms that you can kinda just like pull apart. 21:23 Like you don't even need to get a knife out, you just like pull them apart, you just throw them in the pan, cook out the water, and then you start adding, you know, different flavors, the onions, the shallots, the garlic. 21:34 Uh, the, I have this really delicious, um, smoky black garlic salt that Pinecone made from, um, from, uh, what was spacing on his nor- northwest forager. Uh, he's a good buddy of mine. 21:50 He does a lot of romping around the woods. We, we both romp around the woods. 21:54 But he makes these delicious byproducts of all his foraging stuff, so I have all these like different seasonings and mushroom powders and, um... 22:02 But yeah, saute some maitakes, caramelize the onions, throw in some bell peppers, make like a nice stir fry over some rice maybe. 22:11 You know, um, depending how hungry I am, I'd probably add like a piece of salmon to that, you know, nice little like, um, bowl, just really accessible, really delicious stir fry. 22:23 Um, if I was trying to get fancy with it, I... Let's see. 22:27 I, the other night I cooked the pork chops for me and my wife Chrissy, and I, um, took three days in advance and cured the pork chops with a morel shio koji that I made from morels that I foraged. 22:44 So I made the shio koji, it's like a day-and-a-half process, added the morels in there, blended that up together, let that sit in the fridge for another like 12 hours to build flavor. 22:54 And then you take this like paste, kinda liquidy paste of the shio koji, and you spread it all over the pork, and you s- put it in your fridge, um, in open air, so like on a little plate, kinda lift it off so there's air flow all around. 23:09 Um, and that helps with the curing process. And then after three days it's, two to three days, it's ready to go, kinda wiped off a little bit of that shio koji 'cause, um, it burns really quickly. So with pork chops, 23:22 it's like a longer cook time. So I actually, uh, sous vide the pork chops before to help with the cooking temps. 23:30 Uh, and then I seared it, just like a nice caramelized, you know, golden, crispy skin, um, and then served it with this delicious, uh, sauce that I had made that came off the, the searing of the pork chops, little bit of, uh, white wine, little bit of butter, like nice little sauce there. 23:49 And then I served it with a kind of medley of, uh, porcini, lobster, morels, maitake, um, some caramelized onions. I, I really enjoy... The, the trio for me is always like onions, shallots, and garlic. 24:03 That's like the secret, always the secret. People are like, "It smells so good in here." I'm like, "It's, it's literally just garlic and onions." [chuckles] Thank you. 24:10 [laughs] But that's like the secret to, to fine dine, I feel like, uh, and herbs of course. 24:16 Um, but yeah, the pork chops were just, I mean, the f- it, it tasted like, like someone had layered the pork chop with miso, and it was just so tender, so delicious. 24:29 Um, I don't know if you're familiar with cooking pork chops, but it can be, it can be hard. You know, you go to sear it and then you think it's ready and it's actually still raw in the middle. 24:37 But like this technique of sous vide-ing and curing and really giving it a lot of love, it just, I, I, I don't have words for it. It just, it was so mouthwatering, such flavor town profile. 24:51 Uh, really like fine dine, something you would find, you know, for like 40 plus dollars on the menu or something. And, uh, it was really accessible. It was like, you know, under $10 for me to make. 25:03 And, and it was like really good. That's what's up, dude. I just had some candy cap ice cream out in New York. I went to the Western New York Fungi Festival in the Buffalo, New York area, and it was awesome. 25:15 It was their first event, so there's a lot of first time festivals popping up, or at least a fair amount these days. And these guys went for it. And I always find something new, something interesting. 25:25 I'd never had a candy cap mushroom infused ice cream, but it worked so well. And then the next day they did like a candy cap frappuccino that came out of this- Mm... kind of frozen frappuccino situation. And- Yep... 25:37 fantastic. And to me, that's one of the most unexplored and under discovered areas of mushrooms is what you can do with these flavor profiles. Because I think foragers been knowing, right? 25:48 You're romping around the woods and somebody knows something, pine cone tells you something, hear it from someone. 25:52 But to make that all the way like into the city and into these areas where people can actually start going for wild mushrooms or different mushroom profiles and infusing them into cuisine, there's always creative stuff going on, and there's a lot of untapped potential there. 26:08 With the truffles as well, that's something I've been following- Yeah. Yeah... William Padilla Brown's work and like I had no idea that there are native truffles in North America. I don't think a lot of people do. 26:17 And when you hear about truffles and this sort of romantic element, they come from France and they're highly valued in Italy, which is true. Mm. 26:25 But I learned that a lot of those truffles they sell these days as French or Italian truffles actually come from Croatia, and then they get branded as French or Italian truffles 'cause you can mark the price up, right? 26:35 Yeah. But also there's like truffles in the Kalahari Desert. The tribes people have been eating them out there since time immemorial. 26:42 I used to live in Saudi Arabia and spent a lot of time kind of in the Gulf region and never came across these. But I had heard about these terfeziaci, which they call the desert truffle. 26:52 Same thing, these tribes people and Bedouins will go find these truffles in the desert and then bring them into the Medinas or the souks to sell. 27:00 And they're these ancient, wonderful, delicious truffles that are all over the world. So now you got me thinking like, well, do they have truffles in like Asia too? Like I have no idea. 27:10 Like the mushrooms grow everywhere. 27:12 So again, that's part of the excitement of all the stuff we're doing here, like at the Ojai Mushroom Festival, is a lot of this stuff that's being discussed and discovered and explored and developed- Mm-hmm... 27:22 is very nascent, it feels like. It's very new to more popular mainstream culture, right? 27:28 I think there's always been these little pockets of knowledgeable people who understand how to use these different ingredients and things like maitake mushrooms. 27:36 But I would say most people living in Los Angeles or in, I don't know, where I'm from, San Diego, unless they come from like a certain lineage or background where they use those kinds of mushrooms in cookings, like in part of Asia or whatever, most people have never heard of a maitake mushroom. 27:51 Most people have never heard of matsutake mushroom. I'd never heard of them until I got connected to a lot of these events. 27:57 So again, it feels like, you know, the people say, "Oh, I was born too soon to explore the stars and the solar system, and I was born too late to explore the, the new continents or the world or whatever." 28:09 But like you're born just in time to discover and explore the world of mushrooms. Yeah. This is really happening right now. Yes. So yeah, man, uh, how about, how about, let's talk about some live entertainment. 28:18 We talked about the comedy, but are there any like musical performances? Uh, I know there's a puppet show. I'd love to hear more about that. What do we have in line for that? Yeah, yeah. 28:26 So we got the puppet show, which is happening on Sunday, uh, part of the Greater Goods Gathering. Greater Goods is our local nonprofit, uh, music collective here in town. 28:38 Um, Vaughn Lennon leads Greater Goods and supports a lot of the youth that is up-and-coming genius musicians or already geniuses kind of in their own form. 28:50 Um, and so yeah, Greater Goods has been around I think almost 10 years. I don't know. I lost track. A lot of great people. Anyways, on Sunday we're doing the puppet show, which, uh, is something that 29:04 I think in my time of creating this, the summit and just being like, "What do I want? What all is going on?" It was like, "Oh, it'd be cool to do a mushroom puppet show." 29:12 And so we're actually making all the mushroom puppets ourselves. And I've brought in a group of friends who are actors who've maybe done puppeteering once or thought about it. 29:25 [chuckles] But really great people, really, really funny. Um, we're gonna be kind of flipping the script and, you know, all week we've been talking a- about mushrooms. 29:35 For the puppet show, we're gonna have mushrooms talking about people and, uh, it's gonna be really, really great. There's gonna be, uh, three kinda smaller shows in between the education and music of that day. 29:48 Um, I haven't really put the word out on that day quite yet because it, it is gonna be, I think, one of the best deals. It's $44 for the full day. 29:58 You get access to education, you get access to all the vendors, the music, the whole community. We're gonna be up on the hill at Topa Institute, and it's over... You get 360 views of Ojai. I mean, 30:11 it's gonna be beautiful. It's gonna be amazing. And then there we're gonna have a bunch of local musicians and bands. 30:17 Uh, Brother Peace from Oakland is coming out and, uh, spreading his love with his psychedelic hip hop and poetry. Um, we're really, really excited about that. Um, The Chills, which is a local Ojai band. 30:30 Actually Vaughn Lennon is the, one of the lead singers in that band. It's like a I think it's like an eight-piece band, and they just jam. 30:38 They're just, they're a local, local legendary band here in Ojai, and it's gonna be such a great time. They're gonna be doing the sunset headliner set overlooking the Topa Mountains. It's just, it's gonna be wonderful. 30:51 Um, other entertainment, we have, uh, Thursday night, the 15th, after the cactus and mushroom cultivation. Uh, later that evening we're gonna have, uh, Dugan Gundelfinger coming out. Um, he's a multi, uh, 31:09 multi-layered genius, art, music, film director. He's actually showcasing, we're showcasing his film on Monday night, the 12th of October, um, at the Playhouse. And, um, 31:25 he did this short film called Heroic Dose. It's about his massive acid dose experience, and it's 13 minutes long. It's really well done. 31:38 Like, I was on the ground rolling, laughing out loud, like, full on just super, super funny. I know you're really gonna get a kick out of it. Um, yeah. I'm really excited about that. 31:49 But he's performing on Thursday night. He's doing a mystical sound journey/silly dance party. 31:56 Um, kind of at your own int- interpretation of that, but very, uh, yeah, psychedelic, instrumental, uh, sacred kind of ceremonial music, but also, like, very vibey and dancey, and it's gonna be a great time, um, there at Topa. 32:13 And, um, yeah, what else do we have going on? There's so much I've gotta, like, go back in my brain and, and dial it down. I might just, like, start freestyle rapping in the middle of town. You never know. 32:25 [laughs] We did that out in Western New York, dude. It was wild. We had Fungi Flows out there. Shout out Fungi Flows. If people have come across him, he's a awesome dude. And- Yeah... really fun, really humble guy. 32:34 And we had saunas out there in Western New York, and I walk into this sauna there, it was, like, the beginning of the festival, so not many people were there, and Fungi is just freestyling. 32:43 Shout out KK, she's gonna be out there too from- Yeah... Florafungi. I think she's gonna be out with us in Ojai too. So he got me to go in the ice bath and start freestyling, and then it went, like, semi-viral. 32:53 It has, like, 3, 400,000 views right now. So I kind of feel like submitting it to a record label and be like, "What do your artist numbers look like, bro? Look at this, we got the freestyle fellowship over here." 33:03 Somebody recommended my name should be MF Shroom, which I don't think I'm gonna do, but I like it, you know. Uh, anyways, we're gonna have a, a fun time, dude. 33:10 There'll be so much good entertainment and engagement and community. Like, there's no doubt about it. 33:16 So I know that people listening right now have either organized their own events or have been to these types of events, or are interested in coming. So shout out, please come. Yeah. 33:25 And what I gotta know is, let's say people are listening who have mushroom brands, they've got products, they've got units they're trying to move- Mm-hmm... and potential sponsorship and things like that. 33:35 Like, I know you've been putting in due diligence. You've been really burning the midnight oil, working full time and organizing this event as well. 33:43 So, like, what are you looking for in these last few weeks before the festival kicks off? Could you use any product if somebody wants to sponsor one of the VIP bags or something like that? 33:52 Like, just give us a scope of what would be helpful for you as a festival organizer, first timer, if there was a community that was able to rally support behind you in a, a very physical and, and demonstrable way by contributing product or sponsorship, money fiscally. 34:09 What else? Yeah. No, I really appreciate that. I, I really appreciate the, the shout-out on that and the, the transparency of just, like, the logistics and reality of, of putting this on, 'cause yeah, it, you're right. 34:20 I have been burning the, the m- midnight fuel, you know, and, and, uh, yeah, it's been, um... It's become, yeah, my main focus for sure. 34:31 Uh, y- you know, as, as people see me around town, I'm literally just, like, on my phone, on my computer, getting things done, dialing everything in. 34:38 Um, kind of leading up to it, yeah, a big thing that we could, uh, that I could use some more help with is getting a couple more sponsors. 34:46 We have a couple more silver sponsor, uh, tiers available for vending even on Saturday, which is a big day. Um, 34:54 I started a GoFundMe to help with just anybody who, you know, didn't have a brand or a business but still wanted to give back and give to the community. There's a GoFundMe going right now. Um, I could send you the link. 35:07 I believe it's just Ojai Mushroom Summit GoFundMe. Um, if you're interested, it's on the gofundme.com page, and that would be very, very helpful. Um, anything, anything helps, you know. Um, 35:20 I am definitely, you know, putting a lot of blood, sweat and tears and money into this, uh, myself, and so any kind of help from the community would be great. 35:30 Um, we are also doing VIP bags, so if there are companies that I haven't reached out to yet that are interested in donating some in-kind products or donations, um, we're doing 60 VIP bags. 35:42 Uh, if you have 30, we can, you know, we can make that work, and just I wanna get as many people involved with this as possible and, um, yeah, you know, it really does take a whole village to, to do something like this. 35:53 So, um, any kind of support would be amazing and, uh, yeah, if, if you wanna get involved, you know, the in-kind donations for the VIP bags and then also applying for next year. 36:05 You know, we kind of already got people looking to, to come out next year that didn't make it this year, that are really excited about it and wanna be here this year, but you know, things don't work out or time doesn't really align. 36:16 But next year they're already signing up and, um, yeah, man, just getting the ball rolling. So I'm really excited. That's what's up, dude. All right. You heard it. That's the call to action right there. 36:26 And just come join us, you know? Just come, come out and join us. Yeah. Like, I'll be out there for most of the time. I think I'm getting there on Tuesday. It actually kicks off on Monday, I believe. 36:35 But yeah, I'll be out there all week partying, having fun, learning. Also Want to shout out that it goes above and beyond mushrooms. 36:42 Like, that's very much the focal point, but you mentioned the cactus workshop, and, like, that is really frontier science right there. 36:49 Like, there's obviously an ancient tradition that goes way beyond and before science that's backing the lineage of cactus cultivation and knowledge of cactus. 36:58 But speaking scientifically with Chris Polly there of Tryptomics, like, they're doing a lot of really cutting-edge work to kind of understand the different alkaloids that are in different cactuses. 37:09 Like, for example, I just recently learned through a micropreneur incubator that we hosted with cactus connoisseur Max Montrose actually, about all the different kinds of psychoactive cactus, that there are actually numerous different types of psychoactive cactus. 37:25 Most people could say San Pedro and peyote, right? But I guess there's actually multiple different species of peyote, and then there's also above and beyond those two, there's, like, Bolivian torch cactus- Mm... 37:35 and I know that there are other ones as well. Yeah. But it's this whole other kind of frontier that I feel like people are just getting into right now. 37:41 So that in and of itself is definitely worth checking out, and I feel like it's an opportunity to be at the vanguard of something as more and more people are starting to learn about, "Oh, so we've got these mushrooms, but we've also got cactus growing all around us." 37:56 It's native in a lot of these regions in the Southwest, and yeah, there's something to be learned there for sure. You wanna speak on the cactus at all? Yeah. I, I love that you brought that up. 38:04 It's, uh, a definitely an, a newer obsession of mine, kind of similar to, to mushrooms. Where I was like, "Oh, these are cool. These are rad. I, I like these." And then all of a sudden it was like mushrooms everywhere. 38:14 And then the same cactus, I was like, "Oh, these are really cool. I like this." And then just, like, cactus pulling up everywhere and I was like, "Okay, something's going on here." 38:20 Like, we gotta pay attention and I really wanna, you know, lean more into this. Bringing out Chris from Tryptomics is huge. I mean, he's going all, doing all the testing right now. 38:30 I think this is his second year of testing for different alkaloids that are present in, uh, the cactus. 38:36 Not just mescaline, but all the other different tr- uh, alkaloids and, um, tryptamines and yeah, it's, it's really fascinating. I mean, 38:47 I think the biggest thing for me is like, yeah, there, there's more than just one or two cactus, right? 38:51 There's all these different varieties and different potencies and different applications and, um, I'm just really, really excited to be able to teach such, or to have, host such a, you know, um, 39:06 deep intellectual conversation around this upcoming or kind of older, you know, medicine and plants that we, we haven't been working with or haven't been in relationship with as much, and now we're, we're stepping back into a relationship with them and, you know, what does that look like? 39:23 How do we do this in a sustainable way? How are we, how are we mindful about this, you know? Um, and then like, yeah, what, what does the testing look like and what is w- you know, why are these up and coming? 39:34 Why is everyone so, so interested in cactus? I don't know if you've noticed in the Instagram world, but a lot of the cactus and mushroom community is, like, fully merging right now, and it's so cool to see how just 39:49 abundant and how, like, like you said, like, the people are just so chill and so, like, just really, really good people and it's so nice to be in a community where people are very collaborative rather than competitive. 40:04 And I think that's, like, a big, a big thing to be said for the, the mushroom community and the cactus community. Um, 40:12 and I'm just really excited to, to get, you know, the information out there and to, to teach people, to have these experts come out from Colorado and, um, and, uh, we're gonna be giving away, actually, each participant that comes to this cactus class is gonna walk away with their own San Pedro cactus to take home, that they continue to cultivate and build relationship with. 40:36 Um, so yeah, I, I feel really, um, passionate about this and really excited to just feel like it's, it's been such a great relationship that I've built with cactus and, um, complements mushrooms really nicely. 40:51 Um, and again, it gets me in the garden more, which is, I think, the medicine and the practice that I really needed, was, like, not so much, you know, enjoying these different, um, alkaloids, but more of, like, getting in the garden and, like, being out in nature and tending to this practice that I have that's, you know, um, 41:14 just, like, deeper than, than, like, the psychedelics involve. It's, it's more of, like, the life that I'm wanting to live, right? 41:19 This, like, curating this good life and building these relationships with these different plants and fungi has really allowed me to live the life that I wanted to be living. So, 41:30 I wanna be able to give that access to other people. I mean, that's really what it's about, you know? Just passing on the information, inspiring others to live the good life, and, um, yeah, come check out Ojai. 41:41 It's gonna be... You know, we're out here doing it and I feel like a lot of the things that I'm bringing forth are already happening here in Ojai. And so, um, yeah, come tap in. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Spot on. 41:53 Yeah, I can't wait to come out there. Counting down the days, and I'm gonna have to dip soon for, uh, an event I'm doing here in about 15 minutes. 42:01 But before I do, can you tell us exactly how people can access the event for tickets and for more information? Yeah. Of course. Uh, so we have, we're on Instagram at ojai.mushroom.summit. 42:16 You can find all the tickets on the link in the bio. We have, I'm posting speaker tiles and, um, posters of, on different offerings. Um, we also have the Humanitix page, Ojai Mushroom Summit, um, on Humanitix. 42:32 You can access all of the tickets there. Um, what else? Um, uh, on Instagram as well, we're @oh- ohmscollectiveohmscollectiveco, C-O Um, you can find the link for the Ojai Mushroom Summit there as well. 42:50 Um, yeah, we've just been heavily, heavily posting on Instagram, getting the word out. Um, and yeah, uh, I think those are the, the three main pages there to get tickets and to find more information about it. 43:04 Um, if you don't have an Instagram, all of the information is on Humanitix, goes with all the flyers, the full layout of the week. It's actually Sunday to Sunday, so now we're the 11th of October to the 18th of October. 43:17 Um, and yeah, kind of Monday, Tues- or Sunday, Monday, kind of like the pre-warming for the full week, and then Tuesday we really get things going. 43:27 Um, and Sunday, Saturday and Sunday are gonna be full days, and you don't necessarily need to buy a ticket for Saturday, as it'll be, like, an open public event. 43:37 So just come to Ojai, enjoy Ojai Day, drop in with all the mushroom heads. It's gonna be very accessible and easy, people to just drop in and, and, uh, chat with the community, and network, I think is the biggest thing. 43:49 And that's, that's free, so come, come hang out with us. Say what's up. [laughs] Come say hi to me. I'll be out there all week, dude. Yeah. We'll be kicking it, and I just could not be more excited about this. 43:59 Omar, of course, of the OHMS Collective. Definitely give him his flowers. Come out and say what's up to Omar. Take part in this wonderful offering that he's presenting to the community. Travel for it if you need to. 44:09 You know it's gonna be worth it. So, thanks for joining me today on the Mycopreneur podcast. All love. Can't wait to see you in a few weeks and give you a big hug. Hell yeah. Thank you, brother. 44:17 I appreciate it so much, and thanks for having me on the podcast and, and, uh, for your time today. And yeah, man, it's gonna be so much fun. I'm so excited to see you in person, and everybody else. 44:29 Yeah, I'm excited to see everybody come out to Ojai. Come say what's up. I'm super chill, got good vibes. We just, you know, wanna have a good time and, and, uh, learn as much as we can. So, yeah, thank you. Peace. 44:40 Peace.
