Hi! My name is Mischa, and I’m embarking on a multiyear journey to start my own farming and hospitality business. I have absolutely no idea how this is going to go, but I’m excited to see what challenges greet me along the way!

I’ve wanted to build my own space with a bunch of my favorite things in it for a while. Growing up I’d visit my aunt, uncle, and grandparents in Portland, Oregon. One of my favorite places was McMenamins Kennedy School—an old elementary school turned into multiple bars, restaurants, a soaking pool, concert venue, community space, and bed and breakfast. While the specifics of what it included didn’t match my personal interests, the general idea stuck with me.

When I got older I went to McMenamins Edgefield, which followed a similar concept to the Kennedy School, but on an 11-acre farm. That’s when my dream of a building or set of buildings connected with my various interests turned into a farm with various buildings focused on selected interests.

By the time I’d purchased my first Portland home in late 2019, the final piece of my What-Do-I-Want-To-Be-Doing? puzzle was beginning to fall into place. My aversion to mushrooms had swung quickly to a passion for them after experiencing wild mushrooms at the home of my friends in Hayward, Wisconsin. Soon after returning from that trip I set about learning as much as I could about growing mushrooms indoors. I put up a grow tent, prepared buckets, bought straw, and ordered spawn.

While my passion for mushrooms grew, I also added more and more fruit trees and vegetables to my yard, and soon I found my happy place in the weekend days spent outside moving soil or planting my garden, or heading in to harvest the newest batch of mushrooms.

So now here I am. I have moved to Duluth, formed my LLC, and am working on this outside of my regular job. (The vast majority of farmers have another job that they use to pay the bills, so I am following in step.)

If all goes well, then someday I will build my farm with all of the things I want to share with the world! And even if not, this blog should serve as an interesting story. I hope you enjoy following along.