About Us
Created by Daniel and Catarina Dolive, Quintessence Gourmet Mushrooms was born out of a love of foraging delicious food.
On a trip to Asheville, NC we attended a foraging course where we learned about mushrooms and other wild foods. We discovered the incredible benefits of eating mushrooms and found that mushroom variations expanded way beyond typical grocery store options. In an effort to incorporate more unique mushrooms into our regular meals, we searched specialty grocery stores and farmers markets. While we could occasionally find the oyster and lion’s mane mushrooms we were seeking, it was always hit or miss and when market season was over we had limited options. Because of that, we eventually decided to grow our own to ensure we could harvest them whenever we wanted.
In an effort to make gourmet mushrooms more accessible, we decided to expand our love of mushrooms to the rest of Nashville, and thus our gourmet mushroom delivery service, Quintessence Gourmet Mushrooms, was created.
We are so excited you are here and we always love talking all things mushrooms! Feel free to email us at hello@quintessencemushrooms.com or use the form below:
A Note On Sustainable Practices
We love the planet we live on and are grateful for the plants, animals, and fungi that grow together here. Because of that, we do our best to protect the longevity of the planet, support low-waste, regenerative practices, and are consistently researching and learning to be better.
Packaging:
Our packaging is 100% recyclable and compostable.
Our mushroom boxes are made with brown cardboard and have a white clay coating. The stickers are fully compostable. The stamp is printed using non-toxic archival ink.
Our extracts are contained in reusable and recyclable glass bottles.
T-Shirts are 100% cotton. They are shipped with recyclable packaging directly from our printer. Our printer’s shipping process is carbon neutral due to their strategic partnerships and donations to carbon reduction organizations
Areas we’re working on:
Our mushrooms are currently cultivated in single use containers that are thrown away. We are in the process of researching compostable PLA containers and other reusable methods that enable us to prevent contamination and also reduce our plastic intake.
End of Life:
We took great care to find packaging materials that do not have to end up in the landfill. Please see below for responsible end of life practices for each of our products:
Mushroom boxes should be composted or recycled. Please do not throw them away
Extract bottles can be returned to us, recycled, or donated locally to organizations like The Goodfill and Turnip Green Creative Reuse
T-Shirts are 100% cotton and can be donated or composted.
Our fruiting blocks are composted with Compost Nashville and used to provide mycelium and nutrition back into the soil for local farms and gardens.