Today we’d like to introduce you to Gretchen & Curtis Alley
Hi Gretchen & Curtis, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Moss and Mushroom Alley with Gretchen and Curtis Alley. She is the Moss and he is the Mushroom and they are both the Alleys! Our goal is to stay super small and super local. We don’t have any social media presence. No Instagram, no Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, NOTHING. We do have an email mossandmushroomalley@gmail.com Which is the best way to reach us (or come say hi at a local farmers market!)
Curtis, originally from Asheville, NC a chef and instructor at the Biltmore Estate, was used to more of a farmed and foraged lifestyle. As a trained chef, and lover of food he understands how important quality ingredients are. He cooked a LOT of mushrooms, so it made sense to create a way to grow them easily at home, in the city, in a tiny apartment, with bad lighting and no humidity control. You know, where things shouldn’t really be thriving. Yet, they do!
Curtis has created grow at home mushroom kits – super easy, just cut an x in the bag and spray with a mister. Within 2 weeks you will have tasty mushrooms growing right there on the countertops. Local, delicious and full of nutrients. These are picked as you need them, not weeks in advance and not before they’re ready.
Gretchen, grew up in Southern California, has a background in the restaurant industry and the gardening and farming industry. With her background in gardening and both of their artistic propensities she creates beautiful Kokedama art, utilizing not only traditional bonzai plants but the sought after houseplants of today like a Monstera Constellation or Black Cherry Pink Princess Philodendron.
This remarkable duo is on a mission to green urban spaces and bring healthy foods to people who may not always have the option. Growing food at home and taking responsibility for even a small part of the food we consume is huge and becoming more and more necessary. Especially in today’s day and age with the recalls and interruptions in supply chains. Mushroom kits and kokedama balls aren’t all we do (they’re just our favorites).
We grow a variety of fresh mushrooms and herbs for consumers. These are available at a few of the farmers markets in town during season. Gretchen and Curtis have designed a hydroponic/aeroponic vertical tower for small spaces like we have with many of our areas restaurants being housed in the smaller, iconic 100+ year old buildings in St. Louis. Growing vegetables and herbs on site give you not only a better product but give you freedom of choice, instead of choosing one of the two items available from the vendors or grocery stores.
You can find our mushroom kits and kokedama’s at local coffee shops and greenhouses.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Absolutely not. Work life balance, while a struggle when you work for someone else, becomes even more difficult when you are birthing a company like Moss and Mushroom Alley. We had so many iterations of this before we settled on Mushrooms and Moss art.
We began this adventure in the vein of wanting to begin a traditional style farm and grow specialty herbs and peppers for various restaurants and the farmers markets. Well, climate change has other plans for the agriculture industry doesn’t it? With the uncertainty, the lack of freezes and cold, the extreme high temperatures, winds, rains, snows, the weather just being larger all together a traditional style farm was out of the question.
Not only that but land itself is becoming more and more expensive and the infrastructure that would be needed became cost prohibitive. So we redirected once again. As we were redirecting, we decided to take control of some of our own food production, from our tiny apartment in Maplewood. THIS is when we started experimenting with mushrooms and how to grow them easily. Herbs as well. THEN of course we had to take it a few steps further and experiment with whether or not we could grow enough food to sustain a family in a tiny apartment with a super small footprint, turns out you can!
During this phase of growing Moss and Mushroom Alley, Gretchen also began to experiment with Kokedama’s. This was for her mental health and peace of mind. If you live in a city, you understand how at times it can be overwhelming. There is a lot of constant action, movement, people and stimulation. This doesn’t work well with Gretchen on a consistent basis, she prefers her solitude; creating Kokedama’s gave her this. Kokedama, a form of Japanese bonsai, is also an amazing way to meditate and bring yourself back to centered, and you create beautiful art. Kokedama is the art of perfect imperfections.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We love when it’s time to create kokedama’s and prepare the mushroom kits! We are known for our spray and grow at home mushroom kits, our fresh mushrooms and our beautiful kokedama art as well as setting up urban gardens in the form of vertical hydro/aeroponic towers. These towers allow you to grow enough produce for a small family – add another vertical tower and grow enough food for larger families or restaurants. We are so very proud of being able to offer our community affordable and easy ways to take responsibility for your own groceries. Giving people the confidence to provide for their families in a way other than go to work, spend money at the store on the same boring produce.
Our passion and connection to the food definitely separate us from the pack. We’re not in it for the attention or the money. Although the money part is nice. Moss and Mushroom Alley is our way of giving back to the Earth and taking care of the community by offering choices. I mean the grocery stores, while nice, don’t carry a large choice of produce. They’re all pretty basic and very similar. Who wants boring food?
What do you like and dislike about the city?
We love the diversity of St. Louis. The ability to hit so many different cultures food festivals, especially during the beautiful months. Experiencing different foods, cultures in one small area is an amazing feeling.
We really don’t dislike much about St. Louis, if we had to pick something it would be the metal plate streets during construction. Those things make Gretchen extremely nervous to drive over.
Contact Info:
- Other: mossandmushroom@gmail.com
