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The startup came from a desire to produce food and to start fresh.

Bev Gruger, Carleton’s mother, has been involved since Carleton and Rachel hatched the idea.

“They were both living in the city, working their good jobs, and they weren’t happy. They didn’t want to live that life — they wanted to farm. So they came up with this plan and asked if they could come home,” said Bev Gruger, who lives in Thorsby.

“We knew it was important to have food grown locally and nearby. We looked into growing greens, even had a small mealworm farm tested out,” said Rachel Gruger.

Then they stumbled onto mushrooms, realizing they could produce an organic source of protein that would appeal to vegans, vegetarians and shoppers looking for ethically cultivated local food.

And they quickly realized that there was a huge demand.

“When they first started on the small scale, they realized there’s definitely a market but we need to scale up,” said Bev Gruger.

They began marketing their mushrooms to local eateries.

“As soon as the restaurants received a small sample box from us, they said, ‘This is great — can we get 10 boxes a week?’ Which is when we realized we need to expand,” said Rachel Gruger.

Now, the farm grows 10 different kinds of mushrooms. Some are to eat and some are medicinal varieties meant to heal.

Gruger can break down the nutritional benefits of every type of mushroom here, but the entire family had to learn as the operation developed.

“We call this a research facility because nobody’s ever done this — there’s no book. What works in this room for this mushroom, might not work for this mushroom in this room. People don’t realize there’s a lot of science going on behind the scene,” said Bev Gruger.