Indigo Laboratory

Coordinating the many stages of cultivation, from test tube to harvested mushroom, is no small feat. In reality, it is in many respects a gargantuan task to manage the entire system while trying to stay focused and capable of running a business at the same time. And yet, here we are, conducting our little symphony of steps once again.

The laboratory is the fertile heart and nursery from which we help all our fungal companions to thrive. It is a compact, sterile, and highly specific space that lends itself to meditative focus and the honing of skills that are both strange and one-of-a-kind. It is also often a buzzing white box, full of shiny metal, smelling of isopropanol and obsessive-compulsive disorder ;) You really can’t describe it in just one way. I have spent far more time than reasonable in various spaces of this type: some much more pleasant than others. Sometimes inspired to the point of shouting "hallelujahs," and at other times, bored to madness watching pressure gauges oscillate from one side to the other.

I have set up labs in the attics of old barns, in aircraft hangars, in a tropical bathroom in Mexico, in far too many shipping containers, and now, against all odds, in a place at the antipodes of everything I have known so far: a cave located in a small Swiss village. Go figure.

Our current Indigo Mushroom lab is exactly that: a lab with a floor hand-painted in indigo blue. Quite in the spirit of our brand. We have several HEPA filters that rigorously purify our air, as well as a set of mechanisms that sterilize various forms of organic substrates intended to nourish our fungal friends. This time, this new space was truly designed with love. We have coated, painted, and waterproofed the walls of our cave, which maintains its temperature as well as we could have hoped. Our new lab is undoubtedly a source of pride.