Growing in the countryside, one cannot avoid being absorbed by the burst of life natures displays in Autumn.  This is when the dry Mediterranean meadows rejoice with rain after the long and torrid summer months.  In Iklin, in the small island of Malta, the scent of the wet soil being ploughed filled the air and my lungs as I chased around butterflies, feral chickens and whatever captured my attention.

Apart from the sprouting plants and humming insects, the living soils create the perfect habitat for fungi and mushrooms which I, as a curious child, could not comprehend.  What was this creature that behaves like a plant but is not?  The dusty spores, the fragile fruitbody and the mycelium patterns captured my imagination.

Years passed and that child grew…as his curiosity.  Even more then, the difference between plants and fungi became more evident and the fact that biologically there were closer to animals was astounding.  The first experiments were done in the basement, in bowls layered with wet carton and oyster mushroom strips.

Failure after failure we learned and successes started to become more frequent.  Curiosity grew fueled by the fun and enthusiasm of growing new varieties and trying new substrates.  Slowly, like-minded individuals were attracted by the years of experimentation to continue to feed this insatiable curiosity.

Today, MycoMalta has become a local and European reference point in terms of cultivation knowledge but the way ahead is still long while the desire to learn more remains as strong as ever.