This St. Clair College student is growing his passion for mushrooms into a small business

Sami Moussa first started foraging for mushrooms with his sister a few years ago.

The two never found many they could eat, but Moussa's interest for the organism stuck. After learning what it would take to grow mushrooms at home, Moussa decided to give it a try.

"I like new challenges," said Moussa, a medical laboratory sciences student at St. Clair College. "I thought it would be something fun and different and challenging to do."

Now, he's putting his passion to work — with the help of a provincial student grant, Moussa started his own business, called Forest Fungi, growing and selling mushrooms this summer.

Moussa, who is from Forest, Ont., runs a mushroom-growing set up out of his garage — complete with tech that manages air flow, light and humidity — and sells the final product, as well as DIY mushroom growing kits, at local farmers' markets.

He says the venture has been very successful so far and he's been selling out regularly at the farmers' markets.

He's also partnered with a cafe to provide the mushrooms they use on their sandwiches.

"I figured I really enjoyed doing it, I had some of the methods down, so why not turn it into a business?" said Moussa.

Moussa sources the mushroom spores online and grows a variety of types — including lion's mane, shiitake, king oyster mushrooms and more.

Moussa started the business as part of the summer company program — which provides high school, college and university students with funds and mentorship to help them start their own businesses. 

The program aims to teach younger adults about the skills it takes to run a business, like bookkeeping, marketing and sales.

Alison Minato, manager of the Small Business Enterprise Centre for Sarnia-Lambton, which runs the program locally, says it's been great to watch Moussa's business venture succeed this summer.

Who wants to work for a boss when you can be the boss right? ... If I could make an actual business out of this … that's kind of the dream.- Sami Moussa, founder of Forest Fungi

"It's really exciting. When I first saw his application, I was like, wow, this is really unique," said Minato. "It's really nice to be on this little snippet of his career journey so can't wait to see what he does [next]."

The hardest part of the program has been finding a mentor in his line of work — but Moussa says he was eventually able to connect with someone who used to grow a few types of mushrooms, which has been helpful when he's run into problems along the way.

Moussa says the startup hasn't been cheap either — while the program supplies $1,500 at the beginning of the summer and another $1500 at the end, he's already put the full $3,000 toward the venture.

While not all of the businesses started through the summer company program end up sticking around into the fall and beyond, Minato says the goal is that young entrepreneurs come away from the experience with more knowledge of what it takes to run a business.

Moussa will be continuing his studies in September but hopes to keep the business up and running — and maybe pull in a family member or two to help him sell the produce at the farmer's markets.

He hopes the business might eventually grow into a full-time career.

"Who wants to work for a boss when you can be the boss, right?" Moussa said. "If I could make an actual business out of this … that's kind of the dream."