A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SQUATCHER & HIS FUNGI’S
Shroomsquatch Myco-Ventures LLC was started in October of 2022 by Sam Wagner out of the ashes of previous fungal based projects. A former social worker, he was called into a new type of social welfare aimed at curiosity, exploration, and decentralization. Through the lessons of past ventures, he was able to focus on what made working within an ecosystem invaluable for finding meaning in our own lives and communities.
In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu says,
“Thirty spokes share the hub of a wheel;
yet it is its center that makes it useful.
You can mould clay into a vessel;
yet, it is its emptiness that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows from the walls of a house;
but the ultimate use of the house
will depend on that part where nothing exists.
Therefore, something is shaped into what is;
but its usefulness comes from what is not.”
As many who work with fungi would report, you don’t so much choose the mycelial path as you are called onto it, and this is, as Lao Tzu states, an act of being made useful by the nothing... or the everything. Either way you view it (hint: it’s both), mycelium, like the Tao, is a path through ecology and can display a deeper meaning that is barely, if at all, visible on the surface. Squatch beneath the surface to see what purpose for life you can find.
The old adage goes, “If you sit in the forest long enough, you’ll figure it out.” Working within a fungal based system of permaculture enables us to begin to close not only loops within our ecosystem but also teaches us ways to close our own loops.
Who We Are …
Meet Sam
Owner, Farmer, Educator
“I began practicing mycology in 2019 after spending 17 years as a social worker. After realizing that the social welfare system was merely keeping individuals stuck in the same system that was “helping”. I quit the social work job and system that only seemed to keep those it claimed to serve stuck within the system. Unfortunately, social welfare is often times a trap, and I wanted to engage a process that allowed others to liberate themselves, not just from social welfare systems themselves but also from any exterior governance. I thought, ‘What better way to do this than to learn from fungi and work within the natural world?’
It is now my goal to create a community through mycology and other permaculture structures to help others see what they are capable of and what their natural world has to offer through a relationship with their environment. I dubbed this “myco-social work”, and I hope to bring you knowledge, confidence, critical thinking skills, and playful discovery along the way. We are all scientists. We simply have to awaken to our presence to see how.”
