Mushrooming Together

A New Year: Three New Employees
by Laura

Here at Field & Forest Products each new year brings forth great ideas. Last year we had many including revamping our packing room, designing Field & Forest stickers to include in orders, purchasing a new more energy efficient walk-in cooler, and reconfiguring the employees and their office spaces. The later, seems to have left me all alone (except during the lunch hour when the production workers want to peruse the internet.), but this gives me a great opportunity to contemplate and create epic blogs for all to enjoy. See, we have two main office spaces here, Corporate and the Annex. When walking through the front door of Field & Forest you are immediately entering the Annex. There you will find my smiling face. I do share this space with Jasen so I am not truly alone, but he spends just about all of his time making spawn just to the North of me. If I look to the West I can see into Corporate, which houses all of the other VIPS of F&FP. To the East is the packing room. So why the sudden change up of whom gets what office space? The answer is simple...new employees.
We have a total of three new staffers this year. We were in serious need of help in the packing room as well as the lab. It seems that growing mushrooms is becoming more and more popular, which benefits us, as well as you, and perhaps the rest of the world. As sales increase so do the number of orders we send out each year, and the amount of spawn that must be produced and maintained. Our kind of business requires a great deal of collaboration, teamwork, and good food! With all of that said F&FP is proud to introduce Chance, Derek, and Jon.

Chance

 

I am 17 and live in Marinette, Wisconsin. Currently, I am a junior enrolled in Marinette High School, but go through a schooling program called GPS Education Partners, which offers students the ability to take more of a hands-on approach to education by partnering with area businesses to provide work experience. Prior to working with Field & Forest, I didn't know anything about mushrooms or the business.  Since October, when I first became employed, I've learned how to inoculate logs, grow mushrooms, and now know when mushrooms are ready to harvest and how to pick and grade them for shipping. I've also learned about packing and shipping orders. Overall, working here has taught me how to be a good employee.

Outside of school and work I like playing video games, playing rugby and welding. I'm still undecided about what my goals are for after graduation in the spring of 2015.

Derek

I would best describe myself as an outdoor enthusiast who is an extremely devoted Packer fan. Currently living in Titletown, USA and proud to be a new member of the Field & Forest Products team; I started working for the company in January of 2014 after receiving my Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay.
During the week you can find me processing orders and packaging them in a secure and orderly fashion. I also help out with a variety of activities that go along with mushroom production. On the weekends you can find me exploring the Bay and small inland lakes for fish and waterfowl or in the northern woods of Wisconsin hunting deer.

Jon

I have had an interest in mushrooms for about as long as I can remember. Even now one of my favorite activities is hunting for edible mushrooms in the spring and fall. Although I grew up in Vermont my interest in fungi keeps bringing me back to Wisconsin; first as a graduate student in mycology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and now as a production and research mycologist for FFP. I am excited to be working at F&FP in a capacity that will allow me to follow my passion for edible mushrooms and their use in agricultural systems.