Support Black Trumpet Farm and Asheville’s Recovery

We're focused on meeting the immediate needs of the community right now, but the long-term water crisis in Buncombe County threatens to cause a secondary disaster for our local economy. Restaurants can’t operate without potable water, and schools remain closed.

Our mushroom farm is in a very difficult financial position. Before the storm, 60% of our sales went to 30 local restaurants, which will likely be closed for months as the city rebuilds roads and water distribution networks. The rest of our income came from two farmer’s markets—the RAD market was completely swept away, and the North Asheville lot is now a FEMA staging area. Our revenue stream dried up overnight and we've been scrambling to rapidly reconfigure our business model, on top of everything else.

This past week, we’ve donated over 400 lbs of fresh mushrooms and plan to continue doing so, thanks to our amazing partners—World Central Kitchen, Curate, Equal Plates Project, Neng Jr's, Static Age Loft, and Vinnie’s—who are turning them into hot meals for those in need.

Our mushrooms grow on a 4-6 week cycle so the mushrooms we planted a month ago are producing 800 lbs weekly. We can’t slow down for at least another month. We need to keep our wonderful team employed so we can continue harvesting and donating all these mushrooms.

We’re incredibly grateful to the Farm Connection and Equal Plates who are working to compensate farmers for donations. Please consider donating to these organizations, who do incredible work in our region! However, our overhead and payroll remain high and we have little incoming revenue. We need to stay in business to keep contributing to recovery efforts.

Many friends have experienced extreme losses, so please support them first. But if you’re able, we would greatly appreciate any help to keep our farm operating during this crisis. Small businesses, artists, and restaurants are the backbone of Asheville, and we’ll need a supportive circular economy to rebuild.

I've set up this GoFundMe to help support our team and continue donating nutritious, healthy food. I’m also working on launching an online store for our website (www.blacktrumpetnc.com) where you can pre-order t-shirts, dried mushrooms, and medicinal mushroom tinctures.

Please spread the word, and thanks so much for your support!