‘It’s very cool in here, kind of dark’.
‘Yeah, I like the quiet’.
We are deep down in the root system of our home. This is the mushroom farm that provides for much of our food and gives a little extra for gifting.
‘The Fungi do well here, the roots that surround us also keep the humidity perfect for their growth. It took a few conceptual leaps when we designed the chamber but now, it’s perfect’.
I hold up a little bioluminescent sphere - our home grown light source. The bigger ones upstairs were a gift from another community and some of us managed to find a way to divide and cultivate the algae within them so that we can make our own.
Blue green light fills the first few metres in a globe around where we are standing. The rows of shelves made from redirected roots are full of bags of fruiting fungi.
The shelves themselves apparently control the temperature and humidity of the spawn, making growth and fruiting an almost automatic process. Condensation beads on the wood and the fruiting mushrooms, I trace my finger through a patch, writing my name in water.
The engineers who designed and grew the system made the mushroom chamber a feature of our home and my guide tells me that there are many other little surprises throughout the whole tree.
There are a few ‘fungal folk’ who spend a lot of their time down here time tending to their charges and trying to understand them better. As time passes in the Tree, I find that mushrooms guide us in many of our activities. I have spent time outside on forages through the forest and am starting to understand how seamless our connections in the world are.
I stand, appreciating the gifts that the Tree shares with us. I almost feel the structure sway in the wind, little creaks coming from the roots as they shift to balance their heavy load.
I find myself swaying a little too and my companion laughs.
‘You’re really becoming at home here aren’t you’?
I can only nod.
