David Pollmiller

Dave grew up in the sprawling suburbs outside of Kansas City, Kansas. A place of widespread mechanized farm land, strip malls, manicured lawns, and uninspired landscaping.

Longing to leave Kansas and see other parts of the world, Dave journeyed to Hawaiʻi to try his hand in organic agriculture and fell head over boots in love. He hasn’t looked back since. Organic farming & regenerative agriculture spoke to Dave’s heart louder and more clearly than anything else ever had.

His journey into mycology started in Chapel Hill, North Carolina when he was living and working at the Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain. Foraging for the abundance of wild mushrooms growing in the Piedmont forests became an obsession along with cultivating gourmet mushrooms in the Eco-Institute’s mushroom garden. For more than three years, Dave experimented with a variety of low-tech, outdoor cultivation methods. He began to teach classes on mushroom cultivation in 2017 and launched the Tropical Fungi Academy with co-founder, Chase.

September 2023