Exploring Life & Business with Tom Bailey of Eukarya Farm

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom Bailey.

Hi Tom, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My parents and I moved to Fort Lupton, Colorado in 2015. We had a lot of animals and needed more land, so we found a property with 86acres that had plenty of room for all of us. At the time, I was going to Regis University, and during the summer breaks, since we had the land, I started to grow vegetables and fruits for my family and I. Long story short, I fell in love with farming and realized that I wasn’t interested in becoming a CPA with my accounting degree but wanted to make a living being a farmer. There were a lot of small-scale vegetable farms out there, so I wanted to start growing an item that was more niche for chefs, and that’s when I discovered mushroom farming! It took a lot of studying and trial and error, but eventually I started Eukarya farm in 2018.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Growing mushrooms is easy, the real struggles with mushroom farming are running a business. Acquiring enough capital, building a customer relationships, marketing, and managing your costs/profits so you can pay the bills and make a living.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
The idea/goal behind starting Eukarya farm begins with the name. Eukarya organisms contain their genetic material inside a nucleus. Eukaryotes split and created four different kingdoms which we categorized on Earth as: Animals, Plants, Fungi, and Protista. When Eukarya Farm was first established, it planned to include all those kingdoms and create a farm that could offer produce items from each category of life. Currently, Eukarya Farm focuses on Fungi, growing and selling gourmet mushrooms to chefs/restaurants in Colorado. Those varieties include blue oysters, lion’s mane, maitake, king trumpets, chestnuts, and beech.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Participating in the local community/economy by creating a sustainable business that produces a high-quality/healthy product for my customers.

Contact Info:

• Email: tom@eukaryafarm.com
• Website: eukaryafarm.com
• Instagram: @eukaryafarm

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