Gone are the days of conventional agricultural practices for Nick Bryant, owner of Timber and Toil, a Moscow company dedicated to responsible and resourceful harvesting. With his hands in the dirt and black fingernails, Bryant is changing the mushroom harvesting business.
Timber and Toil sells foraged gemstones, antlers, mushrooms and other miscellaneous items found in the woods and wilderness of Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington, Bryant said. In order to operate this business, Bryant and his company have acquired commercial permits from neighboring states to conduct trade of their found goods.
Business partners AJ Valoff and Nick Bryant stand in front of their vendor spot at the Moscow Farmers Market selling foraged mushrooms.
Bryant and his team venture into the outback of the Northwest and collect valuable items they then sell online through sales platforms like Etsy, Amazon, EBay and the Moscow Farmers Market, Bryant said.
There is minimal planning done to collect items. They organize team and routes to conduct foraging, Bryant said. The natural gems they obtain and sell through foraging are found and sold as they are discovered.
The mushrooms they sell on the other hand require more thought and preparation to harvest.
“You get extremely interested in mycology and fungal life and develop a knowledge of when and where certain fungi are fruiting,” Bryant said. “You learn the environments and trees they associate themselves with and begin putting together an annual list.”
Bryant said there is a team of four, including himself. Together they strategize and execute their foraging. The team uses their list of fungi and their growing tendencies to plan their foraging trips across the Northwest, and then they sell them on their associated platforms.
Timber and Toil originated their sales on Etsy, an online store, Bryant said. The company keeps themselves relevant and marketable online by going to marketplaces looking for venders, keeping good photographs, good customer service and staying contemporary, Bryant said.
“If free shipping is where it”s at, why then we do free shipping,” Bryant said.
Bryant said he looks for customer needs and then works to fulfill those needs.
Bryant is from Southern Idaho. He received his master”s degree in recreation from the University of Idaho in 2012 and said he founded his company shortly after graduating in 2013.
Bryant said he has been growing his company for three years.
“People have been stoked, we are being well received,” Bryant said. “There are ups and downs, it”s crazy. Friendships that have come together and broken apart and all sorts of things that are all wrapped up in a fungus.”
This year is the first time Timber and Toil
has been at the farmer”s market.
“I”ve always been drawn to the outdoors,” said Bryant, “I always wanted to find a way to make what I do a way of life.”
Bryant has found a way to join his passion with a means of financial gain.
“I call it a jobby,” Bryant said. “A job and hobby.”
Kevin Neighbors can be reached