About Kathryn Kay
Who I Am
I'm Kathryn Kay. I am a Certified Dietary Manager, Mushroom Farm Coach and Consultant, Production Horticulture Specialist, and former Community Education Instructor at Yavapai College. I'm also a member of the Arizona Mushroom Growers Association, Slow Food, the Northern Arizona Climate Change Alliance, the Soil Science Society of America, the Prescott and Orescott Valey Chambers of Commerce, Moonshot winner for the Quad-cities, and the Founder of MycoEarth, and the Quad Cities winner of Moonshot 2026.
My Story
For 11 years, I farmed culinary and functional mushrooms. In the last 6 years, my interest turned to what the mushroom mycelium does below the soil, regenerating it. I studied it. I experimented with deploying mushroom mycelium into sickly soil, resulting in disassembled and devoured hydrocarbons. I knew from the research that the ag chemicals could also be denatured, and the fungi could then call in the missing members of the soil microbiome (bacteria and yeasts). Then, my mother was diagnosed with cancer directly linked to DDT. That is when I started to go all-in on developing a business to educate farmers, orchardists, and viticulturists about how a restored soil microbiome could serve them by retaining water by 251%, reducing ag chemical inputs by 90%, and much more.
Why Fungi/Mushrooms & Soil Restoration?
Every ecosystem on Earth ultimately reports to what I call the Department of Soil. The condition of that soil right now is poor to critical. Native mushroom mycelium doesn't just help soil a little. It rebuilds the living soil microbiome that chemical agriculture has spent decades destroying. This work matters for your backyard garden, your farm, your orchard, your vineyard — and for every person who eats food grown in chemically damaged ground.
MycoEarth produces native mushroom spawn and helps Arizona growers to deploy it into the soil.
Let's Connect
If this resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you.
🌐 www.mycoearth.us 📧 kathryn@mycoearth.us You may leave a voicemail at (928) 910-9802.
