In the evenings, on Pacific Avenue, a woman with a tray full of various psychotropic candies wanders around looking for potential customers. You’ll know her when you see her, for she has long platinum-blonde hair, a bright red mushroom hat, and wings on her back. Her occupation? Professional Mushroom Fairy.
I didn’t know what she was selling until I approached her and queried, “Can I ask you a few questions?” She paused and looked at me. “Are you a Fed?” she said as her eyes analyzed me to see if I was worthy of her time and trust.
“Nope, just a measly journalist looking for a story,” I said.
“Well, what’s your question?” she asked as she stared at me. “What are you selling?” I asked. She looked down at her tray and then back up at me. “‘Shroom chocolates. Do you want to buy one?” she asked.
“No, I just wanted to talk to you. Maybe write a story about you,” I said.
“All right, follow me. I need to take a break at my car,” she replied as she started walking.
I followed her to her car like a duckling following its mother. As we were walking, we saw two men pissing on the wall of Streetlight Records. When we passed, one of the men turned around and called, “Hey, wait, How much for a bar?” The mushroom fairy stopped in her tracks, turned toward the rowdy gentleman, and said, “$40 for a full bar, $10 for 1.4 grams,” she said sternly.
As the two of them were talking, I reached my hand into my purse and held onto my pepper spray in case something bad was about to happen.
“$40? Come on, that’s too much, and it’s for my friend,” the man whined. He sounded like a child who was just asked to clean his room.
“Well, surely your friend has friends, and I mean money,” she said in response to his whining.
I looked over at his friend, who was still pissing on the wall, seemingly oblivious to the exchange. After a few more minutes of back-and-forth bargaining, the man reluctantly walked away to join his friend.
With that brief encounter behind us, we continued on our way. As we reached her car, the Mushroom Fairy opened her trunk and pulled out a bong. I took a seat on a nearby cement lamppost and watched as she prepared a mix of tobacco and weed to smoke, finally taking a moment to relax.
After a few minutes of light-hearted banter, The Fairy revealed that she was born and raised in Bonny Doon and that, outside the shroom business, she enjoys growing herbs to make essential oils and raising birds like chickens, turkeys and geese.
What got her into the fungi world was the healing ability of the plant in general: “I was diagnosed with cervical cancer a while back, and I was able to reverse and heal myself with not psilocybin, but mushrooms in general,” she said. “But I already had the knowledge of psilocybin, so I decided to dig deeper into it.”
The Fairy expressed that she likes to use psilocybin every now and then as a meditative medicine during personal ceremonies and wishes to share with others the healing experiences she’s had.
“I’ve had really informative and transformative trips, so to speak, but I believe in microdosing. You can do a lot of inner work, and it’s a good medicine,” she said.
The Fairy said that their mushrooms are sourced from the Bay Area, and it’s not very common for someone who sells drugs to reveal where they source their product from. The type of mushroom used in the chocolates is Enigma mushrooms, a capless type of mushroom with a high concentration of psilocybin.
“It’s like a sativa, in cannabis terms. It’s a head high, not a body high,” she explained. “It’s very functional, very enlightening, makes you want to go on a hike.”
The Fairy explained that this is a part-time gig for her, but she makes a decent amount of money doing it.
So far, the only hangup for her is supply and demand. “Everyone loves our products, and sometimes we get pretty swamped with people, you know, just being busy,” The Fairy said.
Despite it being difficult to meet demand, she said the highlight of her work was the connections and communities she’s made and become a part of.
“It feels like an ever-growing system of mycelium people,” she said.
Her advice for people reading this is simple yet profound: be a good person, be honest and stand up for what you believe in. These guiding principles have shaped her journey and continue to influence her work.
For those curious about trying her chocolates, she recommends starting small. “Start with one of our squares, which is 0.30 grams. It’s like a medium microdose and intensifies with each chocolate you eat,” she advises. This careful approach reflects her commitment to responsible and mindful consumption.
Meeting the Mushroom Fairy provided a glimpse into her world. From her perspective, this work goes beyond selling psychotropic chocolates. What she’s offering, on her journeys through downtown Santa Cruz, may be dreams, but not only of the psychedelic variety. She envisions building community, promoting healing, and sharing her knowledge and experiences. Not bad visions to have.
