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BATON ROUGE, LA (BRPROUD) — What started as a small hobby quickly grew into a thriving business.

Mushrooms. They come in all shapes and sizes and offer a variety of textures and flavors.

“Nobody knows about all these types of mushrooms.”

And for Maggie Long, they have become her passion. A passion that grew from curiosity.

“The research started when I was working at Whole Foods in the produce department. I got to know a lot of the farmers, even some here, and just trying to find a little niche that no one was doing and it was mushrooms. So, it was kind of just seeing what was needed around here,” Long said.

For most of her life she didn’t like mushrooms but that quickly changed.

“Even I didn’t really like mushrooms until I tried all these different kinds and stuff and it’s like this whole other world,” Long said.

That new world eventually became Mushroom Maggie’s Farm.

“We started with just one room inside my mother-in-law’s barn. We started to fill up the room and kind of started to take over it, but we do everything all the growing in and around that one barn area,” Long said.

Soon she had a full-blown business and a growing list of loyal customers.

“People are really getting more health conscious, so it’s been nice to see the feedback and the positive response from our customers here because they are all in,” Long said.

As her business grew so did her appreciation for the product.

“For example, our lions main, it’s the only known natural substance to help regrow the melanin in your brain. So it helps with neurological disorders like MS and Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Dementia. It even just gives you a little memory boost,” Long said.

Long hopes her love for science and farming will inspire more women to enter the farming industry.

“It’s exhausting but it is nice to see that there are a lot more females and younger people coming out to start farming, so that’s really exciting and I’m glad that we can be a part of it too,” Long said.

For more information on Mushroom Maggie’s Farm visit their Facebook or Instagram pages.