About the Fun Guy
and his growing business...
Fun Guy Foraged Products, etc.
 

    Hello from the Fun Guy. My nane is Mark Cozzi, a Northern Califorina born and raised wild foods lover.

  I was born and raised in the town called Danville, about 25 miles east of San Francisco.
 At that time, Danville was a very small rural town with a two-lane country highway with fruit and nut orchards everywhere. My parents owned acreage there that had many different kinds of fruit trees, an olive orchard and always, every summer, a large vegetable garden. The garden was the summer project of my father and my Italian immigrant grandfather (my father's father), Dominic Cozzi.

    My grandparents lived in an apartment building in downtown San Francisco with next to no yard for growing anything more then fresh herbs like oregano and parsley. Grandpa Dominic loved coming to our place to tend my parents' garden and care for the many fruit trees. And, the truth of the matter is that this is where my love of fresh cultivated and wild foods began.

    Now you may ask, how does foraging wild mushrooms fit into my story? I am happy to say it also has to do with my Grandpa Dominic as well as my father, Eugene Cozzi. I believe the first time I heard of foraging for wild edible mushrooms was when my dad recounted a tale of his father taking him as a young boy on fishing and mushroom foraging trips to the San Joaquin River in the central valley of California. This story planted a "spore" in me that grew into my passion for knowledge about wild mushrooms, both edible and poisonous.

    Many camping and backpacking trips into the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountain Ranges when I was older fed my strong desire to learn about mycology.  However, it wasn't until my wife and I moved to Haines in Southeast Alaska in 2002 that I had the opportunity to get serious about learning all I could about mushrooming and wild food foraging in general.  Haines is in the Tongass National Forest and is blessed with hundreds of different kinds of mushrooms (edible and poisonous) and an amazing number of different edible wild berries.

    I spent the first couple of years in Haines studying mushrooming field guides with many trips into the forest for field study. Remembering the mushroom hunter's golden rule---"If you have any doubt throw it out!"---I never ate anything unless 100% sure of its identification.  Through my studies, I have discovered we have many edible mushroom varities in our area including several kinds of boletus (porcini), cauliflower, chanterelles, oyster, hedgehog, and morels just to name a few. 

    In the fall of 2003,  I decided to test the retail market in Haines and prepared several packages of dried porcini and chanterelles to sell at the local holiday bazaars. I learned that people of all kinds (young, old, hippie, ultra conservative, etc.) were interested in my dried wild mushrooms. This spurred me on to refine my packaging and test the waters again. The local townspeople remembered me and my product (referring to me as "the Mushroom Man") and my sales more than doubled from the year before. At this point, I started dreaming of actually having a wild foods business with many different products including educational items.

    In March of 2005, my dream of having my own business became a reality when I opened
 Fun Guy Foraged Products etc. and started selling fresh and dried mushrooms to some of the local restaurants and my devoted local customers.  While out in the forests and meadows of the area, I am often stopped by individuals wanting to know more about wild mushrooms and berries.  For that reason, I decided to add foraging-related equipment and educational materials.  I am excited to share what I have learned and help others to get in on the fun.  I am continually adding new products and hope you find what you are looking for. If you don't see the thing you were hoping to find, please email me; I will see if it is possible to get it for you.

    My wife and I enjoy cooking and baking together, and it is a joy to be able to incorporate the mushrooms, berries, and wildflower honey into our recipes.  We have been able to package one of our favorite side dishes into a mix for our customers...rice with porcini...available in both white and brown varieties.  Our quality standards are high, and our taste buds are spoiled.  It is a great privilege to offer these products to you, and I know you'll enjoy them.

    Thank you for your interest and for viewing my website.  I welcome your questions or comments.

The Fun Guy
Mark Cozzi