[NOMADE DES MERS] Low-tech in Silicon Valley ?

After crossing the Pacific this summer, the Sea Nomad’s adventure resumes in San Francisco Bay. We have heard that here, mushrooms and micro-organisms are used in quite unexpected ways : mushrooms as building materials, bacteria and yeast in high fashion !

With us on board is Caroline, a Belgian mushroom-material enthusiast! Like her, the collective of committed citizen-researchers of Counter Culture Labs, an experimental laboratory open to all, is interested in the properties of mushroom mycelium to build objects : lamps, bricks, biodegradable packaging or thermal insulation. A beautiful moment of sharing and a world of possibilities that remains to be explored !

On the road, we also meet Sacha Laurin of Kombucha Couture. Now a fashion designer, this fermentation enthusiast “grows” living clothes. She uses a SCOBY of kombucha: a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Once dried, this fabric can be dyed, cut and sewn. A promising vegan and biodegradable alternative to animal leather !

On the boat, experiments are going well ! A mushroom thermos, a Norwegian pot, an insulating plate for a solar water heater…
It is with this new universe of possibilities in mind, that we set out towards New Mexico, for a stopover which promises to be…terrestrial.