Owner of Mushroom Mountain
Olga had a love for mushrooms ever since she was a little kid, being taught by her grandfather Jozo back in the Balkans, which were good to eat, and which were poisonous. Olga and Billie picked mushrooms almost daily in the spring and fall, took them back to grandma Baba, who helped them roast the mushrooms on the wood stove with some salt. The lessons didn’t stop with mushrooms. She and her sister knew where all the wild strawberry patches, cherry trees and the most beautiful spring flowers were, and where to avoid being stung by the nettles. She was always in her mom’s wild plant books, reading about them, drawing them, and interacting with them in the wild.
When she met Tradd in Florida, after many walks in the woods, and countless cultivation projects in the closet of their condo, they started Mushroom Mountain. With a degree in Web Design and Marketing, she built the first Mushroom Mountain website, and started doing mushroom walks, and other local events bringing awareness to the world of mushrooms.
In 2007, Tradd and Olga moved Mushroom Mountain to South Carolina, where Tradd went back to school for Microbiology, and Olga continued working for a Marketing firm in Florida as a Customer Service Manager, and Mushroom Mountain at the same time. Her roles consisted of lab work, shipping, customer service, website work and marketing.
Once Mushroom Mountain moved to the current location in Easley, SC, the business grew exponentially. Nowadays, Olga organizes events, answers emails, phone calls, works with all the social media outlets, website, organizes the team of 7, and once in a while teaches a class or two on mushrooms. Her main job is to make sure that Mushroom Mountain is a well oiled machine. Together with Tradd, she goes to different conferences around the US, and while Tradd teaches at the podium, Olga teaches at the booth.
Besides Mushroom Mountain, she also enjoys gardening, her pet chickens, duck, dogs and cats, traveling, tie dyeing, growing and making medicine, crafting, foraging for plants and mushrooms.
