About Us

Joe and Wendy Rizzo’s story begins in New York City, where they first met in 1995. Wendy was preparing to head off to law school, while Joe was working at a farmers market for his family’s New Jersey farm. They hit it off, got married, and eventually started a family with two kids. Over the years, Wendy transitioned from law to a career in higher education, and Joe became a science teacher. Fast-forward to 2008, when they decided to take a leap and move to Ithaca, NY, to start a mushroom farm—because why not?

Blue Oyster Cultivation began in 2009—back before mushrooms were cool. Over time, our name became synonymous with high-quality, gourmet mushrooms. But we started to wonder: why stop there? What else could we do with mushrooms?

Joe, ever the science enthusiast, had long been intrigued by the idea of experimenting with biofuels. While that particular project never came to fruition, the abundance of mushrooms on hand sparked another idea: why not combine science and mushrooms in a different way? And so, Mushroom Spirits Distillery was born.