Blog Wholesaler – Four Star Mushrooms

UPDATES

EXPLORE WHAT’S NEW

BLOGS

Discover some insights about our journey

21 Oct

The Last Show from the Chicago Botanic Garden

November 12, 2025
Before heading for mulch piles,these plants take one final star turn. At the Chicago Botanic Garden, even in death, plants have one final performance. As the days shorten, leaves fall,...

The Last Show from the Chicago Botanic Garden

Oct 21, 2025, 7:00 pm
Before heading for mulch piles,these plants take one final star turn. At the Chicago Botanic Garden, even in death, plants have one final performance. As the days shorten, leaves fall,...
01 Sep

The Power of Partnerships

August 29, 2025
Read how Four Star Mushrooms is more than just a food supplier to its many: restaurants, private chefs, catering companies, hotel dining, club dining and corporate dining customers.

The Power of Partnerships

Sep 1, 2025, 5:00 pm
Read how Four Star Mushrooms is more than just a food supplier to its many: restaurants, private chefs, catering companies, hotel dining, club dining and corporate dining customers.
22 Aug

Restoring Soil in Chicago Gardens

February 28, 2024
A Chicago homeowner uses spent mushroom substrate from Four Star Mushrooms to restore her garden soil into a vibrant garden.

Restoring Soil in Chicago Gardens

Aug 22, 2025, 2:30 pm
A Chicago homeowner uses spent mushroom substrate from Four Star Mushrooms to restore her garden soil into a vibrant garden.

1 3

EVENTS

Discover our upcoming events & gatherings

19 Oct

ICNC "Fund the Impact" Event

September 10, 2025
The ICNC "Fund the Impact" event is a must attend event in support of Impact Culinary. Featuring small bites, crafted drinks and a 4-course meal prepared by chefs from some...

ICNC "Fund the Impact" Event

Oct 19, 2025, 7:00 pm
The ICNC "Fund the Impact" event is a must attend event in support of Impact Culinary. Featuring small bites, crafted drinks and a 4-course meal prepared by chefs from some...
16 Sep

Chicago Harvest: Feeding our Future Sustainably...

August 29, 2025
An event held by The Chicago Section IFT (CSIFT) - a section of IFT, serving as a hub of food science professionals in the Chicago area. Event features: tour, speakers,...

Chicago Harvest: Feeding our Future Sustainably...

Sep 16, 2025, 9:30 pm
An event held by The Chicago Section IFT (CSIFT) - a section of IFT, serving as a hub of food science professionals in the Chicago area. Event features: tour, speakers,...
18 Oct

Open House Chicago

August 29, 2025
Every October, the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) is proud to host Open House Chicago (OHC)—a free public festival. Four Star Mushrooms is one of those sites!

Open House Chicago

Oct 18, 2025, 4:00 pm
Every October, the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) is proud to host Open House Chicago (OHC)—a free public festival. Four Star Mushrooms is one of those sites!

1 3

MEDIA

Our Podcast, Press, etc

Transforming Lab-Grown Mushrooms Into Orange Chicken?!
The Food Guy: Four Star Mushrooms
Chicago Gen Z entrepreneurs cultivate urban mushroom farm with global sustainability vision
Chicago’s top fungi guy is out to save the world, one beautiful mushroom at a time. - Chicago Tribune
For Chicago Mushroom Producer, Fungi Have Untapped Human and Environmental Benefits (WTTW Chicago)

1 5

Joe Weber

FOUNDER / PRESIDENT

I started Four Star Mushrooms because I believe that creating sustainable agriculture systems will be our key to solving climate change and the global loss of biodiversity. While studying biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign I became deeply curious about ecology and the degradation of our ecosystems. I began to understand that a lot of our environmental issues were rooted in the way we mass-produce food through industrial agriculture practices. Two realizations really changed the way I viewed things. 1: The average age of a supermarket apple is 14 months old, sitting in cold storage for the majority of this time. The antioxidant properties that apples are known for, polyphenols, begin to drop off after a few months in cold storage. 2: Monoculture agriculture, growing only one crop across hundreds or thousands of acres, is the largest cause of habitat loss and ecological degradation. Further, restoring degraded farmland to grasslands across the world has the potential to sequester 3 Gt of carbon per year, making it a viable solution to mitigate some impact of global climate change. My solution to these issues is to decentralize food production and utilize the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry in and around urban areas. In doing so we will create fresher, more nutritious, consistently higher yielding produce while decreasing our negative environmental footprint. I am pro-farmer and I appreciate their endless hard work. They are truly the backbone, not only of America, but of the world. Unfortunately, the average age of the typical US farmer is 58 and only going up. With fewer people entering the farming industry than the previous year, a new kind of farmer is necessary as we progress through the 21st century. This farmer is armed with knowledge of technology and data and how we can leverage these tools to increase our production while decreasing resource consumption. My vision for the future is one in which we intelligently plan and restore environments at the ecosystem level. The green revolution gave us the great corn and soy fields that we live with today and I am thankful it did. However, as we move forward we need an approach that will allow us to grow while maintaining ecological integrity and I wholeheartedly believe that agriculture produced in and around major metropolitan areas, cleanly and in many instances indoors, is a solution that will reap positive outcomes on the environment, local entrepreneurs, and the surrounding community.

Sean DiGioia

CO-FOUNDER

I combine my background in finance and economics with a passion for sustainable agriculture to spearhead operational excellence. I carved my path in the world of corporate banking, navigating the intricacies of finance and learning the fundamentals of a resilient business. While I gained an immense amount of knowledge and built relationships I will always cherish, a sense of incompleteness always gnawed at me. At the time, my childhood friend, Joe Weber, was starting to grow something that I had refused to eat my entire life - mushrooms. Since we were in kindergarten, Joe and I have always shared a love for being outside in nature and admiring the biodiversity it offers. As soon as I understood the role that fungi play within our ecosystems, it became apparent to me that mushrooms were a lot more than just something I refused to eat as a child - they represented a new beginning in my life, just as they do in nature. Stepping into the world of fungi opened my eyes to a previously unseen realm of potential. These incredibly stunning and multi-faceted organisms, nature's recyclers and culinary powerhouses, offered a pathway to a healthier planet and healthier people. Fungi's ability to regenerate our soil, while at the same time providing a protein-dense superfood with a myriad of health benefits ignited a fire and a sense of purpose within me. At Four Star, we are not simply cultivating mushrooms; we are cultivating a new paradigm for our food systems. I believe that delicious, nutritious food can be produced in harmony with nature, fostering biodiversity and enriching the earth. My journey from finance to fungi may seem surprising, but it is a testament to the transformative power of passion and purpose. With every mushroom harvested, with every relationship built, with every community enriched, Four Star brings us closer to a future where healthy, sustainable food nourishes both our bodies and our planet.