R & R Cultivation
Owner Nick Robinson is a Twin Cities native with a passion for growing fresh, gourmet mushrooms. After getting married in 2012, Nick lived in Shanghai, China, for three years and visited 12 different countries to explore what the world had to offer. After returning home, Nick started finding ways to give back to his community in a local and meaningful way. After working in education for three years and serving on a school board, he was drawn into the world of sustainable living and urban farming by a friend for more than 10 years, Lance Ramm. This was the beginning of R & R Cultivation.
In 2018, Nick and Lance started their first mushroom grow in Nick’s basement. They relied on their 4’ by 4’ grow tent to get them started selling mushrooms at local farmers markets. From the beginning, they had tremendous success. By 2019, Nick and Lance were ready to expand into a warehouse and increase their mushroom production eight-fold.
In two short years, Nick and Lance took R & R Cultivation from a small basement operation to a fully scaled urban farm. Today, they supply fresh, gourmet mushrooms to most co-ops and farmers markets in the area in addition to Lunds & Byerlys.
Nick and Lance’s operation would not be here today without the involvement of many family members for which they are eternally grateful. Nick’s mother bought the entire second basement set-up which allowed for increased production. Nick’s father worked alongside him to design and build his grow rooms and get the business operational. Nick’s sister, Michelle Wheeler, is a junior partner at professional Marketing Services and has been the sole reason why the company’s website, online presence and CSA have been so successful.
Lance’s father leads the operation’s block-making process and is a crucial part of the company’s success. Lance’s mother stamps the farmers market bag, cleans once a week and always brings brownies to help boost morale!