OUR STORY
AHARA means ‘food’ in Sanskrit. It’s an Ayurvedic tenet that everything is food and everything you consume should be nourishment that connects all the senses.
We are a mindful mushroom company that follows the science with everything we develop.
In 2000, at 20 years old, I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and spent the next couple years in chemotherapy.
Trying to destroy Leukemia, a blood cancer, means destroying all other cells in the process. Chemotherapy did severe damage to my bones and joints, and I spent the next decade trying to rebuild from the physical damage as well as a bone disease, avascular necrosis, caused by a bad reaction with prednisone.
7 spinal taps, 16 surgeries, three hip replacements, and many years later, I began to climb out of the fog. My physical body was slowly rebuilding, I’d gotten through the cancer, but the mental damage and trauma, along with the cognitive slowdown I’d experienced, all left their mark.
If chemo and cancer did that to my bones, what did they do to the rest of my body...my brain, my nervous system, my gut?
Doctors notified me from early on that there would be significant brain damage short and long term. After so much stress from the surgeries and chemotherapy, more prescription drugs didn't seem like the answer.
To help alleviate crippling pain and debilitating mental health issues, including depression, I sought out natural remedies.
A Natural Solution
In 2018, a forager friend told me about Lion’s Mane mushrooms and suggested I look into them. Soon I became obsessed with researching functional mushrooms and their potential healing properties. Through that research, I learned about Lion’s Mane's potential to heal the brain and the gut and promote nerve growth.
At the time, I was working as an operations manager at a cannabis testing facility, developing lab standards and processes for the cannabis industry. My focus was on building quality management systems to the ISO 17025 standard, and later on I worked for the State of Maryland assisting in developing testing regulations.
I began searching for quality Lion’s Mane, but couldn’t find a product I could trust - with all my tests and research, I kept finding products made with mostly mycelium or myceliated oats, not to mention there were very few options grown AND processed in the U.S. Everything seemed to be white labeled from China.
Feeling like I had no other option, I decided to learn how to grow them myself. I became obsessed with growing Lion’s Mane and looking into the myriad of ways this mushroom could be applied as medicine and a supplement to a healthy lifestyle.
AHARA was born.
The Functional Mushroom Movement
After trying Lion’s Mane in various forms on myself, it’s night and day compared to before, and over time along with daily exercise and meditation, I slowly could feel my mind and brain healing. Lion’s Mane became the thing that brought it all together.
Along the way, I became equally obsessed with Reishi, and it's potential anti-cancer effects. I wanted to be a trusted source of US grown Reishi, so we added it as our second USDA Organic crop.
Chef Steven Atwood, 2022
Chef Rob Rubba. 2023
We built out the facility ourselves, a custom grow and in-house processing operation, USDA Certified Organic.
With our first crops, I started sharing different natural remedies with friends and seeing the direct positive impact on them was nothing short of profound.
The question became how do we bring these wonderful mushrooms to everyone I can?
In early 2023, we launched our first CPG product - the Golden Mane Chai, and after two years of research and development, we launched our custom extraction, alcohol-free elixirs in 2024.
We now carry 10 products, all made and processed in house. Hand-crafted, straight from the source.
A Family Business
I was lucky enough to grow up in various labs, thanks to my dad. He's worked in range of positions; from Exxon to NIST to the FDA over his career. So when starting Ahara, I couldn't have thought of a better person with whom to partner up.
His background in nanotechnology and materials processing have been integral in us developing our alcohol-free elixirs and our proprietary, water-based extraction processes. We are giving you the purest possible forms of these mushrooms.
DR. SUBHAS MALGHAN
Born in Bagalkot, Karnataka, India, my dad is a living legend.
He arrived in America with $7 and quickly got to work researching ultrafine grinding for the separation of industrial materials in the '80s. After a couple decades in the private sector, he worked his way up to Deputy Director of Technology Services at the National Institute of Science and Technology.
He held several positions and roles while working for NIST, FDA and NIH for 28 years.
He holds a masters MS in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno; and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
He's also a grandfather and leads multiple meditation groups in his community.
AJAY MALGHAN
I background is in the arts, a Bachelors of Communications at University of Maryland, and a MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design.
I've been farming mushrooms for close to 4 years now and I treat it like an art form. I believe the craft is a perfect combination of art and science.
Before founding Ahara, I spent 3 years as an operations manager in the cannabis testing industry, later on developing Quality Management Systems, lab procedures and testing protocols.
A Science Driven Company
We are committed to constantly improving and finding the best ways for you to use these mushrooms. Our products are all vegan and gluten free and we are dedicated to a sustainable farming practice. We'll always use the finest ingredients in everything we make, all our mushrooms our grown by us, and all our products are hand-crafted in our own facility.
We are dedicated to bringing our customers the best ways to benefit from these amazing mushrooms, in the highest quality and purest forms possible. We'll always follow the science, and we'll keep you informed on all the recent studies in our blog along the way.
The science is moving fast with mushrooms and the future is bright at Ahara. A family-owned, USDA Organic grower and processor, in Rockville, Maryland.
AJAY MALGHAN, FOUNDER