Born in Lithuania, moving to the UK at 12 years old, Arturas followed a traditional route of education in the UK. After completing his GCSE’s and moving on to level 3 BTEC’s in public services and Game design he found himself at a stage of needing some help with direction.
Arturas struggled with motivation and direction when lock downs were put in place and after multiple changes to regular life wanted to make a shift and put his future in his control.
He was put in touch with Alex, one of Real Idea’s navigators. After getting all the paperwork sorted out Alex started to assist Arturas in exploring his passions and looking into a possible direction to aid Arturas to reach his goals.
Alex introduced Arturas to Billy and Leanne to be able to explore his passion for fungi as well as foraging in the food industry in Cornwall. The plan was made to connect Arturas up with the small existing network of mycophiles and mushroom growers in his community, whilst exploring opportunities for work in the food and hospitality industry. This gave him the opportunity to get a foot in the door with the industry and move closer to paid employment.
After the trip to A Taste of the Good Life, Arturas was certain this was the direction he wanted to follow. He worked with Alex and applied for funding to get the kit he needed to make improvements to his current mushroom growing set up.
So, lets fast forward to now… Arturas got the job working at New Yard and has been wowing the team and really building a name for himself. He brings in wild mushrooms for the chef, to the point that the menu has been changed at the last minute to include his fantastic produce. The plan is for Arturas to be trained as a chef now!
When he’s not providing culinary inspiration to the kitchen team Arturas is making the most of his mushroom growing set up and building on progressing his business. His plans are to set up a mushroom farm not only for growing superb fungi but also exploring other scientific applications from this wonderful gift of nature.
“It truly felt like they wanted me to progress, succeed and achieve something, they were endlessly supportive, even when I stumbled, and it gave me boundless motivation to really do well, not just because they were working hard to help me but because they seemed like they really loved what they did.”
