Shlomi (Miko) Hayun
Hey, I’m Shlomi Hayun. Most people know me as Miko or Shlomiko (some also just call me Hayun…) — feel free to choose whatever feels right to you.
A bit of biography: I was born in the early ’70s, grew up in the eighties (yes, my anthem is “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads), and I was what you’d call a “troubled kid with potential.” My teachers said as much to my disappointed parents, but no one knew back then that behind the trouble hid a serious attention disorder (ADHD).
Life carried on along a fairly ordinary path; I lost my short-term memory in a skiing accident… I did my military service, took a big backpacking trip, and then was drawn into the world of cinema — studying acting and screenwriting. I found myself making films (the documentary “The Acting Teacher,” about Nissan Nativ), working as a director (even on “Uvda”), and eventually founded an independent business for digital content creation and film conversion — “Studio Hana Bi.”
The story takes an interesting turn in 2010, when our beloved and only firstborn son, Avshalom, was born. Because of him, we began looking for slightly different educational settings and arrived at the Anthroposophical world. And here Avishag enters the picture — my partner (whom I fell in love with in 2000 during our studies at Sam Spiegel, together ever since, and who would later earn the nickname “Avishag the Forager”). When our Avshe needed to switch kindergartens in 2014, Avishag — originally a kibbutznik from Revivim — informed me that she’d found him a perfect Anthroposophical kindergarten… up north.
Me? I broke out in a fever. A city dweller my whole life — Rishon LeZion, the US, two decades in Tel Aviv — I couldn’t see what I had to do with the north. The entire drive there I was in a panic, screaming in the car like a madman… until we reached the Beit Keshet area (Jezreel Valley) and suddenly, quiet. I fell in love with the place at first sight. I understood this was our new home.
After a brief period in Ein Dor, we settled in Hararit in the Lower Galilee in 2015. Avishag began going out into nature every day, and Avshe and I along with her. She caught the foraging bug (“Avishag the Forager”), and I… I discovered mushrooms. And I was simply hooked. Not in the sense of eating them — to this day I don’t really eat mushrooms — but in the encounter with them. Something in their energy in the forest, in the quiet of the search, made me excited, made me tremble, stirred me. Ever since, I spend hours in forests and groves, simply searching for them.
And then COVID arrived. Like many, we had to reinvent ourselves. The passion for mushrooms was already burning in me, so I decided to turn it into something tangible: I carved out a space in the parking area beneath the house we had built in Hararit and set up a small cultivation lab. The space was limited, so I focused on what fascinated me most — functional mushrooms. And that was THE turning point. Ever since, my life has truly changed.
Somehow, this intense, quiet work of growing mushrooms, the focus on their delicate processes, did something to me. That kid from Rishon with the undiagnosed ADHD and the anger? He started to shift. I grew up, I matured; something in me settled and came into focus. I give credit first and foremost to myself for the inner work, to Avishag and Avshalom who support, contain, and love me, and yes — also to the mushrooms themselves and to the process of working with them.
This passion led me to dive deeper into the world of extractions as well — how to draw the very best out of the mushrooms. I acquired advanced equipment such as a freeze dryer and an ultrasonic device, ran endless experiments, until I developed Triterra Farm’s unique extraction method: combining the traditional triple extraction with ultrasonic technology. It may be a slow and meticulous path, but I believe it is the most precise and correct one — respect for tradition with an up-to-date technological twist.
I still have so much more to tell about mushrooms, about their power, and about what they have taught me — about nature, about respect for Mother Earth, about connecting with people. Maybe it sounds a little spiritual, but anyone who knows me knows this is simply me, Miko. I hope this passion and respect come through in our products too and reach you.
Thank you for taking the time to get to know me a little better.
We Are All Connected.