Most Interesting People 2015: Kai Wingo

Why she's interesting: When she was laid off from her job as an administrator with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Wingo looked at it as an opportunity rather than a crisis. She started the city's first gourmet mushroom farm in her basement. In the fall of 2013, she moved her operation to a plot in the Buckeye Shaker neighborhood thanks to a vacant land grant. Since then, Wingo has worked full time cultivating fresh, edible mushrooms, including shiitake, lion's mane and garden giants. She passes out samples at local farmers markets and teaches workshops for other would-be mushroom farmers.

Buckeye state of mind: Popular lore has it that a buckeye in the pocket will bring you luck and money. But Wingo was having difficulty finding any. "When I was a child they were laying all over the ground. I just saw that as a sign, a challenge, a quest to find them." As fortune would have it, a friend advised her to visit the Shaker Square farmers market, where Tom Wiandt — owner of Killbuck Valley Mushrooms in Wayne County — scrounged her up a few and invited her to visit his mushroom farm.

Mushroom mentors: A week after her visit to Killbuck Valley, Wingo received an invitation to attend a lecture on mushrooms at the Rainey Institute on East 55th Street. "After that lecture, I just saw mushrooms everywhere." She returned to Wiandt's farm stand to share the news. "He said, •You should really think about growing them.' "

Groovy, baby: Wingo was initially interested in psychedelic mushrooms for their regenerative effects. "Psilocybin mushrooms were helping people to get over post-traumatic stress disorder, helping people who were terminally ill to get over the fear of death. I was always taught in health class that if you lost those brain cells that was it, you couldn't grow those back."

Distant cousins:"[Humans] have a lot of similarities to mushrooms."Common factors include oxygen respiration, the ability to absorb vitamin D through the skin and even the ability to fight off viruses and bacteria through a developed immune system. Though she says, "[Mushrooms] do it much more efficiently than we do."

Earthy interests: Wingo's farm has provided her with more than a living, it's also sparked entirely new hobbies. "I hadn't been camping before this. I love how mushrooms just brought all these new interests and loves, this connection with the earth."

farm hands: Wingo's three children, ages 7, 14 and 19, used to hate mushrooms but have developed an affinity for them. Her oldest, Michael, is planning to start his own mushroom farm soon, and her youngest showed quite a talent for foraging. "She was the one who found more mushrooms than anybody. She told me, 'Don't worry, Mommy, I'm closer to the ground.' "