Songosorhongo

The problem

The wild mushrooms growing in the cloud forests around Santa Elena (Antioquia) are an ingredient with enormous culinary potential — but almost entirely unknown in everyday Colombian cooking. There is no local culture of foraging, identifying, or cooking them. Chefs and restaurants that want to work with local mushrooms have no reliable suppliers, and people who encounter them at markets don't know what to do with them.

The challenge was to create a digital presence that did three things simultaneously: educate about what they are and how to cook them, inspire with concrete and accessible recipes, and connect with people who want to buy fresh or processed product directly from the farm.

The solution

Songosorhongo is the brand and platform that bridges artisanal mushroom foraging with gastronomic storytelling. The site is the operational hub: product catalog, recipe collection, blog about foraging and mycology, and a direct contact channel for buyers.

The editorial approach is deliberately personal — the voice belongs to someone who lives in the forest and cooks mushrooms every day, not a company. Recipes are tested before publishing. The products are the same ones used in those recipes.

The site's architecture reflects that same commitment to simplicity: no complex shopping carts, no ERP, no third-party platform taking a commission. Contact is direct, logistics are local, the product is fresh.

Technical decisions

Next.js + Tailwind CSS — the same stack as this portfolio, chosen for the same reasons: performance, native SEO with App Router, and the ability to iterate content without touching code. The design is minimalist and focused on product and food photography.

Supabase for dynamic functionality — contact form, waitlist for mushroom seasons, and managing recurring orders from returning customers. No complex database: simple tables that solve exactly what's needed.

MDX content — recipes and the blog use the same file-based system as this site. Each recipe has its ingredients, prep time, and servings in the frontmatter; the body is step-by-step instructions in plain text. Publishing a new recipe means creating a text file.

Vercel for deployment — automatic deploys on every commit, branch previews for reviewing changes before publishing, and a global CDN with zero additional configuration.

Results

Songosorhongo operates during the rainy seasons in the Antioquian cloud forests (primarily March–May and October–December). The digital platform maintains relationships with customers during the off-season, publishes content on mycology and cooking, and builds the waitlist for the next harvest.

The project is also an experiment in niche business with minimal digital footprint: a single domain, no complex social media presence, no marketplace. Traction comes from the product itself and from the community that forms around an ingredient very few people know — but one that, once tasted, builds loyalty.