THANK YOU AND GOODBYE - IT'S OVER
[But if you're looking for Lion's Mane capsules and mushroom extracts, they are still available HERE (Fruiting Bodies)]

From 2003 to 2024. After 21 years as a fungi farmer, it's time to call it quits.

What happened? I got old. Even on a small scale mushroom growing is a physically demanding job.

I would make woodchip, collect sawdust, mix all the substrates, prepare and inoculate everything - often using spawn from cultures I'd made myself. Then I would prepare and sell the mushrooms direct to customers at farmer's markets, to retail outlets, restaurants and hotels locally, as well as internet sales of dried mushrooms, pate and fruiting blocks. I made vegan shiitake pate from a recipe I devised myself. My mushrooms won awards.

I designed and printed all my labels and stationery, built and maintained the website, did the accounts, the ordering, customised an 8 metre shipping container to be a grow room, built and outfitted an incubation room and a laboratory area, did most of the repairs and maintenance. I prepared paperwork for the annual Soil Association organic inspections. I pretty much did everything. Which meant very little time off. Mushrooms need to be picked at the right time for best storage and freshness and that could be three times a day if necessary.

Growing mushrooms year-round is mainly a lifting job, with a bit of science thrown in. It takes it out of your joints. My elbows, knees and lower back often felt the strain. Lifting raw materials, lifting fruiting blocks, lifting boxes of mushrooms.

Brexit didn't help. Previously I had enough sales to Europe to make things worthwhile. Once Brexit rules came into force in 2020 all that slipped away quite quickly. What had been easy (pack it and post it) became more difficult. Commodity codes, customs declarations, delivery delays due to border inspections and higher costs led to previously loyal European customers walking away. Note - if you think that Covid-19 was a negative factor for Maesyffin Mushrooms it really wasn't. As a food producer I was allowed to travel to deliver and sell my mushroom products, and I was still able to send out Internet orders.

The hike in electricity prices in the winter of 2023/24 was pretty much the last straw. It became too expensive to run the incubation room. Despite being well-insulated, maintaining a temperature of 24C was always quite costly in the colder months but it became prohibitively so when prices went up.

On a happier note, Fruiting Bodies will continue to make mushroom extracts. You can find out more HERE.

NO LONGER ORGANICALLY-CERTIFIED

Why?

After almost 20 years, Maesyffin Mushrooms & Fruiting Bodies have left the Soil Association and are no longer organically certified. This is due to all-round rising costs, including the cost and time involved to complete the annual organic inspection.

For this small business, something had to give.

Other than leaving the Soil Association, nothing will change. I will continue to use my established suppliers and all products will remain unchanged but no longer organically-certified.

Whether you're an existing or a new customer, I promise you that I will NOT be using anything which may contain herbicides or pesticides. I will continue to buy as I always have and production methods will remain the same.