HOST INTRO (unrecorded): As the pandemic continues to force people inside, many trends have emerged. Whether it’s making sourdough, replicating TikTok dances, or adopting dogs, people have found many creative ways to use their extra time. Our own Noel Stevens reports on one of these trends that’s been getting a lot of attention lately.
AMBI: Door opening/closing, street noise
TRACK: One of the newest quote-un-quote “pandemic trends” is home mushroom growing kits. Articles about them have been popping up more and more in the last few months, and the companies that produce them are seeing their sales surge.
I spoke remotely with a grower in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania named Myc Tyson, Myc spelled M-Y-C. We talked about the mushroom business and how the pandemic has impacted him and his company.
ACT: Tyson: (:34) I can’t make enough of them on my end to satisfy the demand so y’know, now is like the golden age for mushrooms I think, and people are really catching on.”
TRACK: Tyson’s background is primarily in web design and marketing. However, following his time serving in the military, Tyson struggled with depression and drug use. He fell in love with mushrooms after finding that they improved his mood and, he believes, his health. Soon, his hobby turned into a passion, which then turned into a career.
ACT: Tyson: (6:41-7:05) I started the reddit mushroom community, r:mushroom growers, and that was like my place to really get out all of that energy that I had, all that excitement that I have for mushrooms in one place. And now that’s grown to, I think we’re at 150,000 subscribers, which is really cool, I can’t even keep up with it anymore, it’s insane. And y’know that was the hobby stage and that slowly turned into a business.”
TRACK: Tyson’s outfit is small, consisting of himself, his wife, and an employee or two. Before January of this year, he responded personally to every email and DM his company received, until finally bringing on a customer service representative.
ACT: Tyson: (25:57) Before January I’d say we were working anywhere from 90 to 100 hours a week, it was just ridiculous.
TRACK: Five years ago, Tyson started with only a plastic box and some spores. Now, he has his own production facility and has just finished building his own sterile chamber, or, clean room, for mushroom development. He credits his can-do attitude for the success.
ACT: Tyson: (17:03) For me, I’ve always sort of been a Macgyver, let’s figure out what we can with what we got around us and most good mushroom growers are, like Macgyvers, they always just kinda slap something together and make it happen, make it work…”
TRACK: Ultimately, the customer will receive a product that requires little more than keeping a block of nutrients moist, but creating the kits is much more complex. Each one starts from a petri dish. Development of these mushroom cultures can take months.
ACT: Tyson: (24:26) From start to finish, if we count the time from the culture, it’s probably about 60 days or so, but depending on the species it can be very slow or a little bit faster than that.”
TRACK: So, from a consumer’s perspective, what’s the appeal?
TRACK: I spoke with Silas Ryan, a data analyst, graduate student, and fungus enthusiast in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. In total he’s purchased about a dozen mushroom kits in the last year. He believes the process itself is what appeals to people and thinks the kits’ popularity will last well past the pandemic.
ACT: Ryan: (8:30) I think people are doing it for the experience…It’s a very quickly-growing houseplant that you can eat, *laughs*
TRACK: Some companies are even expanding. Ryan explained that Smallhold, a Brooklyn-based company, only started selling kits to the public because of COVID-19. Originally, most of their mushrooms were sent to local eateries and grocery stores. When restaurants in New York shuttered last year, the company had to adapt.
ACT: Ryan: (7:10) The start of the pandemic is why they started selling grow kits to the public because all the restaurants shut down. So, they’re like ‘now what?’ so they kind of did a pivot. And I think it got really really popular because they were constantly selling out. They did like monthly subscriptions where you get one every two week and that kind of thing.
TRACK: Smallhold was profiled in the New York Times last February along with another popular mushroom company based in Maine called North Spore, which reported a rise in sales of about 400% in the last year. Tyson’s business, among many others, has also seen a sharp increase, and it shows no signs of slowing down.
TRACK: For Baruch College, I’m Noel Stevens