A Hingham couple’s homegrown hobby mushrooms into a thriving business.
Written by JENNIFER H. MCINERNEY
Photography by KJELD MAHONEY
Like many budding entrepreneurs did during 2020, Kevin McGuire and Kaylee Doyle took advantage of the “pandemic pause” to turn a
burgeoning hobby into a flourishing business. They became the first artisanal mushroom growers on the South Shore and are now the co- owners of McGuire’s Mushrooms, providing flavorful fungi to local restaurants, farmers markets, and the general public.
At the onset of the Covid-19 shutdown, McGuire, then a chemist at a lab in Framingham, and Doyle, a pre-K teacher in Weymouth, felt the walls of their apartment closing in and decided to seek more space. They found it in Hingham. The couple rented a house on Turkey Hill Lane on the site of what was originally Upland Farm, established in 1901. Fittingly, they started raising chickens and growing vegetable gardens.
Also during that time, McGuire suffered from gut health issues that were not relieved by traditional medicine. While researching holistic options, he discovered Turkey Tail mushroom powder and made a full recovery.
“Mushrooms have so many health benefits, for immune support, cognitive function, and gut health,” says McGuire. “They can help lower cholesterol and reduce inflammation, and they’re good for stress relief and sleep issues. We could spend hours talking about it.”
With their landlord’s blessing, they took the natural step from garden-variety plants to mushrooms, which they now cultivate and harvest year-round at their farm. McGuire’s Mushrooms offers gourmet varieties, including Lion’s Mane,
Golden Enoki, Black Oysters, Pink Oysters, King Trumpets, Chestnuts, Pioppino, as well as powders derived from Chaga, Lion’s Mane, Reishi, and Turkey Tail mushrooms.
All of McGuire’s Mushrooms are cultivated from scratch, using 100 percent non-GMO ingredients, and are free of all chemicals, pesticides, glyphosate, and artificial additives. They also require very little water and generate zero waste.
Descending the stairs to their basement leads to a maze of plastic partitions designed to keep each aspect of the mushroom-growing operation sterile and clean. In addition to the racks that hold up to 600 blocks of mushrooms-in- progress, the basement houses essential equipment, such as the air exchange filter, the sterilizer barrel, and a bagging machine.
Not everyone grows mushrooms from start to finish. It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it to take the extra steps. We believe in this and we’re committed to ensuring that everything we produce is pure and natural.
-KAYLEE DOYLE
“You don’t need a lot of space to grow mushrooms, just time and attention to detail,” says McGuire. “But we are looking to expand into a larger facility and get our basement back.”
For the final phase of the growth cycle, the blocks of fungi are moved to a shipping container in the backyard that has been converted into a climate- and humidity-controlled grow house. Nearby, an enormous compost pile serves as a regenerative source of nutrients for optimizing the soil health of local farms, including Holly Hill Farm in Cohasset and Greensmith Farm in Hanover.
The current setup yields 1,000 to 3,000 pounds of mushrooms each week throughout most of the year, with a smaller crop of about 500 pounds weekly in the wintertime.
At this point, McGuire and Doyle manage the entire operation themselves, though it’s a year-round, all-hours occupation. Every day, they tend to eight different varieties of mushrooms at different stages of growth and harvest the ones that are ready.
“Not everyone grows mushrooms from start to finish. It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it to take the extra steps,” Doyle explains. “We believe in this and we’re committed to ensuring that everything we produce is pure and natural.”
In addition to growing and harvesting the mushrooms, McGuire’s Mushrooms supplies the fruits of their labor to 50 restaurants from Boston to Cape Cod, including Hingham favorites Scarlet Oak Tavern, Alma Nove, Tosca, and Trident Galley and Raw Bar. Their mushrooms can also be found on the menus of: Bia Bistro and Red Lion Inn in Cohasset; Osteria Vivo in Pembroke; Liv Creative Cuisine in Marshfield; Bluefish River Tavern in Duxbury; and Salt Society in Scituate.
Doyle and McGuire also sell multiple varieties of their freshly harvested mushrooms at the Hingham and Braintree Farmers Markets and local pop-ups, as well as online through their website. Their mushrooms and powders are available locally at R&C Farms in Scituate, Teodora’s Boucherie Gourmande and Holly Hill Farm in Cohasset, and Greensmith Farm in Hanover.
Response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. Ever since they approached Scarlet Oak Tavern, the first restaurant to embrace their mushrooms, McGuire and Doyle have been welcomed with enthusiasm by restaurateurs craving fresh, local ingredients.
“The restaurants want whatever we’ve picked that day—the chefs like a mix,” says McGuire. Fresh Lion’s Mane, King Oysters, Pink Oysters, and Shiitake are among the favorite choices of local chefs.
At the markets, visitors are always filled with curiosity and questions for the couple. Doyle points out that, culturally, Americans are uncertain and intrigued by fungi—having been taught, in many cases, to be cautious of the risk of poisonous mushrooms. To that end, Doyle, who serves as McGuire’s Mushrooms’ Community Outreach coordinator, conducts regular educational seminars—such as Mushroom Cultivation and Compost Basics— and foraging workshops in Wompatuck State Park.
They’re often asked for recipes featuring their flavorful mushrooms, so they’ve added a special recipe section to their website, which includes Pink Oyster “Bacon,” Soy Sesame Honey Butter King Trumpets, and Lion’s Mane “Crab Cakes.”