Grow your own oyster, lion's mane, or shiitake on the kitchen counter — a fruiting block that goes from box to harvest in a week or two. Independent mushroom farms and mycology outfits sell kits, spawn, and blocks direct.
Published July 2026 · Updated 7 Jul 2026
Founded by three college friends — a mycologist, an organic farmer, and a photojournalist — North Spore sells fruiting blocks, 'Plant & Grow' starter blocks, grain and sawdust spawn, plugs, and outdoor kits like the Boomr Bin. The deepest independent grow catalog around, shipped nationwide.
Why it isn't on AmazonThe go-to independent for everything from a countertop block to serious outdoor spawn — real mycology, not a gimmick.
See it at North Spore →Built by Tradd Cotter over 20-plus years of growing and teaching, Mushroom Mountain runs farm tours, workshops, and certification classes alongside selling fruiting kits, sawdust and plug spawn, and dried culinary and medicinal mushrooms. Orders before 10am Monday-Thursday ship same day, usually free.
Why it isn't on AmazonA cultivator-educator operation — you're buying spawn from people who literally teach the craft.
See it at Mushroom Mountain →A small certified-organic family farm in the Pacific Northwest with a wide kit range — shiitake, blue oyster, lion's mane, coral tooth, reishi, wine cap, golden and Italian oyster — plus plugs, tinctures, and dried mushrooms. They describe their standards as going above and beyond organic, with no pesticides or GMOs.
Why it isn't on AmazonCertified-organic kits from a family farm that grows the mushrooms it sells you spawn for.
See it at Cascadia Mushrooms →A Garron-family farm since 1982, with retail stores in San Francisco's Ferry Building and Santa Cruz. Their Mushroom Mini-Farm grow kits — shiitake, lion's mane, oyster, around $25 — ship by mail nationwide. (Their fresh mushrooms are Bay Area pickup only, but the kits travel.)
Why it isn't on AmazonA multigenerational family farm with a real retail presence, shipping affordable starter kits anywhere.
See it at Far West Fungi →This seat's open on purpose — we won't pad the list to hit a number. If you ship real mushroom grow kits direct, it's earned, not sold.
Add your brand →A kit is a block of substrate already colonized with mushroom mycelium. You cut the bag, mist it daily, and in one to two weeks mushrooms fruit right out of the block. Most kits give you one or two good flushes. It's the easiest possible entry to growing — no sterile lab work required.
A grow kit is the beginner option: a ready-to-fruit colonized block. Spawn (grain, sawdust, or plugs) is what you use to inoculate logs, straw, or your own substrate for bigger or outdoor growing. Fruiting blocks sit in between. North Spore and Mushroom Mountain sell all three, so you can graduate up.
Oyster mushrooms — they're fast, forgiving, and fruit reliably from a countertop kit in about ten days. Lion's mane is also beginner-friendly. Shiitake takes longer and does best on logs or dense blocks. If it's your first time, start with an oyster kit.
Yes — kits and spawn aren't seasonal the way fresh mushrooms are, so these independent farms ship them all year. Just avoid having a live block sit in a hot mailbox for days; order for delivery when you can bring it inside promptly.
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© 2026 5best2buy · Worth The Hunt · No.529