Seacoast Mushrooms

Seacoast Mushrooms supplies dozens of the state’s top restaurants, from local favorites in Mystic like the Oyster Club to Middletown’s Conspiracy and restaurants in Hartford and Fairfield counties. The mushrooms, which are bursting with flavor, are grown inside damp shipping containers that have environments painstakingly monitored to bring in the right amount of fresh air and humidity.

Owner Chris Pacheco caught the farming bug early, growing up on his family’s Old Stone Orchard, an apple orchard in Little Compton, Rhode Island. An engineer in the Navy, Pacheco served as an officer on the USS Hartford submarine, stationed in Groton. He stayed in Connecticut when his service ended. About eight years ago he started growing mushrooms at the family orchard back in Rhode Island. That experience inspired him to open Seacoast Mushrooms in Mystic.

The farm grows up to 10 varieties and produces between 600 and 800 pounds of mushrooms per week. Offerings range from well-known shiitake mushrooms to lesser-known varieties such as maitake, blue oysters, golden oysters and lion’s mane. This Alice in Wonderland assortment offers an array of savory flavors, and many of the mushrooms are associated with health benefits.