Caputo & Guest Focuses on Organic Specialty Mushrooms

The organic specialty mushroom category is the forte of Caputo & Guest, a mushroom producer headquartered in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, the self-proclaimed mushroom capital of the world.

The company has been in the business of growing mushrooms for more than 45 years, often operating as a supplier of specialty mushrooms to the larger white button mushroom producers. But this fall, it has launched its own retail brand of exotic organic mushrooms under its own name, Caputo & Guest. 

Chef's mix pack family (retail)

Lou Caputo said the initial launch includes 11 retail packs: six individual packs and five specialty mixes, with each of the packs certified organic. The Organic Golden Oyster is the company’s top seller, with its other options being King Trumpet, Maitake, Hen of the Woods, Pearl Oyster, and Lion’s Mane.

Lou Caputo, Co-Owner, Caputo & Guest

While most mushrooms are grown in manure compost, Caputo & Guest uses a proprietary blend of organic oak, poplar sawdust, and grains to cultivate its lineup of exotic mushrooms. Caputo credits this blend for making their mushrooms taste better, being preferred by chefs and truly earning their organic certification.

Lou Caputo said the initial launch includes 11 retail packs: six individual packs and five specialty mixes, with each of the packs certified organic.

The company’s evolution from a conventional white button mushroom producer to an organic specialty mushroom grower with its own label is a 45-year story of following the trends. “My father and uncle [Lou Caputo Sr. and Herb Guest] started our company back in 1977,” Caputo said. “Like many other growers in Chester County [Pennsylvania], they grew white button mushrooms.”

But in the 1980s, Lou Jr. said the profitability of Pennsylvania-grown white button mushrooms took a hit when imported canned mushrooms were introduced. The founders of the original firm started transitioning away from white mushrooms towards shiitakes. In fact, Lou Jr. said by the late 1990s, the majority of shiitakes produced in the United States came from "their operation."

Pearl Oyster house

As specialty mushrooms became more popular, the mushroom entrepreneurs added other varieties including portabellas, baby bellas, crimini, and oyster mushrooms. In the early 2000s, they also added grow blocks, which are already-inoculated blocks ready to produce typically three to four pounds of mushrooms, depending upon the variety.

Lou Caputo Jr. and Jeff Guest, Herb Guest’s son, launched KSS Sales in 2010 to sell those specialty items and blocks, which included shiitake mushrooms, logs, and specialty bags, as well as portabello and crimini mushrooms, and oyster bags and oyster mushrooms.

“My father and uncle [Lou Caputo Sr. and Herb Guest] started our company back in 1977. Like many other growers in Chester County [Pennsylvania], they grew white button mushrooms.” - Lou Caputo

Caputo said that the company was always producing its mushrooms utilizing organic growing practices, but it had not applied for organic certification until it saw that trend take off in the past decade. “Our whole process is organic, including the fact that we don’t use compost,” he said. “Mushrooms thrive in woods and grains, which is what we use.”

Maitake house

Subsequently, the company endeavored to fill out the paperwork and become a certified organic operation, including its certified organic grow blocks. Caputo said those are sold all over the country in 100-500 block orders to numerous other growers, many of whom are smaller, local growers, utilizing farmers markets for sales. He said it is an excellent way to increase sales while also introducing new consumers to the world of organic exotic mushrooms.

Caputo said the Caputo & Guest line of organic mushrooms should be in at least several retail chains this fall as he was in the process of working out those details when interviewed. He said the company trialed the new label last year at Hy-Vee, a Midwest supermarket chain of almost 300 stores, which is currently carrying the lineup.