I have always been fascinated, if not bewildered by mushrooms. From a young age, plants were my main obsession. Mushrooms felt foreign, other worldly, maybe even dangerous – but definitely strange and beautiful. I followed my love of plants to the Appalachian Mountains, the most biodiverse place in the world - next to the Amazon rainforests, and there I attended the University of North Carolina in Asheville. In 2003 I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies and immediately began my career as an environmental consultant.

Fifteen years later, a very good friend for whom I am forever grateful, gave me a bottle of mushroom capsules. That bottle changed my life. The bottle contained Hericium erinaceous (Lion’s Mane) and Cordyceps militaris as two of the main ingredients. Hericium what? I had never heard of these things. I got home that night, relaxed in my old rocking chair, and googled Hericium erinaceous. The search took me down a rabbit hole and into medical studies performed in Japan that involved giving Lions Mane to Alzheimer’s patients. The results of those studies seemed to indicate that Lions Mane could stave off dementia! This was a shocking revelation to me as my dad had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. That rabbit hole also led me to Paul Stamet’s now classic work, How to Grow Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms. All other projects went out the window (sorry Annie) as I began constructing a lab/clean room in the little old smokehouse behind the dilapidated farm house I had just bought. The following year, my first Lion’s Mane fruited. 

If you’re wondering where the name Maddyland came from, I’ll tell you. In 2010, my wife Annie and I were renting a tiny apartment in North Asheville - and I mean tiny. It’s a long story how we ended up there but long story short, it wasn’t long before we found a 600-square foot cabin at the edge of downtown Marshall for rent, and jumped on it. It was huge! Not really but it was in the sense that we were surrounded by the forest. Naturally, we soon adopted a pound puppy with fluffy ears and white paws and named her Maddy. It was a wonderful place to live, but we didn’t own it, and the landlord wasn’t selling. We wanted our own place. So for many years we searched and searched, got lost, run off, and bug bit. Almost every weekend, the three of us loaded into the car and we’d say, “let’s go find Maddy land.”  Maddy loved to ride with her head out of the window, ears flapping in the wind. And she loved chasing deer on our excursions.

One fateful day in October 2015, we found an old dairy farm in Marshall with a dilapidated, hundred year old, farmhouse, a two story smokehouse, a couple of pallet shacks, a pig sty, a chicken coop, one too many enormous black snakes, and a masonry building that had served as the dairy’s milking parlor. Naturally, we named our property Maddyland. The milk parlor became the cornerstone of Maddyland Mushrooms. It’s where the magic happens.

Maddy passed a couple of years ago. It hurt. She was a good dog. I’ll always be grateful for the lessons she taught me and for leading us to our land, and to what has become my passion. My dad is still alive and well - hell yeah! He is a good dad. I think we owe that to the Lion’s Mane in large part. And we are still on the farm cultivating medicinal and gourmet mushrooms with organic substrates, spring water, sunlight, and love.

I love to talk with just about anyone. So send me a note if you want and not only will it be likely to improve my day, but I will almost certainly respond in kind. Subject doesn’t matter! Let’s talk about picking up and eating living dragons if that’s your thing…

-Tim