SUPER FUNGI FOR SUPER HUMANS
WELSH-GROWN AND MADE LION’S MANE TINCTURE
FULLY TRACEABLE FROM SPORE TO STORE - GROWN AND MADE BY SUPER FUNGI
High Quality Mushroom Tinctures. Extracted and made with love in Wales.
Specialist grower of functional fungi and maker of high quality adaptogenic mushroom tinctures.
100% Welsh-grown, always chemical and additive-free.
About Super Fungi
Super Fungi is a small, specialist grower of functional mushrooms based in Wales, near Hay on Wye in the Black Mountains.
Everything sold is grown and made locally here at Super Fungi.
We believe in full traceability - you should know where your products are grown and made. This is the easy part - from spore to store, every step is completed right here, by us. No funny business, ever.
Wherever possible, we find and use local wild strains which are cloned and then grown under controlled conditions.
We grow our fungi on organically-sourced UK oak and beech shavings (by-products of the furniture industry), and wholemeal oat bran. We don’t use fuel pellets, soybean hulls or other imported products.
Our fungi are all grown locally, not imported. This is simply more sustainable and better for our circular economy. We could certainly import organically-certified powders from growers in China or elsewhere, but we started the business because we knew these mushrooms could be grown perfectly well here, so we’re going to keep heading down this road. Hopefully you’ll agree this is better for people and planet.
Our Story
For the moment, Super Fungi is one person: me, Marley.
Hello!
I’m a specialist mushroom grower and tincture maker, based in Wales’ Black Mountains, in the heart of the beautiful Bannau Brycheiniog.
My background is rooted in science, and I’ve spent most of my career working in the environmental sector, with stints at The Soil Association, on biodynamic farms, studying at the Centre for Alternative Technology, writing environmental policy at the Welsh Government and running renewable energy businesses.
Whilst I've been interested in mushrooms for years, it was in 2020, when a close friend was diagnosed with cancer, that I really delved into the fantastic world of fungi. My friend was given a series of mushroom extracts as part of her treatment plan - all of which, I noticed, were grown in China. Surely, I thought, these mushrooms could - and should - be grown here in the UK.
My own increasing interest in mycology has coincided with the epic journey of all things fungi becoming ever-more mainstream. A huge amount of mycology research is ongoing, but I feel we’ve only started to scratch the surface of what fungi can and will do for the world. The more I read and learned, the more enchanted I became with the magical world of mushrooms.
Since then, I’ve spent several intense years learning to grow mushrooms and getting my products and processes just-so. I’m a perfectionist by nature, so it took time to get my tinctures exactly right and ready to sell. My 1:4 strength tinctures are grown and made with integrity and love, and I’m pretty chuffed with them, though I say it myself.
I’m really keen to speak to people who have queries about how my tinctures are made, or in fact to anyone who’d just like a chat. I’m a human, not a brand on Instagram. Contact me here.
Why Tinctures?
Much of the structure of a mushroom, the chitin that cell structures are made from, is relatively indigestible to humans.
Actually, there is some evidence to say that a diet containing plenty of whole mushrooms can be good for regulating our weight- and a host of other systems - but when it comes to extracting the beneficial compounds from functional mushrooms, it is best to extract these outside the human body.
That’s why we make tinctures. The compounds, including triterpenes and glucans, are more readily absorbed by the bloodstream and by the gut when they have been extracted into water and/or alcohol first. This is called bio-availability.
Additionally, a well-made tincture will not contain any fillers, dubious powders or other bulking agents that help sell more product weight. The methods that we use to make our tinctures are listed clearly and with full transparency on each product page. We have nothing to hide, so it’s all there for you to read.
Novel Foods And Why We Don’t Sell Turkey Tail Any Longer….
The EU's Novel Food Regulation (2015/2283) covers many food products, ingredients and derivatives that were ‘not consumed to a significant degree’ before 1997. This includes several mushroom species. Notably, Turkey Tail is currently illegal for sale in the UK in any form. This is frustrating, given the many hundreds of years of use elsewhere in the world, outside the EU. Thus, we have had to remove Turkey Tail from sale.
Likewise, Birch Polypore mushroom tincture is no longer available for sale on our website.
The story is more complex for Lion’s Mane, which continues to be legal for sale as long as it is a product formed only of the fruiting bodies and not mycelium. Ours is entirely made from fruiting bodies, so that’s fine!
Chaga - given that use can be proven in the EU prior to 1997 - is still legal to sell as a food supplement but not as an ingredient (eg, in coffees, teas, food products etc).
I have therefore decided to focus ONLY on Lion’s Mane tincture for the time being.. If you have previously bought Turkey Tail, I cannot sell this to you any longer. Contact me if you’d like to order some Lion’s Mane and get a free bottle of Turkey Tail added to your order…
If you’d like to learn more about Novel Foods and mushrooms, this is a good overview article.
