About us

Santa Cruz Substrates began in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where a 1,000-square-foot 215 greenhouse launched a journey of natural farming, cannabis breeding, and deep connection to the land. By 2015, we were breeding resin-rich cultivars and learning firsthand what living soil could truly offer. When Prop 215 fell, it took much of the small-scale craft with it — so we pivoted.

With a background in soil systems, organic compost, and regenerative farming, we turned our focus to mushroom cultivation. What started as survival became a vision: to create sustainable, high-quality substrate using real inputs from the land we love. The family farm may have burned—literally and metaphorically—through broken partnerships and betrayal, but the passion didn’t die. It evolved.

Our new mission is clear:
To provide Santa Cruz County with affordable, high-quality mushroom substrate, locally produced spawn, and gear that represents the culture we grew up in — the one that’s slowly being erased by time, tech, and commercialization. We're here to keep the mountain soul alive.

This is for the growers, the breeders, the compost turners, the culture keepers.
Santa Cruz Substrates is more than a product — it's a story of survival, soil, and starting over.

And then there’s SC Mountain Melts.
It’s not a company. It’s a symbol. A quiet nod to the pre- 64 days, when local strains ruled and culture mattered more than clout. SC Mountain Melts is our way of honoring that legacy—those small-batch melts, those hill-grown genetics, that backroad barter system that kept the mountains lit. It’s not for sale... but if you know where to look, you just might catch a jar or a pack floating around.

Santa Cruz Substrates isn’t just about mushrooms or compost.
It’s about surviving the fallout, holding onto the culture, and growing something real.