About Too Mush Bro
Too Mush Bro is a New Zealand mushroom snack brand making bold jerky and seasoning with real ingredients, no fillers, and serious flavour.
Why Mushrooms?
Mushrooms are one of nature’s best whole-food ingredients. They’re naturally rich in savoury flavour, satisfying texture, and real nourishment. Too Mush Bro uses mushrooms because they taste good, feel good, and don’t need fake additives to become a proper snack.
Too Mush Bro turns real mushrooms into bold, proper snacks. — chewy, satisfying food made with ingredients you can recognise.
About Too Mush Bro: Where We Came From
The history before the jerky packs…
Too Mush Bro was born from a life lived close to the land, a lot of hard lessons, and a promise that refused to be broken. Scroll down to read the full story.
Built by Hand. Built with Heart.
Ruud built the original mushroom grow space pictured above from the ground up after we shared the vision with him.
He brought energy, humour, skill, grit and the kind of determination that gets things done.
He passed before seeing the first harvest or tasting the jerky that grew from those early days.
Years later, rebuilding has been bittersweet — but his spirit still lives in the work we do every day.
Jessica — Founder of Too Mush Bro
In 2016 my family moved onto a piece of land in rural Northland with a big idea and not much of a plan. It was a mixed, wonderful, chaotic bunch — my mum, my sister, our children, and later, my dad, and over the years, a rotating cast of people who joined us for seasons, for reasons, and sometimes just because the place pulled them in. Tucked into the bush, an hour from anywhere, it was wild and beautiful and hard in equal measure.
We were trying to build something self-sufficient. The reality was messier than the dream — scrambling financially, fractured in focus, held together more by love and stubbornness than any clear strategy. But the land had a magic to it, and the kids grew up in it in a way I will always be grateful for.
Then my mum went to Holland and came home with Ruud.
He was Dutch, full of energy and humour, and absolutely mad about my mum. They were perfect for each other in that rare way that you don’t see often. He made her happier than I have ever seen her. Between residency requirements they were back and forth between countries for a time — but Ruud kept coming back, and eventually he got his residency.
By then we had landed on the idea of growing mushrooms as a way to finally make the land work financially. Ruud built the growing room inside our shed with his own hands while I buried myself in research, learning everything I could about oyster mushrooms. It felt like the thing that was finally going to bring it all together.
Ruud got his residency. We were close to our first proper harvest.
And then in July 2022, he died. Suddenly. And the heart went out of everything.
We kept going — because what else do you do. We grew the mushrooms, supplied local restaurants, sold at markets. My mum, dad, sister, the children, and friends — everyone pitched in in their own ways. And when we found ourselves with more mushrooms than we could sell fresh, the idea came to turn the surplus into something. Experimentation began. The results were something people genuinely loved.
But about a year after Ruud died, everything fell apart between us. Grief does that sometimes. So does the pressure of living and working and hurting in close proximity. We left in 2023 and moved back to the Bay of Plenty. We lost Ruud, and then I lost family too, relationships that had once meant everything didn’t survive the weight of it all. Some still haven’t healed. That’s a grief of its own.
I took a real confidence hit. For a while I didn’t know who I was outside of that land and everything we had been trying to build. I threw myself into other work, kept moving, kept learning. Slowly, bit by bit, I started to rebuild — not just a business but myself. I learned more about what it actually takes to run something properly, studied, asked questions, made mistakes and kept going. Over time I knew, quietly but with certainty, that we would get this off the ground again.
This part of the journey hasn’t been easy either. Building a business from very limited funds, with a small family beside you, is slow and humbling work. And it carries a constant weight — a reminder of what was lost in Northland, but also of all the good that came from that time. The beauty of that place. The people who showed up. The things we built with our hands and our hearts. The memories.
Not long after Ruud died I had walked into the bush alone. Standing there among the trees on that land we had all poured so much into, I made him a promise. I left Northland carrying that promise but not much else. For a long time I didn’t know how to keep it.
Nearly three years later, here I am. Too Mush Bro is why I came back. Ruud is why I came back. Every time I wanted to walk away I heard that promise, made alone in the bush on a grey cold Northland morning, and I kept going.
This is for him. Every bag that leaves my kitchen is me keeping my word. One day I hope to fulfil the full promise I made that day in the bush. For that part, only time will tell.
For now I have a mission — to show myself what I am capable of. Ruud believed I could. I am only just starting to believe it myself.
What Too Mush Bro cares about
Whole ingredients.
Real mushrooms. Real seasonings. No fillers or unnecessary extras.
Flavour First.
If it doesn’t taste great, it doesn’t make the cut.
Small Batch Care.
Hands-on production so quality stays high and details matter.
Proudly NZ Made.
Built and produced in New Zealand with local roots and real pride.
Who Too Mush Bro Is For
Too Mush Bro is for people who want better snacks.
For mushroom lovers, curious eaters, busy people, gym bags, bug out bags, lunch boxes, road trips, and anyone over ultra-processed junk with ingredients that look like they should be in cleaning products.
If you like bold flavour, real ingredients, and snacks that actually satisfy — you’ve come to the right place.
Ready to Try It?
Taste the mushroom snacks people keep coming back for.
Loved at farmers markets across New Zealand.
Plant Based • Gluten Free • Made in NZ • Real Ingredients