Keystone Mushroom Farms, Inc.

The Keystone Mushroom Company and L.F. Lambert Spawn Company were founded by Louis Ferdinand Lambert of Coatesville, PA. in 1904. Mr. Lambert, an immigrant from Belgium, was one of the first producers in America to grow mushrooms in large quantities for the commercial market. Mr. Lambert's original farms were in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area. These were set up shortly after he emigrated to the United States in 1885. In May of 1918, Mr. Lambert moved to Chester County, Pennsylvania where he established mushroom plants first in West Chester and then at Coatesville.

Mr. Lambert was a mycologist by training. In the mid 1920s he discovered the method of growing mushrooms from spores. His laboratories and growing houses were organized as a single proprietorship, L.F. Lambert Spawn Co. During World War II Mr. Lambert's work in mycology led to a War Production Board contract to produce penicillin in the company's laboratories.

When Mr. Lambert died in 1954 his companies were consolidated under the name Keystone Mushroom Farms, Inc.