So you want to grow mushrooms?

[ffj]

@guitar

Thanks man, and I plan on leaving my content this go around, so no worries.

@sky

PM me with an address and I'll send you a bunch free of charge. My pleasure.

[guitarplayer]

We also tried growing Shiitake on beech logs but failed at that.

A success after all! We went to visit our old place and found this on one of the inoculated logs:







I guess because of the recent three weeks of hot dry weather around here, the shiitake basically dried on the log - they are now perfectly dried mushrooms! Such a pleasant surprise

[ffj]

Cool!

I'm about to flush out my Shiitake after 4.5 months inoculating! They take so long that in order for me to get ready for next years market I need to start now developing a rotation. The problem is where do I put all of these inoculating blocks in the meantime? I have space in my laundry room just big enough for all of my oysters and that is about it. Or I could climate control my garage which would be another $3000. So far I've made about $450 in sales...

But I love Shiitake, much more than the oysters. Hopefully you took those home and cooked them up.

[guitarplayer]

Yep we took them with us and will cook them sometime.

[take2]

How do you set the pricing for the market? Are there certain varieties of mushrooms that sell better than others?

Overall thread is fascinating, thank you!

[ffj]

@take2

My goal is to get around $20/pound. Now I don't weigh anything as I don't want to be bothered (keep it simple) but I know roughly about how much constitutes a pound so I sell them by the bunch, with each bunch $5 and coming in at roughly 1/4 pound. Many more people are willing to spend $5 than $20 and in the last market I attended I sold out in an hour for which I was very pleased. This pricing is for oyster mushrooms. Shiitake will be more expensive and I guarantee that I won't keep them long once I put them for sale. I also grow lions mane which surprisingly has done very well as I always sell out of these within 30 minutes, albeit I have yet to grow a lot just yet. I should also note that I only deal in cash and most everybody that shows up knows to have money on hand.

I am currently trying out new varieties for the aesthetics and taste but it takes time. I'm looking for hardiness and consistency and I have already dropped one variety because it is unpredictable. I'll probably start King Oysters soon for although they are yet another oyster, they don't resemble one and they are very meaty.

But I haven't been to the market for the past two weeks because of this:



This is the transducer on the fogger. It vibrates nine ceramic discs ultrasonically to produce humidity in the form of a fine mist. Damn thing just quit working and as I didn't have a backup I was screwed. Without humidity you can't grow mushrooms. Now all of the growers preach that you should have a backup for every piece of equipment but the whole unit cost $250. Luckily it was still under warranty and House of Hydro promptly sent me a replacement but the reality is that I lost two weeks of market sales, and this coming on the heels of selling out in the last market. Thanks goodness this is a hobby! Realistically it is going to take the whole market season to break even on my investment but that opens the door next season to do well.

On a fun note I've started seeing mushrooms pop up over my property because I dump the spent grow block in various locations. If I stick with this I may end up colonizing my whole property, haha.

[ffj]

Farmer's Market observations:

I've attended 8 Markets so far this season and I've made $810. I fully expect to clear over $200 this coming Saturday so let's say I've made a thousand bucks so far. Each week gets better but why?

- more people are showing up as they associate middle summer with lots of produce, which is true

- weather matters greatly, if it's raining then the crowds stay in bed

- older women are the bulk of the buyers and they are either no nonsense or very chatty, but both types spend money

- there are lots of interesting people that show up to these markets as I have had many interesting conversations which has been nice

- there are also people that clearly get their social interaction for the week at these events and they don't spend a whole lot of money overall

- it is a skill spotting these people and learning to focus your attention on somebody that intends to buy

- if you want lots of people to stop at your table, then be actively engaged in a conversation with someone. It's a magnet for some reason

- people start seeking you out once they get to know you which is a really pleasant feeling

- these repeat customers have your back as they will openly declare to hesitant buyers how good my mushrooms tastes

- the grow kits have been a success as I have had several people stop by and show me pictures of the mushrooms they have grown from my kits

- the other vendors are pretty cool for the most part, as in people I would hang with

- there is always one asshole (vendor) and I met him last week. I took the high road but several of the other vendors had my back which was really nice

- having a product (mushrooms and blackberries) that not many others have for sale matters

- I have sold out my last three meetings because of this (52 minutes last week) as I looked at the sea of tomatoes, squash, and beans around me

- this is a pleasant side hustle but I can't imagine trying to make a living this way. The margins are way too thin

- even though poor people get vouchers and credits, I've only had one person I've had to turn away because I am not set up for those programs

- almost everybody that takes advantage of the fresh food is middle class or above. No poor people for the most part even with free vouchers

- I spoke with the WIC representative and she confessed it is hard to get people to take advantage of her program for a multitude of reasons

- namely they don't know how to cook so they have no interest in raw ingredients which is a shame

- for an introvert such as myself it is draining to have to converse for so long, even though I have interesting interactions. It's nap time when I get home

- I need a better money handling system as I lost $30 last week. It literally fell out of my pocket unnoticed

- once I make enough cash to recoup my investments I plan on buying a lot of products from the other vendors but there is a mental block at the moment

- Surprisingly, I look forward to showing up each week now as it is an ego boost and pleasant event. I didn't anticipate that.

[sky]

You are doing very well if you can recoup your expenses the first year. Hopefully, once your initial investment is paid off, your margins will be more profitable.

There is always a slow start to that kind of business, but word of mouth travels quickly. Some people take time to warm up to buying. I think there is always a caution in the back of people's minds when it comes to new types of mushrooms. It takes a while to overcome that fear.

Do you consider this a hobby/lifestyle business? Do you plan to expand production, hire sales people for other markets or branch out into other sales methods?

[mountainFrugal]

Another idea... You could collaborate with some of the other vendors there with more common produce and also offer recipes where some (or all) of the ingredients are found at the farmers market. Many people do not know how to cook with mushrooms.

Add: I think that in these small vendor settings (at least in comics/zines) spending money on other vendors things helps because they will then recommend you to people. "Did you visit my friend Fungal Farming John over there?". There is a community validation that happens which might be important for a more novel product. This might be contributing to why more people come talk when there is already people there talking. This is a MAJOR tactic at comic/zine conventions. Engage everyone as that attracts more engagement.

[ffj]

@sky, mf

Well my long detailed response to you guys just got eaten by the machine. Arghh

I'll post later after I pick blackberries

[Laura Ingalls]

I have lurked on this thread and my personal conclusion is that I don’t want to grow mushrooms. I like wandering in the woods, cooking, and eating them just fine

I do find it interesting that mushrooms have taken off in yards as an offshoot of trying to cultivate them, so cool.

[ffj]

@Laura

Nothing wrong with that. I like the challenge of cultivation. As an aside, I get people asking me if I foraged all of the mushrooms I bring and I suppress a chuckle as I would have to have walked 20 miles to find that many mushrooms in the wild, haha. I do like the treasure hunt of foraging though.

@sky

I'm keeping it small for sure. I don't need a full-time job and I don't want the infrastructure it would require to grow more mushrooms. It'll stay a hobby for extra cash as far as I am concerned. To scale up would require a much larger time commitment and I just don't want to give that away for extra money that I don't need. I want to be successful, but on my terms if that makes sense.

@mf

I already offer a single page of recipes for anyone that wants it. Now I haven't collaborated in that way with the other vendors but I am impressed on how much they support mine and others businesses. Even the other mushroom grower will send people my way if he knows I have something he doesn't. Other than one unpleasant experience the other vendors have been great. But that is a good idea though.

I haven't bought a whole lot from the other vendors because I have a mental block: I feel if I take the cash I've earned and spend it on other's products than I am just trading money and not paying off my investment. And if I don't recoup my investment then I am not really becoming successful, even though I have to eat and these products are superior to a grocery store. But your point is completely valid and my prior generosity with surplus mushrooms I feel is why they are so good to me. But interestingly at the time I just didn't want the mushrooms to go to waste, there was no strategy.

Aren't social dynamics interesting? Again, being clueless it really annoyed me when I was in the middle of a good discussion to suddenly have to deal with all of these people showing up at once, haha. But it happens almost every time. It's remarkable really. If I were a strategist I would employ my friends to randomly walk up and begin conversations throughout the day.

[ffj]

It's now been 12 meetings I have attended and some of the newness has worn off and I am observing more patterns and problems in the whole endeavor.

The good news is that I have earned over $1,400 so far and am a little over a grand away from paying off my initial investments with two more months that the market will stay open. As my goal was to earn my investment money back this is good. Once the investment is paid off then the work to profit ratio will be pretty decent but like all things (my default unfortunately) I am already losing some interest in the whole operation. It's been my pattern my whole life that once I've proved that I can be successful the thrill and enthusiasm tends to leave at the same proportion. I am finding myself not caring anymore whether this experiment continues. Anybody else share this curse?

And I am growing a bit frustrated with the leaders of the Farmer's Market as they are wildly inconsistent with the enforcement of rules, namely they do everything they can to avoid addressing conflict. I don't know how much weight they actually have to enforce anything really.

The problem I encounter literally every week are turf wars with the other vendors. Now as a new vendor I assumed (correctly) that I would have a less than desirable designated spot. Fair enough as everybody is assigned a spot and if you want to move then you have to petition the organizers. The problem is that other vendors are just moving as they seem fit, taking up prime real estate in the loading/unloading zone which makes it really hard to set-up as you can't find a place to temporarily park your car to unload, which is the whole point of having an loading/unloading zone. The other issue is that they will literally poach your spot if they get there before you, which happened to me yesterday.

When I address these issues with the staff it is almost comical how they avoid mitigating any of these issues. I point blank asked the young lady yesterday to just give me the rules, or to state that there aren't any and it is literally a free-for-all. I can adapt to either situation I explained but the inconsistency is maddening. She responded by transitioning to a story about a religious group that had left the sound stage a mess the night before which had absolutely no bearing on what I was asking. Then she walked away without addressing a single fucking issue like a champ.

I really don't want to be an asshole and a fun aside is that the lady next to me and I have bonded over the ridiculousness of the whole situation so we have fun with it and crack jokes the whole morning. We've become buddies over our mistreatment, haha. Thank goodness this is just a hobby.

I did learn a valuable lesson in another area last week though: a $50 bill looks remarkably close to a $20 bill. After I tallied my money I realized I had an extra $50 bill and instantly came to the realization that I shorted somebody which made me feel bad. My wife said that was a rookie mistake as you always leave the bill on the table and then make change. Point taken.

Now I had no idea who the person was that was shorted until a guy explained to me that he accused his wife of losing money until he figured out it was him, and me! I was actually relieved he came back and I gladly payed him back his money and apologized which he accepted and he thanked me for being honest. I feel better and I won't make that mistake again but I am pretty sure it was the result of trying to maintain a conversation and make change so I will be more careful in the future.

[sky]

Learning and building is fun. Long term operation is a drag. What really sucks is the eventual clean up and dismantling of the system.

I appreciate the dried mushrooms you sent. I used them as a soup base, to thicken, add flavor and nutrition.

I consider any hobby business that breaks even to be a win. Breaking even in the first year is excellent.

If you decide you want to continue with the farm market, the best strategy is to look for opportunities to increase revenue, whether related to your mushroom farm or not. It's all about making your time spent worthwhile and trying new things to make more money.

If your motivation is to learn how to mushroom farm and show that you can do it, you have already succeeded.

You might consider growing and dehydrating mushrooms, and selling them online. I don't know how this works, or if there is a market for it, but I found the dehydrated mushrooms you sent to be a good product and food ingredient.

I would be interested in learning how to grow and dehydrate a years worth of mushrooms for personal use. I watched some of the videos on growing mushrooms but still have no clue, I would need a more simple explanation. I personally have no room to do it, so while I am interested, I probably would not do it at the moment. You might consider writing an ebook for "homesteaders", how to grow and dehydrate a supply of mushrooms for personal use.

[loutfard]

I am at our summer house in Latvia now. The culture of picking mushrooms in the wild is incredibly strong here. Mostly chanterelles, but people praise themselves lucky when they find the more sought-after species, like porcini. There's even a verb for "foraging for mushrooms": "sēņot"!

The August peak season aligns perfectly with our time here. I've been thinking of building a vacuum microwave dehydrator. Relatively cheap and not too horribly complicated to build. Super efficient in terms of electricity consumption, faster to dry than the classical forced air ones, and leaves more of the taste.

[ffj]

@sky

Thanks for the encouragement and advice. Part of my problem is that I am also doing work on peoples homes and making very good money, especially compared to the mushroom business. So if it is a matter of simple dollars, then the trades win every time hands down.

If I had to dehydrate a large quantity of mushrooms I would look to the sun at least to get them down to a low moisture content and then finish them off in a dehydrator for a controlled event.

What do you consider to be a years worth of mushrooms?

@loutfard

I would be interested in learning of your build of a vacuum microwave dehydrator. Please share with us if you construct it.

Unfortunately, where I live there is a limited variety of edible mushrooms with morels being the tastiest. I watch videos of folks from the PNW in the U.S. and get jealous.

[sky]

A years supply would be about 20 lbs of fresh mushrooms. That is a ballpark estimate based on cooking soup/chili 3 times a month with a half pound of mushrooms each batch. This is based on one person eating soup/chili about every other day.

[theanimal]

I would be interested in learning how to grow and dehydrate a years worth of mushrooms for personal use. I watched some of the videos on growing mushrooms but still have no clue, I would need a more simple explanation. I personally have no room to do it, so while I am interested, I probably would not do it at the moment. You might consider writing an ebook for "homesteaders", how to grow and dehydrate a supply of mushrooms for personal use.

If other mushrooms are anything like morels (and I believe they are), then the dehydration process is very easy. There are a few options for drying. Mushrooms generally start drying out from the moment you pick them.

You can lay them out on a screen inside or outside
You can thread through the mushrooms with twine or something similar and hang them up inside or outside.
You can use a dehydrator on low heat or an oven

[ffj]

After taking a couple of weeks off I returned to the Market yesterday. The break was really nice if I am honest, which is a bit concerning. Ha

I like to watch other vendors in my vicinity and observe what works for them. Or what doesn't.

My biggest takeaway is that you can't just sit there and not engage. There are a couple of ladies near me that are masters of conversation and their sales reflect their ability to connect. I believe that women vendors have a slight advantage because they can easily speak with other women, which is the bulk of the customer base. It's much more natural for them to break the ice. You won't see me complimenting a woman on her clothing for example. I've also noticed that one of the women vendors near me who is attractive will get her fair share of lone male customers. Nothing I can do about that, haha.

Now I do my best to be friendly and say hello and push my product. And I am getting better at banter. I can roll with a lame joke directed at the mushrooms or patiently explain the whole process to someone I know won't buy a damn thing. The key though is to appear interesting, or at the least provide a non-threatening way for a curious shopper to check out your wares. A small crowd will do both every time. I've mentioned this before but if you want more people to visit your table then just become engaged in a real conversation with someone. It's magic.

I also watch vendors that to be honest I don't know why they persist if they won't change their ways. Sitting there in dead silence, looking at their phones and only acknowledging people if they stop first. I watched someone do just that for three hours yesterday. She made zero sales and had one person check out her products. Now to be fair she was young and I almost went over there to encourage her but as a middle-aged dude there are certain unwritten rules I have to follow such as approaching young girls. There are enough inappropriate middle-aged men out there to ruin it for everyone else which is a shame so I ignored her, although I wanted to give her some advice badly. It was painful to watch as she was directly across from me.

Speaking of inappropriate behavior a few weeks ago a homeless guy decided to hang with me at my table. I offered him some tomatoes but he refused, as it turns out he wasn't interested in food but my view instead. There are a lot of women at these events and he finally tipped his hand when he made a sexual comment about one of them and I made him leave at that point. I used to have zero tolerance for homeless people (my former job made me very jaded towards them) and the one time I try to be compassionate this asshole jeopardizes my business.

I crunched some numbers yesterday and it is clear I won't be making my financial goal of breaking even. This is mainly due to not showing up every week as well as not producing more product. Currently I have enough mushrooms in the pipeline for a couple more markets and after that I am calling it. Even though I am giving up a full month of future Saturday Markets. I am ready to not be doing this each weekend. I still do jobs on homes which pay very well so if I need, more like want money it is easily attainable.

If I wanted to make this a real business then I would have to work more hours, hustle for regular customers such as restaurants, and diversify. Right now I am a one-trick pony with a limited variety of mushrooms. I could branch into supplements, seasonings, extracts, etc., as well as other types of mushrooms and other foods such as the blackberries. This could be a nice supplement to ones income for a reasonable amount of work, or if you are hardcore and minimalist your sole income. And there is technically no season as you can grow year-round if you have the customers.

[ertyu]

from what i've heard, when it comes to actually growing mushrooms as a business, the deal is to work with 2-3 restaurants, but even then, that's only a cover for growing psyloscibes on the side. i'm not talking commercial operations, i'm talking small-scale businesses like yours. I've heard told of a couple of metalheads in germany that sell to restaurants to pay a couple of full-time employees + other costs and cover their own modest living expenses + festival going expenses by selling shrooms at the festivals they attend. it's a garage business, but they're happy