Mushrooms

[crookedoak]

Has anybody ever grown mushrooms to sell?

[mamaof3peas]

no butv i am looking forward to morel mushroom season!!

[crookedoak]

I have heard of morel's but I have no clue what they really are?

[mamaof3peas]

a wild mushroom, you find them here in IL about april-may, after it has been moist and then warms up a bit, there are a couple other types too, but you go looking, find a great patch pick all you can, and then bring home, soak, and bread and fry! They are the best thing to go with fried fish!

[shawnlee]

Originally Posted by crookedoak

Has anybody ever grown mushrooms to sell?

I do not know what you have planned, but keep in mind certain mushrooms contain toxins there is no cure for.....the worst ones will liquify your internal organs.

Not something to dabble in unless you get educated first.

A few such as morels are pretty easy to identify and the look alikes will only make you sick, not kill you.

Having said that...you can grow them for food pretty easily at home..

You can order spores online and give it a go.......

[Tabitha]

A neighbor down the road got a business going, had a bunch of customers. Somehow, Campbells soup got in the act, I can not remember the details, sort of like Tyson chickens having contracts with certain people to raise chickens for them. It brought the price for mushrooms, if you sold them, way down, and he went belly up. I think he grew the white button mushrooms. Amanita mushrooms are mostly poisonous, but nobody raises them, and I don't know if they can even be raised. Not all mushrooms are conducive to cultivation. I understand Sepp Holzer managed to grow Chanterelles. How I do not know, they are a tough mushroom to cultivate.

[Johnny Dolittle]

I know people who raise Shiitake mushrooms. They bore holes in tree limbs or small trunks and inoculate with spores and store in a damp shaded area ... usually under evergreens I believe. They say it is profitable.

[fffarmergirl]

I grew some shiitakes, lions manes, and pearl oysters indoors this winter. It was a pain in the buttocks because our house was so dry with the wood heat going. I'm going to try it in the damp cellar this summer.

[olivehill]

I raised shiitakes in my kitchen from one of those kits. Amazingly simple and prolific. If you've got the environment to do it on a large scale I would think you could make a decent profit.

[crookedoak]

I have heard of people raising the pearl oyster mushrooms and those gigantic garlic.

[the_fish_guy]

Yea, I had partners and grew Shiitake on a commercial scale. For a time we were producing over a thousand pounds a month.........it is a ton of work and very capital intense. Two of us just quit and our third partner worked herself to death! If I were to try again I think I would grow medicinal shrooms.

[crookedoak]

Okay, I have to ask.. what are the medicial shrooms. Or do I want to know:-)

[the_fish_guy]

No kiddo, I'm not talking "magic" mushrooms (the psychotropic type) I mean Reishi, Maitake, Zhu Ling and that sort of thing. If you are really interested, then the very best resource (possibly in the world) is a fellow named Paul Stamets. Paul runs "Fungi Perfeci" here in Washington State and he has a website: www.fungi.com and also offers a really great catalog as well as seminars, books and you name it! All of your answers will be revealed. Paul is pretty famous......you can trust him...wants to change the world with mushrooms.......and he just might

[oregon woodsmok]

I suspect that economy of scale comes into play, just like with any sort of farming. The guys who make a living at it are running a factory farm.

One family can't compete on price with the guy who has acres of buildings and 20 employees. If he makes 10 cents a pound profit on millions of pounds, he's made money. If you make 10 cents a pound on 1,000 pounds and it takes you hours every day to do it, it doesn't pay for your time, let alone your property taxes.