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 PopACapInHisAss
Stranger
Registered: 01/29/08
Posts: 63
Last seen: 2 months, 28 days
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 Meager Living Possible from a Niche in the Fungus Market???
#8593390 - 07/03/08 11:05 PM (3 months, 2 days ago) |
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I have read that most mushroom farms are in California and
Pennsylvania. I believe the numbers were 59% for Pennsylvania
and 17% for California.
Quote:
The east coast pays much more for wild mushrooms, than the west coast.
--socialnorm77 (November 2005)
I am just toying with the idea of making a living for the next
few years off of niche plant or fungus markets. It is not my plan
to get rich or even live extravagantly. I expect to make the bulk
of my money through writing/videos/websites in other markets.
However; I need to eat in the meantime. Food or natural medicine
production are appealing to me.
At first glance, Southern Cali. looks like a terrible location for
mushroom production because of possible competetion. However;
California does have the ninth largest economy in the world surpassing
even Australia. I also suspect well over half of the California economy
is in SoCal because of the variety and distribution of industries.
Point is, there is a crap load of money and many rich people here.
It is also very popular to buy local and organic. 17% of the US
production doesn't seem like a staggering number for such a
large and high-end economy. Besides, I don't know what the
species breakdown is...maybe the specialty fungus market is wide
open here???
With careful cost management and strategic distribution, do you
think I could carve out a meager living for a couple of years?
Or is this market so saturated by local production and low prices
that it is just a silly dream?
((DISCLAIMER RANT: Entheogens are not reasonable an option. While
I truly adore and love Entheogens, I personally feel that US society
does not possess the proper respect levels for broad access. I feel
the mental disposition of many people I meet far too chaotic and/or
egocentric to safely appreciate the experiences.
I generally believe people should have guided tours into the magical
realms (first time anyway). However; a nice little trip does seem to
very clearly sort out who can keep it together and who can't.
I get tired of modern society protecting us from ourselves, subverting
natural selection, and acting like the giant baby sitter. But then I
remember, most of the last two or three generations have never
seen truly hard times. The US is becoming a society of non-adults.
Everyone has there fancy psychologist granted labels that they
can use to explain, rationalize, or excuse their behavior and a
fistful of pills to make it instantly all better... I digress.
Also, the war on drugs has become just one more excuse to
empower our fledgling police state.
Sadly, Entheogens are not an option.))
Edited by PopACapInHisAss (07/04/08 12:28 AM)
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moho456
The Past Inside The Present
Registered: 06/10/06
Posts: 194
Loc: Translinguistic Matter
Last seen: 4 hours, 14 minutes
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Re: Meager Living Possible from a Niche in the Fungus Market??? [Re: PopACapInHisAss]
#8635259 - 07/14/08 08:50 PM (2 months, 22 days ago) |
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Unless you have some serious capital and a pre-existing link into the market (connections in restaurants, supermarkets) where you can guarantee a sale, I would say that you would be looking at more of a supplementary income versus a primary income. It is a hobby, until you get a real mushroom farm going and can produce consistently and reliably for various consumers. Startup costs and staffing are considerations.
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When the going gets wierd, the wierd turn pro.
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.
Hunter S. Thompson - RIP
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Hematite
Newbee
Registered: 05/04/07
Posts: 117
Loc: Wisconsin
Last seen: 4 days, 3 hours
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Re: Meager Living Possible from a Niche in the Fungus Market??? [Re: moho456]
#8654300 - 07/19/08 08:19 AM (2 months, 17 days ago) |
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California is a lousy place to grow most things, but it's never stopped them before. They grow cotton and rice there, so why not mushrooms?
You can make money on mushrooms and other wild foods, and the local food movement has helped make it more profitable because many places will pay a premium for things harvested or grown in their area. Give up any thought of growing the common supermarket mushroom Agaricus bisporus (aka button mushroom, crimini, portabella-- they're all the same thing). Sure you can grow them, but you'll never compete with the industrial operations. Shitakes are more amenable to small-scale production and may be a better bet, but there is a glut of them so I would identify buyers before I started. The same goes for other easily cultivated mushrooms like oyster mushrooms.
Wild mushrooms and other wild foods are the easiest way to get started. I make about $7,000/year as a forager for a local gourmet restaurant, which buys about half of what I collect. If I were to put more time (i.e., all of my time) into it I probably could triple that amount. If you have access to the NYC-Philadelphia market you might be able to make considerably more. I concentrate on a few items that I can find with abundance and identify beyond all doubt: watercress, ramps, morels, berries, cattails, chanterelles, king boletes, hen of the woods, and honey mushrooms. Of these, ramps are the most profitable. Each item has its own issues, especially ramps an watercress. Ramps are sensitive to overharvest so it's important to collect them in a sustainable way. Watercress can carry a nasty parasite and must be collected from water that you know is clean and that has no agricultural runoff. With watercress you also have to be on the lookout for deadly water hemlock. It goes without saying that you must be absolutely certain of your ID of all of the mushrooms.
As a small-scale forager you have two options for selling your stuff: farmer's markets and restaurants. Farmer's markets can be very good if they are frequented by people who know food, which pretty much means urban areas. For restaurants, look for a place where the head chef is an owner and can make decisions on the spot about what to buy and how much to pay. Be professional, reasonable and honest. Make your stuff look good. Never try to sell substandard items or, if substandard is all you can find, explain this and offer a heavy discount. If you find a 10 lb hen of the woods you're better off trimming it down to the 5 freshest and cleanest pounds than trying to sell the whole thing. If you have competition you want to be known as someone who always offers the highest quality items.
You may also be able to find a market that will buy your wares. Look for high-end gourmet fruit and vegetable markets, but don't be surprised if they aren't interested. Most of these places are tied into national food distribution networks and get all of their wild foods from commercial harvesters on the west coast. Don't even think about asking at Whole Foods (the Walmart of 'natural' food).
One last thing: when selling mushrooms, look for Russians. No people in the world love and appreciate mushrooms more than Russians and if there is a Russian community near you they are a ready market. They are especially fond of boletes and milk caps. If you have a good supply of these, it might be worth your while to take a trip someplace like Brighton Beach, NJ. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get $30/lb or more for king boletes there. Russians won't be interested in shitakes, morels or oyster mushrooms.
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 TODAY
Battletoad
Registered: 09/25/03
Posts: 7,104
Loc: Metropolis City, USA
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Re: Meager Living Possible from a Niche in the Fungus Market??? [Re: Hematite]
#8655081 - 07/19/08 12:57 PM (2 months, 17 days ago) |
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Quote:
Hematite said:
California is a lousy place to grow most things
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ca'rouse (k-rouz)
intr.v.
To engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking.
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dstark
Yes you can but you may Not!
Registered: 02/27/08
Posts: 1,082
Loc: -CamP!ng iN mY Ro.Om-
Last seen: 13 hours, 9 minutes
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Re: Meager Living Possible from a Niche in the Fungus Market??? [Re: TODAY]
#8657094 - 07/19/08 11:25 PM (2 months, 17 days ago) |
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Hematite, true words 
Russians(me for example ^^) like ushrooms so much 
Well to the post.
PopA it is also "dream" of mine to start growing edibles and selling them in the market, not that far dream 
But I allways worried about the things that come after you find people who interests in your grows and after you passing all the checks of on what your shrooms grow on, arnt they toxic, etc. These thing I was woried of is if the markets or the someone you sell to the mushrooms will see people like it, they will start pushing at you, they will want more shrooms(=more of your time :/)
Well allways the main problem is find good place and good costumers, not all the supermarkets will be interested in "home-grown" mushrooms...
Here for example if a super market sells any kind of product it has to be passed through a health "council"(forgot the word for now... soz)
So if I plan to grow and sell super markets I supose I will have to pass some checks :S
If you sell to the markets it is easier... restaurant for sure
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.:Darkie:.
Sucks my Sig must be only 65kb ;(
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Paresthesia
Registered: 07/02/08
Posts: 202
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 3 hours, 54 minutes
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 Re: Meager Living Possible from a Niche in the Fungus Market??? [Re: dstark]
#8657856 - 07/20/08 06:36 AM (2 months, 16 days ago) |
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Hey, haven't you been having some massive forest fires out there? That means the morels are ON! Doesn't it?!
There's a niche market that I think could be exploited with the right cultivation knowledge... Straw mushrooms! There's a huge asian population where I live and I never see fresh straw mushrooms in stores, just canned and dried. The two substrates they like the most are readily available in California and Texas, where I'm at. Cotton waste and rice straw. It could be worth looking into.
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"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
- T. S. Eliot
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Hematite
Newbee
Registered: 05/04/07
Posts: 117
Loc: Wisconsin
Last seen: 4 days, 3 hours
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Re: Meager Living Possible from a Niche in the Fungus Market??? [Re: Paresthesia]
#8658386 - 07/20/08 10:56 AM (2 months, 16 days ago) |
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One almost completely unexplored but potentially very lucrative possibility is the co-production of trees/lumber and mushrooms. Up the road from me there is a Christmas tree farm that produces Suillus cf. luteus in vast numbers each fall, probably at least one lb per tree. Nearby there is a pine plantation where Lactarius cf. deliciosus is abundant, along with smaller numbers of Boletus edulis. The value of the mushrooms produced on this land each year probably equals or exceeds that of the lumber.
These edible fungi make their way into the woods on their own, but most young trees are inoculated with micorrhizal fungi before planting, which improves growth. I've talked to mycologists with the US Forest Service and there is no reason why the fungi used should not be one that produces good mushrooms. It's just not something that tree farmers and foresters know about or have thought of doing. I know of a pine plantation that each fall is bursting with the inedibly bitter bolete Tylopilus felleus, which was used as an inoculant. Had someone had a little foresight, the forest could have been carpeted in king boletes.
I've read of pine plantations in Australia that have been inoculated with L. deliciosus (for export to Spain, where it is very popular) and of course oak plantations inoculated with truffles have been around for a long time and are being attempted in the US. But beyond that, there doesn't seem to be anything.
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Paresthesia
Registered: 07/02/08
Posts: 202
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 3 hours, 54 minutes
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Re: Meager Living Possible from a Niche in the Fungus Market??? [Re: Hematite]
#8666611 - 07/22/08 05:37 AM (2 months, 14 days ago) |
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You know, I recently posted a question regarding techniques that can be used to inoculate trees with mycorrhizal species. No responses. Maybe it was a dumb question?
I doubt there's much of a market for puffball fungi, but I've been doing research on such species that are native to my area. That includes chanterelles, morels and several species of boletus mushrooms. One other possibility has recently caught my attention--the pecan truffle.
These were only recently discovered back in the mid-1980s. They're definitely of culinary value, but they only bring in about $100/lb, as opposed to $1500/lb for Italian truffles. If I could find some I'm sure it would be possible to clone some tissue and cook up some grain spawn.
So what techniques are used in tree farms? Planting seedlings in soil containing the desired fungi? One of my potential experiments involves using air layering to propogate cuttings from a tree using inoculated substrate rather than the standard sphagnum moss. I'm hoping that using pre-colonized substrate would reduce the possibility of contamination and allow cuttings to better handle the stress of being removed and rooted in soil. If it's possible to do this with seedlings and guarantee an association, I could be making this more complicated than it has to be.
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"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
- T. S. Eliot
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