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Invisibleshroomzey
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Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living...
    #10005383 - 03/20/09 12:10 AM (15 years, 12 days ago)

http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/vegetables/438-898/shiitakemushrooms.pdf

Check it out.  Yanked from here.

I'm being sarcastic in my title statement, as I know practically nothing about shiitake cultivation.  But I was hoping it would jog some of you who do cultivate it and your opinions on it as a commercial business.


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200 years from now, we will look back and laugh at ourselves for how stupid we were.
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Find a respected member of the community and study them.  I give thanks to: RogerRabbit, agar, hyphae, Nibin, fahtster, The shroomy 1, monstermitch, FooMan, HippieChick, Blue Helix, eatyualive, mycofile, and many, many more.
Never accept mediocrity, always return the love that is given to you.

Edited by shroomzey (03/20/09 12:16 AM)

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OfflineIAmABanana
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: shroomzey]
    #10008923 - 03/20/09 04:12 PM (15 years, 11 days ago)

That's not a lot to start a business. It has the potential of generating a decent profit stream in the future. Nobody expects to start such a business and make money the first day.

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Invisibleshroomzey
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: IAmABanana]
    #10008937 - 03/20/09 04:15 PM (15 years, 11 days ago)

Yeah, and these numbers are not concrete, the only way you can go.  But just seeing a net revenue of 2 grand over the course of 4 years is a little discouraging.  Anyone with commercial shiitake experience wanna jump in and put in an opinion?


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200 years from now, we will look back and laugh at ourselves for how stupid we were.
My Glovebox
Find a respected member of the community and study them.  I give thanks to: RogerRabbit, agar, hyphae, Nibin, fahtster, The shroomy 1, monstermitch, FooMan, HippieChick, Blue Helix, eatyualive, mycofile, and many, many more.
Never accept mediocrity, always return the love that is given to you.

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OfflineSuchSmartMonkeys
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: IAmABanana]
    #10008978 - 03/20/09 04:22 PM (15 years, 11 days ago)

not all of us want to be insanely rich either...  i feel my life would be far more rich if i were running a business that was spreading the knowledge of how fungus can benefit our lives while making exotic and gourmet edible mushrooms available to a greater number of people who otherwise wouldn't have access to such a thing than if i had lots of money...

and besides, the shiitake is just one thing, there's a small shed out back producing the cash crop, far more cubes than needed to live comfortably...


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Offlinesolumvita
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: SuchSmartMonkeys] * 1
    #10012380 - 03/21/09 07:24 AM (15 years, 10 days ago)

And now you know why growing Shiitake using logs is no longer the preferred method.

Just not cost effective.  Rather make logs like you would with oysters, a lot less effort, capital and time before you see a return.  Of course Shiitake substrate should preferably be sterilized whereas Oyster is okay with pasteurization only.


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OfflineJonat
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: solumvita]
    #10013301 - 03/21/09 11:38 AM (15 years, 10 days ago)

Yup, in terms of its context, the traditional log method was developed by Japanese farmers for Japanese farmers. It spreads the crop over several years, it has low biological efficiency, but it is relatively simple and can provide a supplemental income. Mix it in with rice cultivation, maybe a small orchard or vegetables, and it has historically helped stabilize their family farms. Making a living from it in the west today is like trying to make a living weaving kudzu kimonos.

Edited by Jonat (03/21/09 11:42 AM)

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OfflineRogerRabbitM
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: solumvita]
    #10013331 - 03/21/09 11:45 AM (15 years, 10 days ago)

It lists $3.50 per pound received for shiitake.  That must be an old document.  Shiitake in grocery stores sells for $17.95/lb, and the farmer gets about 40% of that if you enter the normal food distribution chain.

Also, as said, most shiitake growers use substrate blocks, which reduces the cropping time to months instead of four years.  For those who want to grow on logs, you don't 'buy' them either.  You find an overgrown hardwood forest on private land and offer to 'thin' it for the property owner, by only taking the young, overgrown trees, and leaving the larger, established trees.  This way, your only expense is gas for the chain saw and sharpening the blades.  Cut the logs into 8' to 10' lengths to fit in a pickup truck and carry a cord at a time back home, where you'll cut the logs into 36" to 48" lengths.

In my area, there's a lot of out-of-work loggers, and once word got out that I'm growing mushrooms and need hardwood, they've been calling almost every day, offering to bring me already chipped hardwood for $40/ton.
RR


--------------------
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Invisibleshroomzey
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: RogerRabbit]
    #10014013 - 03/21/09 01:40 PM (15 years, 10 days ago)

Interesting.  I think you wouldn't be a mycologist unless you realized and used/recycled the natural resources around you as best as possible.  Thanks for the post RR.


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200 years from now, we will look back and laugh at ourselves for how stupid we were.
My Glovebox
Find a respected member of the community and study them.  I give thanks to: RogerRabbit, agar, hyphae, Nibin, fahtster, The shroomy 1, monstermitch, FooMan, HippieChick, Blue Helix, eatyualive, mycofile, and many, many more.
Never accept mediocrity, always return the love that is given to you.

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InvisibleJef
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: shroomzey]
    #10014440 - 03/21/09 02:38 PM (15 years, 10 days ago)

$17.95 a pound ?

I'm just a little north of you and across the Canadian border.  In Victoria and Vancouver, you're buying Shitake retail for $6 - $8 a pound, and that's the smaller Canadian bucks.  Better not drive those up that "road to Canada".

Dried, we can get the 250 grams (equivalent of $2.5 Kg wet, or 6.3lbs) for $5.99.  Fresh  eryngii from China or Korea are $4 to $5 a lb.

Regular oysters which don't keep or travel well, are usually the most expensive at $7 or so.

All your other foods are really cheap for us when in the US, even after the exchange rate.  Perhaps it is the fact that Mushrooms are a big food item for Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, and we have so many of those folks, and so much stuff coming from that part of the world.

And no, even here, they don't sell any of these at WalMart yet.


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Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember.  Involve me and I will learn.

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InvisibleMushMushi
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: Jef]
    #10016709 - 03/21/09 09:13 PM (15 years, 10 days ago)

Quote:

Jef said:
$17.95 a pound ?

I'm just a little north of you and across the Canadian border.  In Victoria and Vancouver, you're buying Shitake retail for $6 - $8 a pound, and that's the smaller Canadian bucks.  Better not drive those up that "road to Canada".






Here, in Montreal it is the same situation but only in Chinatown. Nobody wants to compete with the asian shiitake.

I wonder though about the quality of the mushrooms coming from abroad; not that the consummer will probably care.

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OfflineHumbled
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: MushMushi]
    #10018291 - 03/22/09 05:17 AM (15 years, 9 days ago)

I was introduced to a man about a year ago that only grew shitake on logs that his 60+ year old arms could lift.

He says he makes enough to support his wife and himself along with property and such comfortably.

I envy that man.


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Offlineb3jamboree
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: Humbled]
    #10018608 - 03/22/09 07:53 AM (15 years, 9 days ago)

16 to 18 a pound is about right. We sell them at farmers markets for 4 dollars per quarter pound and they just fly away, we always sell out those and king oysters in the first couple hours.

I personally think Shiitake is the best mushroom to grow commercially. They aren't quite as easy to grow as oysters or enoki or some others, but they get a good price. The main thing however is shelf life; you can get a week out of regular oysters at best, maybe a little more if you harvest them very immature, but shiitakes can last a long time.

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OfflineRogerRabbitM
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: b3jamboree]
    #10018851 - 03/22/09 09:34 AM (15 years, 9 days ago)

Quote:

I wonder though about the quality of the mushrooms coming from abroad; not that the consummer will probably care.




When the consumers know they do. Every one that's been tested has come back with mercury content.  They're toxic.  Hopefully, the 'new' FDA in the US will kick the chinese shiitake out of our markets. In Seattle, it's the chinese shiitake that are selling for $17.95/lb. In addition, they're shit for quality.  My shiitake are 4" to 6" in diameter and as thick as a Portabella.
RR



--------------------
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semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat

"I've never had a failed experiment.  I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work."
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Offlinehoudinihar
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: RogerRabbit]
    #10019680 - 03/22/09 01:02 PM (15 years, 9 days ago)

RR, excellent pics of your shiitake on racks and a good overall blurb on the various markets around us for shiitake.
don't forget the neutraceutical market for dried product- could be important for some.

houdinihar

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Offlinerobanero
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: RogerRabbit]
    #10034514 - 03/24/09 06:22 PM (15 years, 7 days ago)

Quote:

RogerRabbit said: In Seattle, it's the chinese shiitake that are selling for $17.95/lb. In addition, they're shit for quality.  My shiitake are 4" to 6" in diameter and as thick as a Portabella.
RR






In my area of CenTex we don't see chinese shit, we see American Descent quality but it runs anywhere from $3-$4 for 3.5 oz pack but you can get the bulk for $7-$8 per lb., but the quality of those is very low IMO. Out of the about 3 or 4 suppliers the size is small to the smaller side of medium 1.5 to 3in tops very few thick caps and only about once a month do you find any kind of quality to the bulk. So i would say if you could grow even a little better quality fruit vr. theirs you could get a fair price. Roger your's would bring $17+ around here.

I talked to the manager of a major chains(in Tx) central market center in the metroplex and he told me that the bulk they have is grown locally by them, right there in the back of the produce department, and they send it out to the brand name, if you will, of the company's supermarkets.
They sells theirs for $7.99 a lb. bulk with less than descent quality.
You cant find quality or any gourmet other than shiitake in my area. Well if you want to call ports gourmet. Ports are every where and they are about $3 a lb. or $5 sliced in 6 oz packs and they are usually better than descent quality.
I haven't checked any farmers markets, which i will be doing, so I don't know what the product is like there.


:peace:
Roban


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OfflineSuchSmartMonkeys
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: MushMushi]
    #10039874 - 03/25/09 04:00 PM (15 years, 6 days ago)

Quote:

MushMushi said:
Quote:

Jef said:
$17.95 a pound ?

I'm just a little north of you and across the Canadian border.  In Victoria and Vancouver, you're buying Shitake retail for $6 - $8 a pound, and that's the smaller Canadian bucks.  Better not drive those up that "road to Canada".






Here, in Montreal it is the same situation but only in Chinatown. Nobody wants to compete with the asian shiitake.

I wonder though about the quality of the mushrooms coming from abroad; not that the consummer will probably care.




i actually read an article fairly recently about how China's fucked up air quality in major city areas, which also happens to be where they do a lot of their shiitake production (in huge warehouses and such, much like here), is making it so their mushrooms are full of heavy metals and other fucked up toxins you don't want to eat.  To remedy this, they are drying out all of their shiitakes, and exporting them to other places, then importing the shiitakes that they eat there from other countrys...  i'll see if i can hunt this down

edit:  hey robanero, remember when i found your "girlfriend" pictures on the net?  Which thumbnail site is your current "girlfriend" on?  hehehe, i'm just fucking with you...  Hard to hide that stuff from someone who looks at just as much, if not more porn than you do...

edit #2: those are some sexy shiitake RR...  Ever since i grew my own shiitake, all of the store ones have looked to shitty for me to want to eat...


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[url=http:

Edited by SuchSmartMonkeys (03/25/09 04:13 PM)

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Offlinerobanero
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: SuchSmartMonkeys]
    #10067314 - 03/29/09 03:06 PM (15 years, 2 days ago)

Quote:

SuchSmartMonkeys said

edit:  hey robanero, remember when i found your "girlfriend" pictures on the net?  Which thumbnail site is your current "girlfriend" on?  hehehe, i'm just fucking with you...  Hard to hide that stuff from someone who looks at just as much, if not more porn than you do...







LOL! You know you have to give some of the gullibles something to reply too. Started out as a laugh and had too keep going with it.

:peace:
Roban


--------------------

310 open cap Hawaiians grown a 1 pint WBSF cake.

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Offlinelethargic
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: robanero]
    #10067831 - 03/29/09 04:23 PM (15 years, 2 days ago)

So what does a good shiitake taste like?


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OfflineRogerRabbitM
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: robanero]
    #10067843 - 03/29/09 04:25 PM (15 years, 2 days ago)

Quote:

Nobody wants to compete with the chinese




I do. 

My customers don't want to eat lead, mercury and other heavy metals, and EVERY chinese shiitake that's ever been tested by the FDA has come back with heavy metal contamination.  They only make them toss out that batch, but don't shut the door on them for future contaminated shipments. They say it's because china is buying all the counterfeit money the government is printing and they've threatened to stop if we shut the door on their toxic wastes they're dumping here disguised as food, toys, and other worthless shit.

Stores like Whole Foods will buy all the certified organic shiitake we can produce for 40% of retail, which is in the neighborhood of $17 to $20 per pound, depending on location.
RR


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"I've never had a failed experiment.  I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work."
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InvisibleMushMushi
Registered: 08/23/02
Posts: 480
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Re: Kinda Makes You Not Want To Grow Shiitake For A Living... [Re: RogerRabbit]
    #10070161 - 03/29/09 09:17 PM (15 years, 2 days ago)

Quote:

RogerRabbit said:
Quote:

Nobody wants to compete with the chinese




I do. 

My customers don't want to eat lead, mercury and other heavy metals, and EVERY chinese shiitake that's ever been tested by the FDA has come back with heavy metal contamination.  They only make them toss out that batch, but don't shut the door on them for future contaminated shipments. They say it's because china is buying all the counterfeit money the government is printing and they've threatened to stop if we shut the door on their toxic wastes they're dumping here disguised as food, toys, and other worthless shit.

Stores like Whole Foods will buy all the certified organic shiitake we can produce for 40% of retail, which is in the neighborhood of $17 to $20 per pound, depending on location.
RR




What I meant with the chinese I meant the low price. With honey for example, at least the one that we find on our grocery shelves, either comes from china or from other countries: low quality, full of banned antibiotics and cheap price.  There are *no* local products on the shelves here.

As for my opinion, I've always found that buying food from abroad when you can have it locally is just insane, but that's not what our politicians believe.

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