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shroombasa
Sojourner



Registered: 05/02/15
Posts: 364
Loc: 'Merka
Last seen: 3 years, 3 months
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Re: Farmers market experience [Re: Gr0wer]
#22362648 - 10/11/15 10:42 AM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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This thread has been incredibly helpful! Thanks for sharing your success, Gr0wer!
-------------------- Trade list
Peace and long life.
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casualgrower


Registered: 07/18/14
Posts: 300
Loc: Estonia
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Re: Farmers market experience [Re: shroombasa]
#22367540 - 10/12/15 10:39 AM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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had a really great time last weekend at the local farmers market. sold 13 kilos in 4 hours.

-------------------- The depth of undiscovered knowledge laying before us is more vast than our minds can imagine...
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Nice fruits and nice scale! No canopy? How many Sq ft is your grow room? Thats some harvest!
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drake89
Mushroom Magnate



Registered: 06/26/11
Posts: 4,168
Loc: TN
Last seen: 4 years, 10 months
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Re: Farmers market experience [Re: Gr0wer]
#22368307 - 10/12/15 01:42 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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beautiful eryngii
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invitro

Registered: 05/03/13
Posts: 2,529
Last seen: 1 month, 20 days
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About the Reishi being a dollar a gram, is that fresh or dried? It seems most people don't know what these are. The dried powder is far cheaper on ebay, what do you tell people when you first introduce them to Reishi.
Edited by invitro (10/18/15 05:03 PM)
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Farmers market experience [Re: invitro]
#22398377 - 10/18/15 03:42 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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I was considering growing reishi but it seems like a waste for exactly those reasons including, you cant just eat it, nobody knows what it is, and chefs can't cook with it. I grew a few pails and tried making tea, gross even with green tea mixed in.
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Mr.PhilCybin
Master Baiter


Registered: 06/13/11
Posts: 11,642
Loc: Gnarnia
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Re: Farmers market experience [Re: Gr0wer]
#22398456 - 10/18/15 03:59 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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super helpful info in this thread.
thanks guys
-------------------- I'm stupid, Falcon91Wolvrn03 is smart. I'm ugly, Falcon91Wolvrn03 is beautiful. I'm a loser, Falcon91Wolvrn03 is a winner. Someday, I hope to be like Falcon91Wolvrn03 but secretly know I never will.
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chris11sholtz
Stranger

Registered: 10/16/15
Posts: 4
Last seen: 8 years, 2 months
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I'm waiting on my first batch of phoenix oyster mushroom spawn to come in. Right now it is just a hobby, but I wouldn't mind my hobby making a bit of $$$ on the side.
So summing up the advice here:
Grow multiple varieties of mushrooms to make people really feel like it is a gourmet mushroom stand.
Make your stand at the market look exciting and interesting.
Reishi mushrooms are only worth growing if you have a very specific market.
With a shit ton of work and a shi tton of mushrooms; you can get by as a person.
I have one question: What do I do with all of the spent substrate? I don't have tons of land that I can just deposit it in the woods somewhere, nor do I have the space to turn it all into a garden.
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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I give it to my friend to grow in his garden he is typically able to match or exceed my output since he mixes in 1-2 times its vollume fresh substrate. I'm sure there are local farmers who would pick it up for free for there gardens.
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casualgrower


Registered: 07/18/14
Posts: 300
Loc: Estonia
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Re: Farmers market experience [Re: Gr0wer]
#22405973 - 10/19/15 10:38 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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our growroom is about 30square meters, we harvest about 5 to 10 kilos of eryngii daily.
it was a great idea to bring that reishi block to the market, it's a true eye-catcher. we placed it right in front of our eryngii price so that customers would have to see the price through a mushroom prism :P a lot of people who probably would have walked past our stand came up and asked what it was. after explaining a bit about it's nature, use and history some ppl still refused to belive that it was an actual living mushroom, thinking it was made out of plastic... Reishi is very rare in my country and picking it from the wild is forbidden by the law, on the other hand, people that knew what it was were amazed by it's beauty.
eryngii doesn't grow wild in Estonia so people were quite sceptical about purchasing them. some jokingly thought that they were hand-made mazipan mushrooms.
-------------------- The depth of undiscovered knowledge laying before us is more vast than our minds can imagine...
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Davesnothere
Stoner


Registered: 10/22/15
Posts: 63
Loc: MI
Last seen: 8 years, 2 months
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We have three farmers markets locally here, I pay $10 for 3 plates (presumably about 3.5 ounces ea) of anything they have. They outsource all of it. Most the profit I see being made at the farm markets here are from clever displays, marketing, and a great customer base from a great product.
-------------------- Disappointment is caused by unrealistic expectations.
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Awakening
Stranger


Registered: 04/01/15
Posts: 99
Last seen: 4 years, 7 days
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cool post! good work
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Farmers market experience [Re: Awakening]
#22493219 - 11/07/15 09:49 PM (8 years, 2 months ago) |
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My most recent market. Cooked samples, sheets with literature about the mushrooms, what they are grown on, and how to prepare them. Paper bags with my business card stapled onto them for bagging product. I plan to move onto a customized rubber stamp with my company name, a pic, facebook page url, and phone number. Multiple wicker baskets for different types of mushrooms. I stopped bringing agar plates and jars of substrate. I just bring a small bag with some fruits on it to show how they grow, come the end of the market i pick em off and sell or trade em And have business cards, even if you give away 100 for one sale it worth it. And i cant tell you how many local non profits want me to grow mushrooms and give classes on how to grow. I must say be cautious about this as you may sprout up local competition. I've been talking with a farmer who has greenhouses about doing a joint operation but i plan to have a written agreement about sales and split profits. Mainly wine caps utilizing the local free municipal mulch and/or local stables used bedding.
Edit:
my most recent market. I still need to buy a good sign as a backdrop like Solarity has. Note the fancy chalkboard signs on clothes pins, total cost $12 for 9. Im using a chalk paint pen, much neater than chalk and doesn't smear like chalk.
Edited by Gr0wer (02/18/16 11:51 PM)
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