I’ve recently been growing mushrooms and am hoping to sell some of my harvest. How should I get started?
Growing mushrooms for profit can be fun and rewarding, follow these tips for a successful start to selling your extra produce at market.
If your vision is to grow mushrooms to sell, the following tips may help. (For info on growing your own mushrooms from plug spawn.)
Set up a safe, solid space. To maintain humidity for a larger quantity of mushrooms, you’ll need a greenhouse or grow tent that contains enough humidity to keep your mushrooms happy. Without adequate humidity, they’ll turn out smaller and harder than they ought to, or they’ll develop in strange shapes. When you’re only growing in a small number of buckets, you can maintain them with a misting bottle or a small cool-mist humidifier nearby, but market quantities are difficult to maintain without some control.
You’ll also need ventilation to remove excess carbon-dioxide buildup, and if your setup is indoors, you’ll need some kind of air filtration on your ventilation to ensure you aren’t releasing enormous quantities of spores into your house or barn.
All of that can be done fairly inexpensively with some scavenging. It’s just important to handle those things so you have a safe and profitable market-growing experience. Always wear a respirator when you’re in a space that’s growing a significant quantity of mushrooms. Breathing in unfiltered air with potentially billions of spores is dangerous.
Learn your local regulations. Some areas have stricter rules on selling mushrooms. I’m in Michigan, where the rules are pretty farmer-friendly. But if you’re selling foraged mushrooms, you’ll need to have certification to ensure you’re properly identifying what you’re selling. Check your local guidelines to ensure your practices align with their requirements so you don’t run into issues when you’ve got your first big harvest and you’re ready to sell.
Don’t try to make your first harvest the first one you take to market. Give yourself time for a few trial runs. Like anything, it’ll take some trial and error to get to the point where your mushroom operation is running seamlessly, and it’s worth practicing and fine-tuning your process. Oyster mushrooms, in particular, only take 6 to 8 weeks to be ready for harvest, so you can fit in a round or two of practice before taking them to market.
Become a market vendor. Gourmet mushrooms are popular at farmers markets, and if you’re growing them well, you’re sure to find customers. Most local farmers markets have a website with their application process for vending, and if you can’t find their info, try reaching out to your local chamber of commerce, which can likely direct you to the right person. There are day vendors and seasonal vendors. The day spots cost a bit more than paying in full for a whole season, but they allow you more schedule flexibility throughout the market season. Standard market canopy sizes are 10 feet by 10 feet, and it’s good to have your own if you’re planning on doing more than an event or two. You can get them in many colors, but be aware of the color cast that some brighter-colored canopies will put over your products, and if you have a darker canopy, know that it won’t let in as much light. You may need to have some kind of lighting to compensate so people can see your mushrooms.