78 replies to this topic

[droool]

yea the reason why id like to use the MH is because i use it anyway for MJ growing and so i could (theoretically ) put my shroom grow box in my weed grow box, and have a semi shady place for them. i wouldnt be using nay more electricity than i already do.
i agree that natural light is best (free) but i heard there are some people out there (they always seem to dress in blue, idk might be a gang) that dont like me growing that kinda stuff.

[shroom57]

It might work under a SCROG screen or shaded by a canopy of fan leaves...TCO would know better than I, but that sounds like waaay too much light and keeping the humidity up might be a problem with fans going in there.

BTW, thanks everyone for your contributions so far, especially TCO.

[RestartLater]

WTG shroom57 pulling up a chair for this thread.!!

I always wanted to grow more edibles myself.

Does one need a license / business license to sell to your local grocery outlets? I am sure if a person was to go big time commercial cultivation they would need licensure as well as state permits and be subject to having your cultivation area viewed / checked out by the various state agencies too.

Once again more government crud but then I could be wrong....LOL

I always drove past a huge vacant green houses that one could modify to cultivate on a grand scale I would think :+}~


Good Luck Shroom!

RestartLater


PS Have you fallen off any houses recently since we last palid ogame together? LOL

[lysergic]

Does one need a license / business license to sell to your local grocery outlets? I am sure if a person was to go big time commercial cultivation they would need licensure as well as state permits and be subject to having your cultivation area viewed / checked out by the various state agencies too.

I wonder if anybody's ever gotten charged for illegally distributing legal mushrooms? :lol:

[wildburr]

Usually you have to be a licensed, inspected USDA facility to legally sell any produce to any store or restaurant.

[lysergic]

Usually you have to be a licensed, inspected USDA facility to legally sell any produce to any store or restaurant.

You probably wouldn't be able to get away with doing this (legally) at your house
due to zoning laws or other such bullshit. :(

I wonder if most places would pay under the table for something like this? :reb:

[droool]

"It might work under a SCROG screen or shaded by a canopy of fan leaves...TCO would know better than I, but that sounds like waaay too much light and keeping the humidity up might be a problem with fans going in there."

is "scrog" the same as "sog"-- SeaOfGreen or what is it?

well idk what the legal conditions are in the US but here you have to have a permit to sell any food at all - the main motivation is to make money off of it and keep larger buisnesses up, not to protect the consumer from bad/poisonous/contaminated food.

[the_chosen_one]

Usually you have to be a licensed, inspected USDA- facility to legally sell any produce to any store or restaurant.

i've found about one out of ten sales calls required fda approval and that was one of our local large resorts. however, i sell to the smaller resort across the street from them :lol: guess it's all in who you know. plus there are gray zones in those laws. around here local produce can be sold at farmers markets with no requirements.

:heart:

[SilvrHairDevil]

People who pick wild pine mushrooms don't seem to have legal difficulty when selling to restaurants.

[the_chosen_one]

It might work under a SCROG screen or shaded by a canopy of fan leaves...TCO would know better than I, but that sounds like waaay too much light and keeping the humidity up might be a problem with fans going in there.
BTW, thanks everyone for your contributions so far, especially TCO.

i would agree.. but i do get those flower pot mushrooms all the time. who knows. it may work.

ha! thank YOU for listening to my ramblings. :bow: one thing i can say for sure is it is harder than one would think. at least when one works a full time job on top of it all. i can only dream of what would be possible with out that anchor. it wouldn't take much more to create a larger grow room.. and the logs one could plug!

:heart:

[little white rabbit]

i've just seen this thread and maybe i can help you a bit.
didn't read all the posts so maybe someone already told you

during summer i hunt edible mushrooms to sell them since two years and the best way to sell them if you don't have really big amounts is going to restaurants and telling a lot of people that you sell mushrooms. after some time more and more private persons know about it and you don't need to ask people if the need mushrooms anymore, the people order the amounts they need and you call them when you have some to sell

all you earn is net income and you don't have to spent money on stall fees. you have a good income also if your price is lower than the regular market price.

good luck with your project

[eatyualive]

very cool..

[zodd]

any updates shroom57. im very interested in this thread.:hippie:

[wildburr]

Yes Updates! My garage addition is finally under way.

[OG Royal Grower]

Good Deal!

[heritage ranch]

One thing you guys could help me out with is local prices. Since there are no local growers I can't get a good estimate on prices.

The internet isn't much help with this either, again probably due to the local nature of the markets. I've seen price estimates anywhere from $2/lb bulk to $1/oz when sold in smaller (4 oz) packaging.

If any of you have access to oysters in your local market, I would appreciate if you could let me know what they are selling for.

I'm in the process of doing some LC to grain and G2g transfers so I should have some pictures soon. I'm also working on the website so maybe that will be live early next week.

i got hooked on oysters and a few others this summer at a farmers market i was working with my meat. i was paying around $15 per pound (central colorado) i had seen oysters and other gourmet mushies at wholefoods but they were not so nice, dry and shriveled up, or getting slimy and wet. no way i was paying wholefoods price of $17 per pound and up. but the ones at the farmers market looked like they had been picked that morning, or the night before at the worst. he seamed to be doing a brisk business and only grows during the summer for markets.


i too am considering adding gourmets to my market offerings and have been getting good feed back from my regulars. i am starting slow with a few learning grows till i get a little skill. i hope to ramp up growing to were i have a few for markets by early summer

thanks for sharing you experiences with this endeavor

[heritage ranch]

I was getting 4$ for 5oz of oysters.
I put them in pint berry containers,
ya know the green cardboard ones.
They kept them from getting crushed,
displayed well, weren't plastic, and were
cheap, and reusable, some customers
would bring them back:)

just a heads up for folks thinking of selling "packaged" foods. double check with your local health department on the requirements. where i am, anything in a package of any type must have been packaged at an "inspected" facility. basicaly i would need an inspected commercial kitchen to package foods for sale. if i just put them in bulk boxes then i am good to go. also i am NOT allowed to wash produce. the explanation i get from the health dept is that if the food looks like it just came from the field then people know that. and they will follow proper procedures for cleaning inspecting and such before consuming. if things are washed and packaged then the dumb consumer assumes it was done properly and that it is safe to eat. so the health dept steps in and to protect the consumer they regulate any sort of washing/packaging to make sure it is done to their standards. PITA if you ask me. so just check your local regs before you end up breaking some vague law

good luck and keep us posted

[heritage ranch]

How large of a grow would be needed to be worthwhile/profitable?

i cant answer you first ?s but this last one i have been thinking on quite a bit.

i think it all depends on what you want out of the equation.

if you were to decide to do a farmers market 1 day a week thru the summer. i consider half of what i sell to be pay for the day at the market and the cost involved. ie booth space gas to and from lunch out as it makes for a long day doing a market. and the other half to pay my time managing the growing of the product, whether it be mushrooms pigs or green beans. most of my market days are around 10 hours, even if the market is only open 4-6 hrs. from packing driving setting up teardown and clean up, it all adds up.

my goal is to get "payed" $20 per hour ( i dont always succeed:eusa_booh). so for 10 hours i need to bring in $200 just for my days pay, around another $100 for the days cost, fuel booth and so on. so i figure around 300 coming in for the day and another 300 for the production. this would be 40 pounds of mushies at $15 per pound (going rate at my local markets) around here, i think this is doable. considering how busy the vendor was that i bought from this summer. i think the 300 for production is a fair amount to grow out 40lb of oysters (not including initial equipment purchase). i figure 100 bucks for straw grain electricity and other consumables and another 10 hours of labor spread over a month and a half or so.

for me, right now i dont need to go so big since i already do a farmers market 2 days a week. my cost for the market day is already absorbed in my meat sales so i would be very happy to have 10# a week to sell. the extra $ would go a long way to making my attempt at farmers markets viable. and even just diversifying my sales will help draw customers.

another approach i am working is local restaurants. i already have a local wood fired pizzeria interested in occasional orders of oysters. this could work out cool so long as they can be somewhat flexible in delivery times. for example if they wanted 40# for a "special" i could start a grow twice that size (always plan bigger than you need in case of a low yield) and i could predict within a few days of when they would be ready. i then show up with (hopefully) more than they asked for, let them pick what they want and then have the rest for my markets . not having to hawk my wares at the market all day would allow me to reduce my price and still make a proffit.

also have another restaurant that is interested in regular recurring purchases. again with a bulk purchase it saves a lot of time and might be worth doing if i wasnt doing a farmers market

just a few of my thoughts on what would make it worth it to me

[kcmoxtractor]

That's why you just display the containers. You weigh it they put it in their own container. Or make them pay by the lb.

[heritage ranch]

That's why you just display the containers. You weigh it they put it in their own container. Or make them pay by the lb.

yep, that is the plan. but i need to come up with a certified scale:eusa_booh the food nazis see to be pricks around here on scales. most of the produce vendors at the markets i do sell by volume. ie fill a box for X amount. then they dump the produce into the customer provided container and the "measuring" container is ready for next customer.



around here no licensure is needed to sell bulk unprocessed produce direct to the consumer including restaurants. but you need a license and inspection to package wash or sell to a reseller like a store. lots of gray area as stated before. can keep you on your toes keeping up with all the regs. the regs are quite an impediment to the small guy