As a farmer, how do you sell/access the market for mushrooms?
It all depends on what you want to do. Selling, unfortunately, isn’t as easy as just having the product ready. However there are a few options that you can do.Sell at the farmers market - every market has their own rules about food handling, insurance requirements etc so make sure to find that out ahead of time.Sell to restaurants - you do have to deal with these individually however they aren’t as bad as they seem. If you get connected with them, they may buy as many mushrooms as you can produce, depending what kind of food they cook. Watch out for “putting all your eggs in one basket”, as restaurants are known for deciding they don’t need as many mushrooms all of a sudden.Get involved with the local co-op stores - there are some people who have created co-op grocery stores and will feature the products from local farmers. Basically it is a farmers market, but you bring what you have (in season if applicable) and they sell the farm goods for you.Talk to other local farmers and see if they are doing a CSA (community shared agriculture). If they are, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind adding mushrooms to their customers orders for a part of the purchase price.These are just a few of the more popular options. As you mentioned before, you can sell online and do a few others, but it will require more work on your part. I do have some more ideas in this post if you are interested in learning more:9 Ways to Get Top Dollar for Your Farm GoodsGood luck on your farm endeavors.
Consumer Demand for Organic Foods?
there are two issues at work here. organic which basically means food grown without pesticides, etc. and locally grown food. yes organic food is great, but it has also become a money maker and marketing dream come true for many companies hoping to increase profits. organic food is also touted as healthy, but that's debatable. and not everybody can afford to buy organic. for many working poor (not on food stamps) they would rather buy 4 oranges for that one dollar at a regular supermarket than 1-2 oranges at whole foods. the second issues is locally grown food. many ppl are critical about food (organic and conventional) grown thousands of miles away and flown to your city, they think it's a waste of resources. they say you should support your local farmer's market, eating fresh, and whatever is grown that season.