Nine years ago, I started growing mushrooms in an old barn on my parents' property with about $300 and zero background in farming. This episode is the story of how that turned into Ten Mile Mushrooms and Farm Launch, a farm on 70 acres in central Pennsylvania that I was able to purchase with zero down through a USDA loan.

I sat down with Andrew Mefford on the Growing for Market Podcast to talk about how we went from selling fresh mushrooms at farmers markets to supplying wholesale spawn and substrate to farms across the Northeast. We get into the economics of mushroom farming compared to crops like corn, what it actually takes to build a grow room from scratch, the difference between spawn types, why hardwood substrate matters, how we built a coaching program to help other farmers add mushrooms as a high margin revenue stream, and so much more.

If you've ever thought about starting a mushroom farm, or adding mushrooms to what you're already growing, this conversation walks through the real numbers and the real process, not the highlight reel.

Big thanks to Andrew and the whole team at Growing for Market for having me on! You can find their podcast and magazine at GrowingForMarket.com.

Want to start growing your own mushrooms? Join the Pro Grow Club: prowgrowclub.com Or check out the mushrooms for sale on our website: tenmilemushrooms.com

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