Mushrooms you grow and mushrooms you forage follow different rules. Cultivated oyster, lion's mane and shiitake are produce: sell them at a market like any vegetable, under your state's market and produce rules, and keep them cool. Wild mushrooms are a different matter, because a wrong identification can kill someone. Under the FDA Food Code, which states adopt in their own versions, restaurants and other food establishments don't sell or serve mushrooms picked in the wild unless they're approved to; cultivated species grown in a regulated operation are outside that rule. Minnesota spells out the approval: a restaurant's wild mushrooms come from a certified mushroom harvester who inspected each one, with a written buyer specification naming the species, the date, the weight and the harvester, kept for 90 days, and the harvester keeps its own records for 90 days. Selling foraged mushrooms at the market table itself is a question for your state and your market. In the example below, a Minnesota grower plans its market table and its first spring of morels for two restaurants.
The short version
- Cultivated mushrooms are produce: sell them at markets under your state's rules, kept cool.
- Wild mushrooms: food establishments sell or serve them only if approved, under the Food Code.
- Minnesota: restaurants buy wild mushrooms from certified harvesters, with a written buyer specification.
- The specification names the species, scientific and common, the date, the weight and the harvester; 90 days.
- The harvester keeps records of where, when, what and to whom, for 90 days.
- For foraged mushrooms at a market table, ask your state and your market first.
- TaroStack keeps each flush as a lot and each restaurant order with the lots it took. More below.
Grown or wild
| Cultivated | Foraged | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Grown on blocks or logs you manage | Picked in woods and fields |
| At the market | Produce, under your state's rules | Ask your state and market first |
| To restaurants | Produce from a known grower | Minnesota: a certified harvester, a buyer specification, records |
| The risk | Spoilage | Misidentification |
Packaging for the market is in how to package mushrooms for sale, and the licenses in mushroom business license.
The rules
| Rule | Where |
|---|---|
| Wild mushrooms, Food Code | Not sold or served by a food establishment unless approved; cultivated species grown in a regulated operation, and packaged products of a regulated plant, are outside it (Food Code 2022, 3-201.16) |
| Minnesota, the source | Each wild mushroom individually inspected and found safe by a certified mushroom harvester (Minn. R. 4626.0155) |
| Minnesota, the buyer's paper | A written buyer specification: species by scientific and common name, date, weight, a statement each was identified fresh, the harvester's name, address and phone, and the harvester's place on the state registry; kept 90 days |
| Minnesota, the harvester's records | Species, county and state of harvest, harvest date, restaurants sold to, dates and weights; kept 90 days |
| Minnesota, the menu | A disclosure: "Wild mushrooms are not an inspected product and are harvested from a noninspected site." |
This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: a Northfield grower, a market and two restaurants
Cannon River Mushrooms, a made-up mushroom grower in Northfield, Minnesota, plans its Saturday market table in August:
| Product | Price | Cost with the box | Bring | Expect to sell |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oyster mushrooms, half pound | $9.00 | $2.40 | 40 | 32 |
| Lion's mane, half pound | $11.00 | $3.10 | 24 | 18 |
| Shiitake, half pound | $10.00 | $2.90 | 30 | 24 |
| Oyster grow kit | $25.00 | $9.50 | 10 | 6 |
A market day brings about $876 and leaves $591.80 after the mushrooms, boxes and the $25 stall fee. August's four markets sold $3,492. In the spring, the owner forages morels, and two restaurants wanted them. Before selling any, the owner became a certified harvester on the state's registry, then sent each restaurant a written buyer specification with every delivery: "Morchella americana, yellow morel", the date, the weight, a line that each was identified fresh, and the owner's name, address and phone. The owner's own log holds the county, harvest date, restaurant and weight for each sale, kept 90 days. The morels never go on the market table; the market sells only what's grown. The grower's year is in mushroom farm business plan.
Get the planner
Download the mushroom market planner. Three sheets: the market day, with each product's price, cost, how many to bring and how many you expect to sell, and the sales, what's left and sell-through filled in; a season log of what each market sold; and wild mushroom records, with each foraged sale's species, where and when it was harvested, the weight and the buyer. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The planner tracks the market. The grow room runs on a different clock: blocks inoculated weeks ago, flushes coming in on different days, half-pound boxes for the market and five-pound bags for restaurants, and which flush went where.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each flush as a lot and each restaurant order with the lots it took.
Each flush a batch. A flush of oyster mushrooms is a batch, with its lot and harvest date, taking blocks and boxes off stock.
Orders with lots. Each restaurant's order records the lots it took, and the delivery note prints them.
Your own fields. Fields of your own on a batch record can hold the species' scientific name and where it came from.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Which flush went to a restaurant | Remembered | Lots on each order |
| What's in the cooler | A guess | A count on a phone, offline |
| What a half-pound box costs | A guess | True cost from the batch |
Batches, lots and counts are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.