Jon Deloge, co-owner of Slipstream Farm, enjoys being part of the local food economy and offering a unique product. There's some trust and salesmanship involved in his business and getting customers to eat some mushrooms they never ate before. He compared it to selling meat at a farmers market.
"People can be afraid of mushrooms," he said. Deloge runs the farm at their home in Newfane with his wife Lizzie Devane. They started selling mushrooms in May 2021 at the Brattleboro Farmers Market. Initially, they offered mostly blue oyster and lion's mane mushrooms.
Mushrooms are grown at the farm in different ways. For some varieties, the couple uses an organic fruiting box from Maine. Others involve inoculating bags of grain. This year, some mushrooms are being grown under shade cloth. Also, compost is being made from mushroom spent substrate.
The farm currently sells blue, yellow, pink and black pearl; two types of lion's mane; comb tooth; pioppino; chestnut and shiitake. The mushrooms are sold at farmers markets in Brattleboro and Londonderry on Saturdays, and sometimes Putney on Sundays.
Read more at Brattleboro Reformer