Forest Mushrooms, Inc. has been growing oyster and shiitake mushrooms since 1985, and is Minnesota’s oldest and largest commercial mushroom farm. Approximately 5,000 lbs per week of fresh specialty mushrooms are cultivated year-round in our controlled-environment buildings, and 15 employees are involved in cultivation, harvesting, packing, shipping, sales and maintenance. The farm operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with harvesting occurring every day. In addition to cultivating mushrooms, we also source every other variety of specialty mushrooms, fresh, frozen, and dried, that our customers have a need for. We package both in bulk packs for foodservice and also have a broad line of packaged product for grocery stores. This includes a line of 14 varieties of dried mushrooms in 1 ounce packages, as well as a full line of fresh cultivated and wild specialty mushrooms. We also sell harvested spring greens in season: fiddlehead ferns (from the ostrich fern), ramps (wild leeks), and garlic scapes in season.
Insurance
$3 million or more
Distribution
We have many options for delivery, depending on the customers needs. Our delivery to the major Twin Cities wholesale houses is four days a week via our own refrigerated trucks. Orders are taken the same day in most cases, for maximum freshness. Deliveries are made to the Twin Cities on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We also drop ship certain products directly to restaurants for our wholesale customers using SpeeDee delivery service, located just 10 miles from our farm in St. Cloud. Dried mushrooms are often delivered using UPS ground service.
Business Experience
Owner Kevin Doyle has a degree in Natural Science from St. Johns University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and has been at the helm of Forest Mushrooms since founding it in 1985. We have been selling to the wholesale market since our inception in 1985, and have attended many wholesale food shows in the Twin Cities. We currently provide product to practically every significant wholesale produce company in this market on a weekly basis. We also provide our dried and fresh mushroom products to wholesale grocers, who in turn distribute our products to grocery stores throughout Minnesota. We also ship fresh cultivated and wild-harvested mushrooms as well as dried mushrooms to the 50+ Whole Foods Market stores throughout the upper Midwest.