Coop Scoop Blog
Meet our Producers: Bulich Mushroom Farm
The Bulich Mushroom Farm, located in Catskill, New York, was established in the late 1940s. At that time it was one of many mushroom farms in New York State, but within 30 years most of these small businesses had closed because of competition from large commercial mushroom farms, Chinese imports, and rising transportation costs. Bulich Mushroom Farm is currently run by third generation, lifelong farmers, Mike and Joe Bulich.
The Bulich farm covers 700 acres, but all of the action takes place in seven dark, temperature controlled mushroom houses. The organically grown crops are cultivated in five foot wide stacked beds. Each bed contains a growing medium primarily made up of composted horse manure brought in from a neighboring farm. After this mixture is spread over the beds, a 140 degree pressurized steam bath is applied to dampen the organic matter. After the beds cool they are seeded with mushroom spores. A few weeks later the beds are covered with peat moss, and within three to five weeks the mushrooms are ready for the first harvest. Each planting yields four harvests, after which the beds are thoroughly cleaned and aired in preparation for a new planting. The Bulich brothers grow successive crops of each variety in order to have a constant supply of mushrooms. Incredibly, even though Bulich Farm is considered a small operation compared with huge commercial mushroom farms, the Bulichs harvest several tons of mushrooms each week.
The harvests are sold to the Culinary Institute of America, to Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan, and to numerous distributors. One of those distributors is Honest Weight Food Co-op where you will find Bulich Farm portobello, crimini, shiitake, large button, and medium button mushrooms on the shelf in our produce department.
At Honest Weight Food Co-op, we truly value the small businesses and dedicated individuals who work hard to produce the exceptional products we carry. We think their exceptional stories demonstrate the importance of supporting local, and why we're so committed to it!