Hankins outlines niche crop market outlook at small farms conference

By SEAN CLOUGHERTY
Managing Editor

DOVER, Del. — With a lot of topics to cover in his allotted time at the Profiting From a Few Acres seminar hosted by Delaware State University, Andy Hankins, alternative crop Extension specialist at Virginia State University, told listeners if they didn't care to hear about the crop he was talking about at the moment, just wait a bit because he would soon be moving on to another one.
Hankins discussed several niche crops including mushrooms, botanical herbs and cut flowers.
“I have gotten my hands dirty with all these enterprises,” Hankins said to about 150 small acreage farmers at the seminar on Dec. 13. Many of the crops involved adding value to forestland.
Hankins said he's seen a huge resurgence in Shiitake mushrooms in the last five years and with 12 million acres of privately owned woods in Virginia, he said it could be an easy fit for many farmers for added income.
In Hankins’ trials, he inoculated logs — white oak and chestnut work best, he said — by drilling 1-inch diameter holes half an inch deep all over the logs and filling them with mushroom spawn. He said not to expect much the first year, but for the next four years, the logs will produce salable mushrooms.
“Sometimes they don't grow where you drill the holes in particular. Sometimes you can have 100 mushrooms a log,” Hankins said.
As for marketing, Hankins said he has seen growers get about $20 per pound near Washington, D.C. and about $16 per pound in the Richmond, Va., area.
Hankins said he has had to deal with slugs and competing bacteria in the logs but “for the most part this is a completely organic situation.”
Oyster mushrooms and morels are other types of mushrooms Hankins is growing. With grower cooperators in Sedley, Va., Hankins is studying oyster mushroom growing indoors during the winter. He's growing morels in forestland on beds of hardwood mulch.
Goldenseal and Ginsing were two crops Hankins discussed growing in forestland for their sought after health benefits.
Ginsing takes about 10 years to produce a root large enough to sell but Hankins said the crop can fetch about $500 per pound due to huge worldwide demand. Seed is relatively cheap, he added, and the leaves of the plant taste bitter to deer, making the crop all the more enticing.
“A lot of people ask, 'So why would I want to grow ginseng?' If you own the woods, it's almost a question of why not?”
Ramp, or wild leeks, is another plant Hankins said is getting a lot of recent attention for it use in high end cuisine. The plant is native to the deciduous forests of North America and has been a popular garden crop in Appalachia for generations. Now, Hankins said he’s heard of prices in the $12 to $16 range per pound in some cities.
Moving out of the forestland, Hankins said cut flowers still offers profit potential to those willing to put in the intensive work in cultivation.
“It can be a marketing challenge,” he said.
“You have to build a market for you cut flowers,” he added.
Dutch iris, Lisanthus, gladiolus, snapdragons, peonies and lilac are just some of the flowers that Hankins has seen growers do well with.
“I’ve told so many small farms that if you take a look at cut flowers you might see more profit potential then growing vegetables,” Hankins said.