Calling all mushroom lovers: Cumberland County farm offers unique types for sale

A farm in Cumberland County grows premium-quality mushrooms for culinary use and dietary supplements, offering capsules, tinctures and pounds of mushrooms for sale, including lion's mane, turkey tail and blue oyster mushrooms.

Co-owner Justin Daniel said the venture specializes in cultivating mushrooms that offer notable medicinal benefits and varieties rarely found in grocery stores.

His foray into mushroom farming began when he learned of some benefits but couldn't find the particular mushrooms locally. So he grew them himself.

Then, from a chance encounter in October 2022 with future partners Jesse Leger and Eric Woody, came Sandhills Mushroom Farm.

Origin story

Situated on 90 acres at 975 Johnson Farm Road, the farm is managed by Daniel. He, his wife Laila Daniel and Leger and Woody complete the team.

Daniel said his great-grandmother first purchased the property for agriculture in the 1930s, growing tobacco and cotton for sale and food for the family table.

Daniel's grandfather bought the land from his siblings and transitioned into raising livestock, mainly focusing on pigs, cattle and growing hay and corn as feed for the animals. Daniel said, in 2012 the land was converted into a tree farm for sawmilling the many pines still on the property.

"There were some trees that were going to a landfill, so people would call me ... and they would bring it to me for free versus going to the landfill and paying by the ton to dispose of it," Daniel said. "I started doing that, doing sawmill, and that's how I met these guys."

Daniel said that before meeting his business partners he began dabbling in growing mushrooms like lion's mane and turkey tail after learning about their health benefits.

He met Leger and Woody in 2022, when the men asked Daniel for sawdust to use as substrate for the mushrooms they were growing at home. Some variations of mushrooms thrive in sawdust or hardwood fuel pellets, both waste products from lumber yards.

Leger and Woody were nearing their third year of commercially growing and selling mushrooms, when Daniel came aboard.

Mushrooms for sale

Woody said the farm produces "about 50 to 70 pounds of mushrooms each week" and sells them by the pound. He encourages customers to call on harvest day, Tuesday, for the freshest mushrooms possible, if interested in purchasing for home cooking, restaurants, or farmer's markets. He said that once harvested, the mushrooms have a shelf life of about seven to 12 days.

Daniel said production at the farm is doubling by the week. He said their best client is Pate's Farm Market, which they sell to as a wholesaler.

Laila Daniel said it's important for her to know exactly what variety of mushrooms she's consuming and where it was grown. She said the mushrooms at Sandhills Mushroom Farm are all clones from a single culture, making them genetically identical and consistent in quality.

"I'm not a risk taker," she said. "Everyone needs to be responsible for knowing their own allergies and there is a small percentage of people that are allergic to mushrooms. While it's a great thing and safe for a lot of people, everyone needs to know what their own allergies are and don't gorge on it, eat a little bit and see how your body reacts."

The details

Address: 975 Johnson Farm Road, Fayetteville

Phone: 910-699-5801

Hours of operation: It's best to call ahead and schedule a visit, with Tuesdays being ideal since it's the farm's weekly harvest day.

On the web:sandhillsmushroomfarm.com

Reporter Lizmary Evans covers growth and development for The Fayetteville Observer. You can reach her at LEvans@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Where can I buy mushrooms in Cumberland County? Sandhills Mushroom Farm