Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
bisporus. This familiar white mushroom was domesticated in Paris during the 1800s (in
old texts you may find it referred to as champignon de Paris).
A brown variant of the same mushroom is sold as the crimini, and overgrown crimini
are sold as portabellos. Fresh shiitakes (Lentinus edodes) are probably the next most com-
mon domesticated mushrooms, but there are also plenty of oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus)
species around, as well as enoki (Flammulina velutipes). If you shop at Asian markets,
you'll find an overgrown oyster called the king eryngii (Pleurotus eryngii); the maitake, or
hen-of-the-woods (Grifola frondosa); and the hon-shimeji (Hypsizygus tessulatus).
The challenge mushroom farmers face is converting wild mushrooms to domestic cul-
tivation. This is more difficult than it may seem. Although white mushrooms will take root
in beds of straw and manure, and oysters and shiitakes can be raised on dead tree trunks,
other mushrooms, such as boletes (cepes or porcini), chanterelles and truffles, live in sym-
biotic relationships with the root systems of living trees - a tricky situation to replicate ar-
tificially. Progress has even been made in cultivating fresh morels (Morchella esculenta),
but there is still a way to go in formulating the ideal growing medium before these wild
delicacies can become a supermarket staple.
Whatever the variety, mushrooms do not grow from seeds, but from spores. To grow
white mushrooms, these spores are planted in big trays of specially formulated, sterilized
compost made from the selected refuse of several different industries: cocoa bean hulls,
cottonseeds, straw and ground corncobs. These beds are stacked several deep in long,
windowless cinder block buildings. Two to three weeks after the spores are planted, the
root systems of the mushrooms take hold. Called mycelia, the roots resemble lacy white
threads. The mycelia are covered with peat moss, and within a couple of more weeks, the
first mushroom caps begin to emerge. These are allowed to mature for another week or
so before harvesting. The mushroom harvest takes place over about a week, and then the
"mushroom house" is stripped down and sterilized before a new cycle begins. All told, it
takes between a month and a month and a half to grow a mushroom crop from beginning
to end.
The size of a mushroom is not dictated by its age. Mushrooms of the same maturity can
range from a tiny button to a larger cap. The best indicator of age is the degree to which
the mushroom has flattened out, exposing the gills underneath.
The portabello mushroom is simply a brown crimini mushroom that is allowed to ma-
ture for another week. This results not only in the mushroom's being bigger (portabellos
can weigh as much as a quarter pound each, whereas it takes 25 to 30 crimini to make a
