Culinary Mushrooms

Culinary mushrooms are the ones we eat: tender enough to cook, and prized for flavor and texture. They are low in calories, fat, and sodium, contain no cholesterol, and provide fiber, protein, potassium, selenium, riboflavin, and niacin (Valverde et al., 2015).

Mushrooms and Vitamin D

Mushrooms make vitamin D2 when they are exposed to sunlight or ultraviolet light, much as our skin makes vitamin D3. Mushrooms exposed this way can supply a meaningful amount of vitamin D in a single serving, which makes them one of the few non-animal foods that can (Cardwell et al., 2018).

The Culinary Mushrooms in Our Blends

• Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus): a shelf-like edible mushroom of dead hardwood.
• Shiitake (Lentinula edodes): grown on hardwood logs in East Asia for centuries.
• Maitake (Grifola frondosa): a clustered, frond-like mushroom at the base of oaks, also called hen of the woods.
• Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus): a white, shaggy tooth fungus, eaten fresh and also studied as a medicinal mushroom.
• Saffron Milkcap (Lactarius deliciosus): an orange mushroom that grows with pines and bleeds orange milk when cut.
• Ringless Honey Mushroom (Armillaria tabescens): a clustered honey mushroom with no ring on its stem.
• Purple Laccaria (Laccaria ochropurpurea): a purple-gilled mushroom of eastern hardwood forests.

Shiitake, maitake, and lion’s mane are also studied for their compounds, so they appear among the medicinal mushrooms as well.

A Note on Wild Mushrooms

Several of these grow wild in the Ozarks, and some have poisonous look-alikes. Never eat a wild mushroom unless an experienced forager has identified it with certainty.

References