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Gourmet Mushrooms

Morel

Morchella

Morchella, the true morels, is a genus of edible sac fungi closely related to anatomically simpler cup fungi in the order Pezizales (division Ascomycota). These distinctive fungi have a honeycomb appearance due to the network of ridges with pits composing their caps. Morels are prized by gourmet cooks, particularly in Catalan and French cuisine. Due to difficulties in cultivation, commercial harvesting of wild morels has become a multimillion-dollar industry in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, in particular North America, Turkey, China, the Himalayas, India, and Pakistan where these highly prized fungi are found in abundance.

The genus is currently the focus of extensive phylogenetic, biogeographical, taxonomical and nomenclatural studies, and several new species have been described from Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Israel, Spain, and Turkey.

Lion's Mane

Hericium erinaceus

Hericium erinaceus (also called lion's mane mushroom, mountain-priest mushroom, bearded tooth fungus, and bearded hedgehog) is an edible mushroom belonging to the tooth fungus group. Native to North America, Europe, and Asia, it can be identified by its long spines (greater than 1 cm length), occurrence on hardwoods, and tendency to grow a single clump of dangling spines. The fruit bodies can be harvested for culinary use.

Hericium erinaceus can be mistaken for other species of Hericium, which grow across the same range. In the wild, these mushrooms are common during late summer and fall on hardwoods, particularly American beech and maple. Usually H. erinaceus is considered saprophytic, as it mostly feeds on dead trees. However, it can also be found on living trees, so may be a tree parasite. This could indicate an endophytic habitat.

Oyster

Pleurotus ostreatus

Pleurotus ostreatus, the oyster mushroom, oyster fungus, hiratake, or pearl oyster mushroom is a common edible mushroom. It was first cultivated in Germany as a subsistence measure during World War I and is now grown commercially around the world for food. It is related to the similarly cultivated king oyster mushroom. Oyster mushrooms can also be used industrially for mycoremediation purposes.

The oyster mushroom is one of the more commonly sought wild mushrooms, though it can also be cultivated on straw and other media. It has the bittersweet aroma of benzaldehyde (which is also characteristic of bitter almonds).

Shiitake

Lentinula edodes

The shiitake is an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is now cultivated and consumed around the globe. It is considered a medicinal mushroom in some forms of traditional medicine. The fungus was first described scientifically as Agaricus edodes by Miles Joseph Berkeley in 1877. It was placed in the genus Lentinula by David Pegler in 1976.

Shiitake grow in groups on the decaying wood of deciduous trees, particularly shii and other chinquapins, chestnut, oak, maple, beech, sweetgum, poplar, hornbeam, ironwood, and mulberry. Its natural distribution includes warm and moist climates in Southeast Asia.

Wine Cap

Stropharia rugosoannulata

Stropharia rugosoannulata, commonly known as the wine cap stropharia, "garden giant", burgundy mushroom or king stropharia (Japanese: saketsubatake), is an agaric of the family Strophariaceae found in Europe and North America, and introduced to Australia and New Zealand. The mushroom was reported in April 2018 in Colombia, in the city of Bogota. Unlike many other members of the genus Stropharia, it is regarded as a choice edible and is commercially cultivated.

It is found on wood chips across North America in summer and autumn. Described as very tasty by some authors, king stropharia is easily cultivated on a medium similar to that on which it grows naturally. Antonio Carluccio recommends sautéeing them in butter or grilling them. In Paul Stamets' book Mycelium Running, a study done by Christiane Pischl showed that the king stropharia makes an excellent garden companion to corn. The fungus also has a European history of being grown with corn.