Beginning at the Beginning

When the average Westerner hears the word mushroom they typically think of the little white and brown button mushrooms often seen in salads and on pizza. Some love them, some hate them. We would love to help change American hearts and minds about mushrooms! There are millions of different species of mushrooms with different appearances, fragrances, and flavors. The Eastern world is much more connected to the gourmet flavors of mushrooms such as shitake (Lentinula edodes), maitake/hen-of-the-woods (Grifola frondosa), enoki (Flammulina velutipes), and wood ear (Auricularia auricula-judae) just to name a few!

To understand our food better however, it's important to go back to the origin of it. Evidence indicates that the oldest known fungus may be as old as 635 million years old or older and some were even as large as trees! Early man took the time to depict mushrooms in their cave art (fig. 1) along with other meaningful life events. There are many examples of humans using mushrooms for food, medicine, and ritual. The study of human use of fungi is called Ethnomycology and began as a new field of study in 1957. This makes it not very old in terms of scientific study. Academic and scientific evidence is therefore limited when it comes to the study of fungi. Lots of new and exciting science is happening with fungi every day as a result, allowing us to leap forward in medicine, psychology, and physical health.

(fig. 1)

Raw mushrooms are made up of about 90% water and 10% dry matter. "Mushrooms" are the fruit of a species of fungi and not the organism itself. The living organism is the network of hyphae called the mycelium. Mycelium plays a very important role in nature by breaking down dead and rotting material into nutritious soil and forming large communication webs between each other and the trees and plants around them. If you've ever seen the popular documentary on Netflix called "Fantastic Fungi" you most likely viewed a 3D depiction of how the trees "talk" to each other via the mycelial network.

There is SO much to learn about human uses of mushrooms both historically and in the present that we can't get to it all today, but rest assured there will be more Mushroom Mondays for you to get your mushy fix! Until next time and mushluv!