NUTRITION

Shiitake is a good source of protein, potassium, phosphorus and C and D vitamins as well as zinc (mainly in the stems) and other essential trace elements. It also contains all the essential amino acids.

Culinary Uses
Shiitake is very popular in China and Japan, where the majority of the world’s shiitake are grown and consumed. Works well with red meats in particular, but also chicken and other meats, vegetables and eggs. The stems shouldn't be discarded as they are full of goodness and flavour and can be used for a highly nutritious soup stock or used in pâtés or mushroom roasts.


Shiitake can be added to casseroles, quiches, bread and other baked items, as well as used in traditional and modern Asian recipes.


Oh, and they are great fried slowly and served on toast....

Shiitake (or Chinese Mushrooms) have been cultivated on oak logs for centuries, but it can be an unpredictable business - usually taking more than a year before fruiting, and then only in spring and autumn if the logs are kept in natural conditions outdoors.

Fortunately, shiitake can be grown all year round on artificial 'logs' made from wood chippings and sawdust.

The oak sawdust comes from clean mill waste and planings, and the chippings are made from small oak and other hardwood branches.

From inoculation to fruiting takes 8-10 weeks and each fruiting block can produce more than one flush of mushrooms.

Once spent, the block may be broken up and used as a substrate for growing other mushrooms, composted, or burned in wood burners or bio-mass boilers to provide heat.                    Buy a shiitake fruiting block here

CONTRARY to popular belief Shiitake, like most mushrooms, need light to grow, as well as a reasonable amount of humidity and temperature to grow in abundance.

DRIED ORGANIC SHIITAKE

Baby, Whole or Sliced

DID YOU KNOW?
It takes more than 1kg of fresh shiitake to produce 100g of dried shiitake.


Dried Shiitake can be reconstituted by soaking them in hot water
for 20-30 minutes. Or try them as they are for an instant savoury snack!

One cup of dried mushrooms soaked with one cup of boiling water produces around one and a half cups of mushrooms.

WHAT'S IN IT? Dried shiitake (33%), red lentils, onion, carrot, sunflower seeds, brown rice flour, sunflower oil, sea salt*, lemon juice, garlic, pepper, celery seeds, thyme, parsley, palm oil, maltodextrin, mace, turmeric, bay leaf, lovage (all organically-produced, except*)

100g jars of nut, gluten, animal & yeast-free pâté made with award-winning organically-grown shiitake mushrooms.


Available by mail order as well as in local retail outlets and at Farmers' Markets in Aberystwyth and Lampeter.

Organic Shiitake Pate 1 x 100g jar £2.80 2 x 100g jar £5.00 3 x 100g jar £7.20 6 x 100g jar £13.50 12 x 100g jar £25.00

ORGANIC FRUITING BLOCKS


Pick your own fresh shiitake mushrooms from an organically-produced “Fruiting Block”. Each block is pre-inoculated with spawn and has been incubated for between 8 and 12 weeks until it is on the point of producing its first crop of tasty shiitake mushrooms.

After a little resting, your block can continue producing more mushrooms over the next few months. Instructions on how to care for your fruiting block are included.

Organic Shiitake Fruiting Block 1 block £16.35 2 blocks £27.80 3 blocks £38.90 6 blocks £48.74 12 blocks £59.96 (inc UK Standard P&P)*

Organic Shiitake Fruiting Block 1 block £18.44 2 blocks £30.24 3 blocks £42.04 4 blocks £53.84 5 blocks £68.44 (inc UK 1st Class P&P)*

INTERESTING. EDUCATIONAL. DELICIOUS!

Grow your own shiitake mushrooms at home from one of our fruiting block kits. These are the same blocks we grow our own fresh shiitake from.

*Please note each block weighs around 2kg each, which is why P&P is expensive.

 

Fresh shiitake keep well in a paper bag in the fridge. Dried shiitake have a very long shelf-life and a more concentrated, smoky flavour.

LOCAL RETAILERS include:
• Llwynhelyg Farm Shop, Sarnau
• Aardvark Wholefoods, Carmarthen
• Go Mango Wholefoods, Cardigan
• The Treehouse, Aberystwyth
• Maeth Y Meysydd, Aberystwyth
• Dion's, Aberaeron
• The Mulberry Bush, Lampeter
• The Organic Fresh Food Co., Lampeter
• Wholefoods of Newport, Newport, Pembs.
• Goetre Farm Shop, Llandysul

FARMERS' MARKETS
• Aberystwyth (on Clettwr Organic stall)

HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
• Falcondale Mansion Hotel, Lampeter
• Llys Meddyg, Newport, Pembs.
• Ship Inn, Llangrannog
• Ty Mawr Mansion Country House, Cilcennin

USEFUL LINKS
• Fruiting Bodies - Organic Mushroom Extracts
• Humungus Fungus - Small-scale mushroom growing
• The Soil Association - UK Organic Certification
• True Taste Of Wales - Food Awards
• Free Range Review - find more local food
• Big Food Map - We're on C4's Big Food Map!
• The Green Guide - the directory for planet-friendly living
• Shiitake (Wikipedia)
• Shiitake (Google Search)
• The Dove Clinic - where some of the Shiitake Extract is used
• Fungi Perfecti - Paul Stamet's pioneering company

SHIITAKE MUSHROOM EXTRACT
Shiitake mushrooms remain in the vanguard of beneficial mushrooms and their safety is well established, given the popularity of this culinary favourite.



Maesyffin Mushrooms' organic shiitake are used in Fruiting Bodies' organic mushroom extracts.



REFERENCES
Medicinal Mushrooms, Christopher Hobbs, 1986

Mycomedicinals, Paul Stamets, 2002


Shiitake - The Healing Mushroom, Kenneth Jones, 1995

FRUITING BODIES' range of organic mushrooms extracts is based on single species or blends of complementary fungi. Part of the traditional medicinal armoury of China and Japan for many centuries, the healing properties of fungi are now being recognised by Western healers and practitioners.