That’s how I got the job at the center in 1998. “I actually majored in forestry studies at university, and one of my professors was an expert in mushrooms. So what made her take a job in Fukushima? I think the word fuku-fuku perfectly captures what makes these mushrooms special and has helped people really fall in love with them.” “We had a public contest to name the Fukushima hon-shimeji in 2018, and ended up calling the brand ‘Fuku-Fuku Shimeji’. I really hope everyone will try them and see for themselves how good they are.” In fact, when we analyzed the umami components of our mushrooms, we found that they contained more glutamic acid and aspartic acid than other mushrooms. “You can really taste the wild flavor, and a consistency that feels as if the fibers are falling apart in your mouth. ![]() “All this time is what allows the rich flavors to slowly build up in Fukushima hon-shimeji mushrooms,” Narumi told us, her quiet smile revealing the pride she takes in the finished product. Of course, the trade-off is that natural cultivation methods are extremely labor-intensive. This commitment to natural cultivation methods means that producers can easily begin growing the mushrooms without owning large greenhouses or other facilities. That’s why it took twenty years to get here.” In other words, we could only learn the results of our trial-and-error efforts once a year. The natural cultivation technique itself was developed at a Fukushima research institute, but because it is a natural method, we can only harvest the mushrooms once a year in fall. “You have to be very careful that other fungi don’t get into the cultivation bed because they will take over and choke out the shimeji. “Mycorrhizal fungi are extremely delicate,” she explained. Narumi told us more about these intense efforts towards practical production. ![]() She is supporting the production of the necessary cultures to grow hon-shimeji as well as pilot cultivation districts. Wakako Narumi is the director of the Mushroom Promotional Center at the Fukushima Prefecture Forest, Forestry, and Greenery Association. They then spent another ten years of trial and error trying to get those cultivation methods to work. It took about ten years for researchers to identify the mushrooms that were well-suited to natural cultivation from the more than seventy wild varieties they collected. Efforts to develop cultivation methods for hon-shimeji mushrooms began about twenty years ago. This makes them an extremely difficult mushroom to cultivate.įukushima Prefecture was the first in Japan to develop a cultivation technique for these hon-shimeji that can be used in natural environments, and has begun pilot cultivation of them as a registered original variety. Unlike shiitake or buna-shimeji (white beech) mushrooms, which get their nutrients from breaking down trees, hon-shimeji, like matsutake mushrooms, are a mycorrhizal fungus that grows in a symbiotic relationship with living tree roots. They’re much more fun, but watch out: they’ll quickly invade your desktop.Hon-shimeji, or brown beech mushrooms, have long been known for combining the aroma of highly-prized matsutake mycorrhizal mushrooms with a shimeji taste, and they are prized for their rarity and flavorful umami notes.
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