Oriental Mushroom Promises Health , Nutrition BARBARA MILLER Lycoming Co. Correspondent Perhaps a distinctive orangish brown mushroom has already appeared on the shelves of your local supermarket. If not, it is the fervent hope of David Kim, presi dent of Green Empire Inc., in Mon tour County, and oilier shiitake (pronounced sha-tok-ee) growers that you will soon have the oppor tunity to experience the unique fla vor of mushrooms grown in oak logs and once reserved for Chinese royalty. Although Green Empire Inc. is almost four years-old, Kim and three partners purchased the com pany from its original Owners six months ago. With the help of Clar ence McMichael, a neighbor who owns a small shiitake operation. Clarence McMlchaei shows a log that has pur chased spawn the size of a thumb pressed Into drilled holes spaced five to six inches apart. David Kim, president by Gwen Empire, Inc., hopes grocery stores everywhere will soon carry shiitake mushrooms. And Kim is in the process of learning the finer points of growing shiitake mushrooms. McMichael explains that the market for these mushrooms is presently so large that there is little danger of Kim and he becoming competitors for some time and currently they are of mutual benefit to one another. According to McMichael, the shiitake mushroom also known as the oak, oyster and enoki mushrooms in this country, has occurred naturally for thousands of years in the forests of Japan and China. McMichael says residents dis covered if they ate the mushroom which grows almost exclusively on oak logs they felt better. Information supplied by Kim supports this claim by noting that. Unique Flavor mushrooms are grown In four foot logs. Here growers arrange the logs to lean at a 45 degree angle during their growing season. “The oak mushroom has been served as the elixir of life to orien tals for its unique taste and flavor for a long time and as a nutritious food containing proteins, sugars and various vitamins... which con tains large amounts of thiamine, riboflavin and especially Vitamin D.” At first, McMichael says, the royalty tried to keep this unique mushroom to themselves. By rop ing off the forests where the mushrooms grew and posting guards, they kept the peasants out. Later they discovered they could transport the logs to woods near their homes and harvest the mushrooms there. According to McMichael, that was the begin ning of the cultivation of the shii take mushroom. In recent years, Kim says, orien tal countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have become major producers of cultivated oak mushrooms. At the present time Japan supplies almost 80 percent of the total world consumption. Shiitake mushroom production is a relatively new industry in the United States. For a time, McMi chael reports, the Japanese shipped the mushrooms to the United States. But due to shipping costs, a more plentiful supply of oak logs in the United States, and what they regard as a large potential market in this country, growers have been establishing shiitake mushroom operations here. One of the oldest and biggest shiitake mushroom plants in the United States is Elix located near Richmond, Virginia which is six years-old. McMichael notes other plants are loctcd in Michigan, Wis consin, and northern California. Declining to describe the flavor of the shiitake, McMichael merely says that it has a distinctive taste quite different from other mushrooms. “The main thing is the flavor of it. It has a unqiue flavor. There is not another mushroom like it,” McMichael exclaims, “It gives off flavor,»it doesn’t take it in.” While noting that other mushrooms take on the flavor of the food with which they are pre pared, McMichael stresses, “this is definitely not the case with shii take mushrooms,” and he chuck les at the thought of someone , I *<• $ a®*- ***** Shiitake mushrooms are ready to be shipped to supermarkets. sprinkling shiitake mushrooms on a pizza. McMichael says h» prefers his shiitake mushrooms sauteed, while Kim’s favorite way of eating his product is stuffed with crabmeat. A visitor to Green Empire Inc. will see only a few small buildings Vfamesiead c t/Sies in a forest clearing unless he searches the woods where the 40,0004’x7’ diameter logs lhatare the heart of the operation are located. Dispersed among the trees, the logs are either leaning at a 45 degree angle against a wire or stacked horizontally depending (Turn to Page B 4)
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