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
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