Cultivated mushrooms are farmed, rather than being foraged where they grow wild in forests and fields. They are grown in controlled environments like large mushroom factories, so that a constant and higher volume of mushrooms can be produced for our ever-eager palates.
Before mass production of mushrooms began around about the 1900s, mushrooms were still thought of as something unusual and sought-after, with only a few people able to locate and enjoy them. Mushroom cultivation brought mushrooms to the masses.