Western Mushroom Growing

Western cultivation methods are slightly different, with the growing matter of choice being compost – probably because of the way field mushrooms grow – embodied with mycelium. Agaricus bisporus, now the most common mushroom type, with button, closed-cup, flat, chestnut and portobello, was the first species to be cultivated in this way.

As with the shii logs on the other side of the world, cultivation didn’t start in labs or growing facilities. It is said that in the 17th century a French melon grower first accidentally discovered that he had grown edible mushrooms on melon fertilizer. The story has it that this melon farmer started to sell his accidental mushrooms to chefs in Paris, coining the phrase the Paris or Parisian Mushroom, which despite its grand name is simply the button mushroom we have today, pulled out of the ground rather than cut at the stalk, and sold with a muddy bottom.