Lentinula edodes, the shiitake mushroom.
Here at Blue Sky Fungi, we grow our shiitake on locally and sustainably harvested oak.
We take pride in knowing our mushrooms are a nutritionally dense and clean food.
This particular strain of shiitake pictured above comes to us from Japan, where these mushrooms originate, and are not the common variety that you will find in the supermarkets.
A delicious and versatile mushroom, with a wide range of B vitamins and health benefits.
The flavor is rich and earthy. The meaty caps are superb when dry sautéed until they shed water then seasoned with garlic and butter. The stems make excellent soup stock and add a depth of flavor to bone broths. We frequently use them in gravies, stews and stir-fry. It is important to always cook your mushrooms, to break down the chitin and release the nutrients locked inside of this fibrous substance.
You can find us and this lovely strain of shiitake at the Silverton Winter Market in Silverton Oregon.
Winter Markets start on Saturday October 27th, 10am until Noon, at 229 Eureka Ave in the Silverton Friends Church. See you there!