Cultivated fresh wild mushrooms have been recently recognized as antioxidants, anti-cancerous, and labeled as a must-try for health food junkies.They are indeed just as tasty as they are beneficial to the body, with descriptions such as incredible nutty, meaty, and earthy flavors. These fungi formerly unknown to American cuisine will now be in grocery stores and specialty food stores down the street. Fresh wild certified organic mushrooms made available every day of the year are certainly a feat to be celebrated, once only harvested in the fall.Cooks everywhere can thank the pioneer Hokto Kinoko Company for taking a page out of science fiction fantasies, and making it reality.The newly constructed $50 million San Marcos, CA plant will reap its first harvest of white and brown beech, king trumpet, and maitake mushrooms in March.Six million pounds of them!This facility is unprecedented in the United States, as well as in the world, with its ability to yield four types of specialty mushrooms.
Traditional mushroom farming methods utilize compost and manure, however, Hokto Kinoko researchers have surpassed and replaced their unique mushroom medium to consist of vegetable proteins and nutrients, sawdust, and corncob pellets.This type of culture is much more sanitary and is dispensed within plastic bottles through computer-operating robots.In fact, three species will not be touched by human hands until reaching the neighborhood store!
