Shiitake Mushroom Products

The Shiitake is an exceptional mushroom and one of the most cultivated today; only the button mushroom is more popular. Not only is it amazingly healthy but it also tastes great. Here at Indigo Herbs we present to you a high quality Shiitake Mushroom Powder that fits perfectly with our magnificent range of mushroom powders and chunks. This powder can be mixed into smoothies, water, fruit juice and food to bring the healthy benefits of these mushrooms into your life.

The history of Shiitake cultivation stretches back at least 1,000 years in East Asia. Chinese Medicine has been using this mushroom as a tonic to treat illness and boost vitality for nearly as long. When cultivation of Shiitake became popular in both China and Japan, it became a major source of income for settlements located in mountainous areas. Japanese Shiitake farmers used the ‘soak and beat’ method of cultivation that required a long wait for Shiitake to colonise logs of wood. It would not be uncommon for other Shiitake farmers to steal each other’s logs to try and gain a monopoly on Shiitake trade in their respective areas. Japanese folklore tells of how Shiitake farmers would inoculate a 20 foot hardwood log when a son was born into the family. This log would slowly colonise over a period of a couple of decades until the son reached maturity. The father would then tell his son where his fortune was located, hidden for many years and bursting with Shiitake mushrooms. The son could then sell the mushrooms and enter the world prosperous enough to start his own family.

In the wild Shiitake is indigenous to China, Japan and the Korean peninsula. It grows on dead and dying hardwood trees and has a traditional wide cap shape. It prefers to grow close to cold water streams deep in shaded forest. As the mushroom grows and ages it turns from dark brown to a lighter beige/grey. Some examples can grow very large in size.