Soon, in a forest near you

Knowing your Mushrooms

Register for our next introductory evening: on Thursday, March 21, you will learn what are the best species in the North East, those you should avoid, the basic practices for picking and eating. You can attend in our shop or in the comfort of your home.

To your Gardens!

It's time to think about your garden. Several gourmet species appreciate shaded flower beds and benefit neighboring vegetable plants. Fond of organic waste, they are solid links in a circular economy.

Our myco-bank is exceptionally diverse and reliable: wine-caps, blewits, shaggy manes, morels, etc.

With the exception of morels, these mushrooms grow in rich soil that can be enriched in the fall for next season. Wine-caps and blewits appear from May to October in cool weather while shaggy manes briefly bloom on decomposed matter (from κοπριά in Greek, manure) shortly before frost.

On the other hand, morels bury themselves in poor soil, sheltered from competition and require special care as mentioned below.

Their cultivation is practiced in two phases. First, the seed (mycelium) grows in poor soil and forms energy reserves (sclerotia) for reproduction. Then the addition of a source of nutrients such as apples or perforated bags of sterile grains will stimulate reproduction and fruiting above ground.

Initially, in open rural conditions, exposed to climatic hazards, the harvests were irregular and short-lived. Over the years, hundreds of species of morels (there are several hundred), M. sextelata and M. importuna in particular, have proven to be the most productive and some cultivars more than others. In addition, a controlled environment, in a greenhouse, made it possible to achieve and maintain a high yield, more than 15t/ha.

Such yields require costly investments, beyond the reach of Sunday farmers like us. This is why Mycoboutique offers you grow kits of proven species and a native, M. septentrionalis, whose productivity you may want to test.

All Purpose Polypores

Polypores are these fungi that cling to trees, accelerating their decomposition. A few species are appreciated in cooking: chicken of the wood (Laetiporus sulphureus), maitake (Grifola frondosa), lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus), the latter two also recognized for their medicinal properties. Such properties are shared by a number of not so digestible species: turkey tail (Tramete versicolor), chaga (Inonotus obliquus), our own reishi (Ganoderma tsugae), whose beneficial polysaccharides dissolve in decoctions.

Some polypores serve as packaging or insulation materials. The properly named artist conk (Ganoderma applanatum) can become a interesting drawing board as evidenced by some of the works we have in store.

Something to inspire you!

However, special authorizations are given by Health-Canada for medical or research purposes. Thus, in Montreal, Institut universitaire en santé mentale, Jewish General Hospital and Numinus clinics offer supervised treatments.

Your help and patience has been appreciated!

Thank you to our many customers who, since last October, have warned us that they cannot find our products on Google. A so-called SEO specialist had redirected your queries to a non-existent site: therefore, dead end. All this time to trace a spelling mistake: we are no experts in Search Engine Optimization, but we know our mushrooms.