Cultivated Mushrooms in the Loire Valley

Mushrooms being cultivated in a former underground limestone quarry at Bourré.

Man has cultivated mushrooms since antiquity. The good to eat, easy to cultivate species are button mushrooms (Fr. champignons de Paris), oyster mushrooms (Fr. pleurotes) and shiitake. These mushrooms are all saprophytic, living on dead matter (manure, straw or wood). They have been cultivated industrially since the 20th century. A million tonnes of button mushrooms are produced globally annually.

 Chestnut Mushroom Agaricus bisporus cultivation at Bourré.

In contrast, the sought after gourmet mycorhizal species like girolles and ceps are the subject of experimental but as yet unsuccessful cultivation attempts.

Yellow Oyster Mushroom Pleurotus citrinopileatus cultivation at Bourré.

Truffles are cultivated in truffle orchards planted with oaks or hazels that have been innoculated as saplings.

 Shiitake Lentinula edodes cultivation at Bourré.

An edible mushroom that has been picked but kept in poor conditions (eg in a plastic bag) rapidly becomes toxic because of the development of bacterial contamination.

 Locally grown Black Truffle Tuber melanosporum at the annual market in Marigny-Marmande.

Mushrooms are 90% water with very little nutritional value (2-4% protein, 2-13% sugars, virtually no fat, some mineral salts and vitamins). 

Truffle orchard in the Loire Valley.

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