Nameko – (Pholiota nameko)

Nameko is the most cultivated mushroom by volume in Japan, for a reason. It is considered a valuable medicinal mushroom with cancer fighting properties, and the traditional recipe for Miso soup is generously filled with chopped pieces. This tasty, nutty mushroom has a slippery cap, so most recipes call for incorporating the saute back into a sauce or soup so the texture is incorporated perfectly.

Nameko is a cold triggered mushroom that typically fruits in the fall months when the temperature drops below 50F for the first time, and flushes twice a few weeks apart.

The best method for cultivation is logs bundled together on the ground and slightly submerged length-wise, covered with leaves. When these “rafts” fruit, they explode with hundreds of Nameko, wall to wall fruiting, so be prepared to use a pair of scissors to clip these off just above the logs into a basket and straight into the kitchen!

We also fruit this one indoors on supplemented sawdust, but it needs a substantial cold shock to induce fruiting, so we tend to produce this species indoors during the winter months in a separate fruiting room with other cold-dependent species.