Mushroom Stigma in the West
Denaturing gourmet and psychedelic mushrooms
When we started this business, we understood pretty early on that most (if not all) people we introduced our business to would eventually ask the question(s): “Wait, like you grow mushrooms mushrooms?” Every single person during the first stages of common conversation has asked whether or not the mushrooms we grow are psychedelic. This stigmatization of mushrooms initially left me blindsided, as I thought I had an idea that most Americans had some familiarity with gourmet mushrooms like shiitake or lion's mane. The mushroom kingdom is larger than most people think, and here are the numbers:
As of 2020, a mere 150,000 species have been described by taxonomists with 1800-2000 species being discovered yearly. Current algorithmic estimates state that there are anywhere from 2.2 to 3.8 million species of mushrooms! That’s around 7% of mushrooms that have been discovered if we’re being generous. Fungus exists all around us, all the time, and in our own bodies. The reason for this in its basic sense is that most fungi have one of the most adept evolutionary traits, to decompose!
Mushrooms can be categorized in three different groups: mycorrhizal, parasitic, and saprophytic. The mycorrhizal (meaning [myco] Fungus and [rhizal] Roots) class are mutually dependent, symbiotic fungi that both feed and provide sustenance to the roots of the trees or plants that they infect. A great example of a mycorrhizal fungus would be the truffle, known to hardly fruit therefore making it a very hard delicacy to find.
The parasitic class are simply those mushrooms that infect living things. There are a wide range of parasitic mushrooms that can infect things from trees, insects, and even other fungus! The cordyceps fungus is the most well-known for infecting insects and causing them to turn into the living dead, which was further popularized by the video game, The Last of Us, where a cordyceps fungus evolved to infect humans. While scary at first, it should be said that the fungus is incapable of ever doing that due to the methodology of infection that makes humans rather immune to cordyceps spores, though it may make us sick.
The saprophytic fungi are the most common for us, as these are the most well known decomposers that we commonly eat. These can be categorized further into 3 groups: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary decomposers.
Primary decomposers are the gourmet mushrooms we at StellarcapKings grow, these wood eating mushrooms decompose dead trees back into nutrient rich soil, useful and necessary to continue the circle of life for plants and trees in the forests they inhabit. Mushrooms like Lionsmane, Shiitake, and most of the oyster species exist in this class.
Secondary decomposers like Agaricus Bisporus (White, brown, and portabella mushrooms) are typically found on top soil that further decompose refuse from the primary decomposers. These decomposers exist where there are carrion of animals and plants.
The amorphous, tertiary class of decomposers are the most elusive in terms of classification. Existing on common top-soil after the primary and secondary decomposers have had their go, they can exist for years simply growing and taking up space so that other competing mushrooms cannot grow over their conquered land. These make growing secondary decomposers rather difficult, as button mushroom farms can experience flushes of tertiary decomposers that prevent further fruiting of agaricus bisporus.
