Mushrooms: From champignons to shiitakes
Champignons are the most popular Swiss mushroom variety. Around 20 mushroom farms in Switzerland cultivate brown or white champignons. The mushrooms grow on a special soil substrate containing horse manure as a principal ingredient. It takes several steps to ready the substrate specifically for mushroom cultivation. Producers add mycelium, a kind of “mushroom seed”, to the prepared substrate. Afterwards the champignons grow in dark, temperature-controlled rooms and are ripe for harvest after around three weeks. Although a lack of organic substrates long made it impossible to cultivate organic champignons in Switzerland, Swiss organic champignons became available for purchase in 2017.
Swiss producers grow a range of other mushroom varieties including shiitake, oyster, French horn, ram’s head and shimeji mushrooms. A different substrate is used for each different mushroom type.
In recent years, farmers in Switzerland have begun to cultivate truffles. Truffles grow only in symbiosis with trees and bushes, which have to be planted in advance. That makes growing truffles much different than cultivating other mushrooms. Moreover, patience is required because it takes four to eight years until the first truffles are ready to be harvested.
And what about the beloved porcini mushroom? It cannot yet be farmed at present. The porcini mushroom is a mycorrhizal mushroom that thrives in the wild forest in symbiosis with a tree.
