Nameko Mushroom Grain Spawn
North SporeNAMEKO MUSHROOM CULTIVATION
Pholiota nameko: Nameko mushrooms grow well in cool temperatures and are a popular thickening agent in soups due to their gelatinous caps.
Grain Spawn- Indoor only! The indoor method of growing nameko takes basic laboratory/clean space infrastructure, though they are a great mushroom for indoor commercial cultivation for intermediate to advanced level growers. They require adequate cooling and humidity to grow.
Inoculation:
Indoor Commercial Production - Use Grain spawn for indoor cultivation. nameko mushroom grain spawn can be mixed into sterilized hardwood sawdust to create nameko substrate blocks. This process requires a fair amount of infrastructure. We recommend purchasing a book on mushroom cultivation if you are interested in pursuing this style of mushroom production as a hobby or profession. We recommend 'Radical Mycology: A Treatise on Seeing and Working with Fungi' by Peter McCoy, 'Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation' by Tradd Cotter, or 'Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms' by Paul Stamets.
Difficulty: Advanced
Nameko mushrooms prefer cooler temperatures and need constant humidity when fruiting.
Cooking: Nameko is a lesser known culinary mushroom in the Americas, but it is used widely in East Asia. It has a gelatinous cap that can thicken soups and sauces and has an aroma that walks the line of being both fruity and earthy. Nameko mushrooms go well with dark green vegetables, red meats, and shallots, and are used traditionally in Japanese miso soups.
Properties: Mushrooms in the Pholiota genus have medicinal qualities that inhibit tumor and microbial growth. In one study conducted on lab mice, polysaccharides taken from Pholiota mycelium reduced the growth of cancerous tumors by about 60% (Ohtsuka et al., 1973). Acting as an antimicrobial, an extract of Pholiota was shown to inhibit the growth of bacteria including E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus (Dulger et al., 2004).