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PIOPPINO MUSHROOM CULTIVATION

Agrocybe aegerita: A relatively fast substrate colonizer that fruits clusters of snappy-stalked mushrooms with velvety brown caps.

Grain Spawn - This is used for commercial indoor production using sawdust based sterilized substrate. You do not use grain spawn for log inoculation. Grain spawn comes in bags approximately 6lbs each.

Inoculation: 

Indoor Commercial Production - Pioppino mushroom grain spawn can be mixed into sterilized hardwood sawdust to create Pioppino 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

Pioppino can be very finicky, but are able to grow very well indoors with patience and precision. They prefer cooler temperatures and are prone to drying out or aborting their growth if humidity is not maintained when the mushrooms are still in their early stages. However, when they grow successfully you can expect decent harvests of these delicious mushrooms. They do not reliably produce second flushes, but may produce if conditions remain controlled and humidity is correct. 

Cooking: The Pioppino develops a small brown cap connected to a long, thin stem. Both the cap and stem are firm and develops a crisp and crunchy texture when cooked. They produce a mild and nutty flavor when cooked. 

Properties: Pioppino mushrooms exhibit antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. An ethanol extract of the Pioppino mycelium exhibits 82% antioxidant activity  (Asatiani et al., 2007). Additionally, Pioppino mushrooms contain compounds that inhibit the COX-2 enzyme, which is an indication of anti-inflammatory activity (Elgorashi et al., 2008). A study examining the best method to extract the beneficial polysaccharides from Pioppinos demonstrated that the mushrooms should be cooked at ninety degrees Celsius for one hour (Hui-Ling Mao et al., 2007).