- For instance, do you even know how many varieties of mushrooms we already know about?
What do you know about mushrooms? Did you know that we are discovering new varities all the time?
- We’ve been eating them for thousands of years.
- Mushrooms will grow almost anywhere.
- Mushroom growing in the United States is credited to J.B. Swayne as the first to grow them here. He started the shrooms in Kennett Square, the Mushroom Capital of the World.
- Mushrooms were referred to as the “food of the gods” by early Romans.
- Shrooms thrive in the dark.
- More and more computers are now involved in growing the vegetable, making it more of a high-tech production.
- If you have a hobby of hunting edible wild mushrooms, you’re known as a mycophile.
- When you think of potassium, you think bananas. But one portabella mushroom actually has more potassium than a banana! Did you know this about mushrooms?
- There are over 38,000 types and over 3,000 in the United States alone.
- Because there are so many toxic and non-toxic mushrooms, sticking to the mass produced ones that are commercially grown are the best trusted for the edible type.
- Mushrooms were thought to have “magically appeared overnight” in ancient Egypt, so only Pharaohs would eat them. They thought lightning was what created them.
- The Average American eats about four pounds of mushrooms every year.
- In France, the first recorded time someone attempted to cultivate them was around 1700.
- Mushrooms are great as food and medicine but there are more uses for them that come out all the time.
- Any mushroom besides the white mushroom is considered to be an exotic
mushroom. - Mushrooms grow really fast, bringing rise to the term “mushrooming” being used to describe anything that grows quickly.
- Because mushrooms are a fungus, they don’t need sunlight to make energy for themselves.
- Two examples of antibiotics that come from fungi are penicillin and streptomycin.
- Known as a superfood, they are the only thing in the produce section that produces Vitamin D.
- This vegetable is full of antioxidants, nutrients and disease-fighting properties.
- Portabella mushrooms can grow up to six inches in diameter.
- They have more protein than other vegetables.
- The American Mushroom Institute was found in Chester County in the 1950s.
- Mushrooms are filled with water, 85-90%.
- The medicinal properties have been used for centuries in Traditional Chinese medicine.
- These are difficult to grow as it’s very labor-intensive to create a good, high-quality crop.
- They don’t freeze well.
- Some of the oldest mushroom colonies called fairy rings are still growing around the Stonehenge ruins in England.
- Mushrooms are low calorie with no fat or sodium, making them popular in salads and all kinds of dishes.
- The world’s largest organism is the Armillaria solidipes, a fungus that’s over 2,400 years old and covers more than 2,200 acres.
- Mushroom spores can sit dormant for decades, but when the conditions are right, can still grow again.
- Some of the oldest living mushroom colonies are fairy rings growing around the Stonehenge ruins in England.
- You can get them fresh, dried or powdered.
- It took until after the Civil War to grow mushrooms in the United States and the growing seasons were super short. Improved technology has helped with that at present times.
- There’s good flavor but no nutrients in the stem of a mushroom. They’re good chopped up and used in stuffing, casseroles, soups and sauces.
- There are new species of still being discovered every year.
- Pennsylvania mushroom farms provide almost ? of the button mushrooms consumed in the United States.
- 446.58 million pounds are produced by Pennsylvania farms.
- October 15th is National Mushroom Day.
- September is National Mushroom Month.
If you love to learn about mushrooms, what was your favorite fact? Let me know in the comments!