Black Maitake

Prized for their woodsy character, feathery appearance, and umami intensity, Maitake mushrooms are a favorite of foragers, chefs, and diners around the world. Despite their proliferance in the wild, however, controlled cultivation of maitakes has scarcely yielded comparable quality. The glaring exception to this is Shogun Maitake, based in Ontario, Canada. Led by Yoshinbu Odaira, who brings decades of experience and enthusiasm from the food manufacturing industry in Japan, Shogun Maitake has managed to effectively adapt the conditions of a temperate Japanese forest to their Canadian facility. While it is undeniable that this feat is whimsically charming, a more apt assessment is that it is technologically astounding and tactically brilliant. Nurtured by changes in light, temperature, and humidity that mimic forest conditions, the mushrooms grow from spores in organic oak debris to fully plumed cabbage-sized clusters in roughly hundred day cycles. In the end, these Maitakes are larger than other cultivated strains, with a firmer texture, making them a significantly superior option to the majority of flimsy, waterlogged cultivated Maitakes found elsewhere on the market.

In addition to meticulously replicating an ideal environment, Shogun plants black “kuro” maitakes genetically faithful to those found in the Japanese wilderness. This exhaustive obsession with detail makes for the best and most consistent cultivated Maitake we’ve ever experienced.

Clusters are approximately 1 - 1.5 lbs each, offered in 1lb or 3lb increments

London, Ontario, Canada