Species guides
Know what you're buying
One page per mushroom: what it is, how it cooks or how it's traditionally used, how farms grow it, how to keep it, and what the research does and doesn't show. Every page links to growers who sell it.
Gourmet
Cooking mushrooms you can buy fresh from US growers most of the year.
Gourmet
Lion's mane
Shaggy white spines and a texture cooks compare to crab. Small studies have looked at it for memory and mood.
Gourmet
Oyster mushrooms
The mushroom most small farms start with. Five common types, each with its own color, texture and shelf life.
Gourmet
King oyster
Almost all stem. Slice it into coins, sear it hard and it browns like a scallop.
Gourmet
Shiitake
Ohio State has published guidance on growing shiitake on oak logs since 1991. Deep, savory and best cooked through.
Gourmet
Maitake
Ruffled gray fronds that crisp at the edges in a hot oven. Cultivated year-round, wild in fall.
Gourmet
Chestnut mushroom
Glossy brown caps on long stems, firm after cooking. A small-farm specialty you rarely see in supermarkets.
Gourmet
Enoki
Long white threads with tiny caps. Good in soups and hot pots, and always cooked before eating.
Gourmet
Black pearl oyster
Dark caps and a firm stem. Growers sell it as a cross between king oyster and oyster, and it eats like both.
Seasonal & foraged
Wild or seasonal mushrooms, where buying from someone accountable matters most.
Medicinal
Mushrooms used in traditional medicine. We cover what is claimed, what studies found, and the safety notes, without dosing advice.
Medicinal
Reishi
A lacquered, woody shelf fungus. Not a food mushroom. Traditionally made into teas and extracts.
Medicinal
Turkey tail
Thin, banded fans on dead hardwood. The source of PSK, a mushroom extract approved for cancer care in Japan but not in the US.
Medicinal
Cordyceps
Orange club-shaped fruiting bodies grown on grain. Traditionally taken for stamina; the exercise studies are small and mixed.