Facts about Volvariella volvacea
Volvariella volvacea, commonly known as straw mushroom or paddy straw mushroom, is one of the best edible mushroom. Straw mushrooms are so named because they're grown on rice straw that's been used in a paddy and have been used for food in China for two thousand years. The straw mushroom, also called "paddy straw mushroom," is cultivated in the hot, steamy climate of Southeast Asia.
Straw mushroom is one of the Basidiomycetes under the Family Amanitaceae. It is an obligative saprophytic fungus, humicolous or humus-inhabiting, growing on decaying plants and taking up necessary nutrition from them. It grows at lower light intensities, so it is a sciophyte. An environment of higher relative humidity (above 80%) and temperature (above 30° C) is favourable for the growth of this fungus. The straw mushrooms have long been cultivated on rice straw (merang) as a highly prized edible fungus by Chinese and by other people in South East Asia countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma and the Philippines, not only on the basis of their flavor, but also because of definite food values which they possess. Although straw mushrooms contain less protein than meat and fish, they compare favourably with most fresh vegetables in protein content and are good sources of vitamins and minerals.
Paddy straw mushroom was usually grown on paddy straw but other plant material are also presently used. In Indonesia, this mushroom can be grown on a variety of agricultural wastes for preparation of the substrate such as water hyacinth, oil palm bunch waste, dried banana leaves, cotton waste, sagoo waste, sugar leafe and bagasse, corn waste, and many more substances.
Each substance has different characteristic than others in order to be used as compost media for growing paddy straw mushrooms, composition for compost and the length of composting periode may vary. Some trial and error would be need to get which composition of substance and nutrition can produce good production in harvest time.
The Volvariella volvacea mushroom is one of the most commonly-used mushrooms for cooking, particularly in Southeast Asia. It is a good ingredient for recipes, as it can help heal damage from auto-immune diseases. It is also a great supplement for hypertension, diabetes, and for people with high cholesterol.
ReplyDelete>Mack Shepperson