Mushrooms have become incredibly popular worldwide. According to a report published on BusinessWire.com, the global mushroom market was valued at over US$ 53 billion in 2019.
The rise of health consciousness among consumers, the trend of veganism, and the incredible growth of the food and beverage industry are the main driving factors behind the amazing worldwide popularity of mushrooms.
Golden oyster mushrooms in particular are some of the most popular mushrooms in demand today.
Want to learn more? Let’s take a look at what makes these mushrooms special.
What Are Golden Oyster Mushrooms?
The golden oyster mushroom is also known as the yellow oyster mushroom among hobbyists and “tamgitake” in Japanese. It is an Asian species of the oyster family that is most popular among growers for its vivid, impressive yellow-colored caps and its unique cashew-like flavor.
Golden oyster mushrooms are incredibly easy to grow in almost any mushroom substrate and capable of high-yield crops. However, growers face the challenge of selling fresh golden oyster mushrooms because it has a short shelf life and is incredibly fragile.
This mushroom is renowned for its medicinal properties, which is usually the norm for most members of the oyster mushroom family. Additionally, golden oyster mushrooms also have significant potential for mycoremediation – the process for growing fungi in contaminated substrates so that the end product is biologically processed resulting in the removal of contamination.
How to Identify Them
Golden oyster mushrooms normally grow in dense clusters. Apart from their unique color and stems, they are similar in appearance to other species of the oyster mushroom family. Golden oyster mushrooms have larger, centrally-located stems (stipes). Raw mushrooms are bitter in taste so users prefer cooking this mushroom to get the unique cashew-like flavor.
The fall and winter are the ideal seasons for golden oyster mushrooms to flourish in the wild, however, growers have been found to regularly cultivate the harvest around the year.
Let’s take a closer look at the specific identification factors for golden oyster mushrooms:
- Cap – Small (less than 6 cm across), semi-circular, petal-like bright yellow top with convex, wavy edges on mature crops.
- Gills – Distinct white
- Stem (Stipe) – Asymmetrically positioned, short, white stem
- Taste – Bitter (when raw), Cashewnut-like (when cooked)
- Odor – Fruity with hints of wine
- Edibility – Choice of consumer
- Natural habitat – Normally grows on hardwood trees, such as beech, elm, or oak, and native to subtropical regions of Asia.
These are the signs that help to identify golden oyster mushrooms. Let’s hope you can spot the mushroom on your next trip to the woods.
How to Cultivate Them
Hobbyists and commercial growers are equally enthusiastic about growing golden oyster mushrooms. If you, too, are planning to grow them, then we recommend that you go through the details below. We have outlined the essential factors that can help to successfully grow golden oyster mushrooms and prepare them for the ideal harvest. Be sure to use a mushroom knife for your bounty.
- Cultivation level – Easy
- Agar – Malt yeast agar is considered the best way to grow golden oyster mushrooms
- Spawn types – Grain spawn, such as millet, sorghum, rye grain, or a combination of all, is considered ideal to cultivate golden oyster mushroom faster and more frequently.
- Substrate – Golden oysters grow well in straw when supplemented with sawdust, where supplemented sawdust blocks have shown thicker fruit yields
- Fruiting containers – It is advisable to use poly tubing to make stray logs or filter patch grow bags if you choose sawdust fruiting blocks as supplements. When grown with poly tubing, the mushroom will fruit through the holes cut into the tubing. In sawdust blocks, the cultivator needs to have holes cut around the pins forming on them. Besides, bottle cultures are also popular to grow golden oysters as large, single clumps can easily form on the top of the bottle.
- Yield – The yield of golden oyster mushrooms is considerably lower than that of the other species in the oyster mushroom family. The reason is that the fruit of the golden oyster mushroom is lighter and smaller in comparison which makes secondary flushes quite rare. Golden mushroom oysters are usually expected to show biological efficiency ranging between 30 and 70%.
- Spawn run – Expert growers recommend incubating the mushroom spawn at around 26 degrees Celsius for about 10 to 14 days. Look out for pins forming within the bag. To speed up the process, you can shake the bag once during the colonization stage.
- Initiate pinning – Make sure to keep the temperatures higher than room level so that the pins of golden oyster mushrooms can take hold. It is advisable to initiate pinning at around 22 to 26 degrees Celsius with humidity around 100% RH.
- Fruit development – To ensure optimal growth of golden oyster mushrooms, it is recommended to maintain temperatures at room level or higher throughout the fruiting stage. Ensure that the humidity level is maintained around 80 to 95% until fruit bodies start forming, which is anywhere around 5 days. Constant light is also essential to get the vivid yellow color on the cap of golden oyster mushrooms.
- Harvest – Expert growers recommend harvesting most of the mushrooms in the first flush. The cultivator needs to remove the entire cluster, or “bouquets” with the base of a sharp knife, as opposed to plucking off individual mushrooms. This also helps to minimize handling. It’s advisable to store golden oyster mushrooms after being harvested in a refrigerator or cold room to preserve the texture and taste. As golden oyster mushrooms have a noticeably short shelf life, make sure that they are consumed within a couple of days after being harvested.
- Cooking – Golden oyster mushrooms are incredibly popular as additives to conventional meals. Make sure that you cook the mushroom completely, as under-cooked golden oyster mushrooms are distinctly bitter and can be off-putting. However, when cooked for a sufficient amount of time, this variant of oyster mushroom offers a well-balanced nutty flavor, which mostly reminds the user of cashew nuts. You can choose to cook the mushroom until it is crisp. The small flaky caps can even act as an ideal alternative to bacon bits which go incredibly well in salads. However, don’t worry if you see the golden color melting off while cooking as it will not affect the taste or level of nutrients in any way.
Their Nutritional Value
A cup of raw golden oyster mushrooms provides:
- 28 calories
- 0.35 grams of fat
- 2.85 grams of protein
- 2 grams of fiber
- 361 mg of potassium
- 0.095 grams of Vitamin B6
Their Benefits
The oyster family of mushrooms contains numerous species. Years of intense research have found incredible benefits of eating this mushroom variety. There have been significant breakthroughs in treating several physical ailments and medical disorders by adding oyster mushroom extract or powder to the medicine. Although there might be slight variations in closely-related species, the benefits provided by the oyster family of mushrooms are undeniable.
The golden oyster mushroom variety is an essential ingredient in many traditional Asian medicines for treating issues of the immune system.
Some of the most amazing benefits of golden oyster mushrooms include:
Nutrition
Although most edible mushrooms may not have many nutrients and are mostly used for the extra flavor, the golden oyster variety does provide incredibly important nutrients. These mushrooms are low in cholesterol and fat and high in protein and fiber along with minerals and vitamins.
Some of the major nutrients in golden oyster mushrooms include:
- Vitamin B 2
- Vitamin B 3
- Vitamin B 5
- Vitamin C
- Potassium
- Magnesium
- Copper
Together, these nutrients make the golden oyster one of the most powerful anti-oxidants on the market. This makes golden oyster mushrooms the top choice to not just add flavor to a healthy, well-balanced vegan meal but also provide nutrients without unwanted, additional calories.
Weight Loss
Golden oyster mushrooms are known for their negligible cholesterol levels, lower triglyceride levels, and a higher level of healthy nutrients. Various studies have shown that there are specific chemicals in the mushroom which activate the enormously beneficial effects.
Additionally, this mushroom is also incredibly powerful to lose extra, unwanted weight as it promotes fat loss without compromising on meal portions.
Studies have also found the regular intake of golden oyster mushrooms can
improve glucose tolerance, which can be extremely advantageous for diabetic patients as a form of treatment.
Anti-Diabetic
Diabetes is caused when the body is unable to produce a sufficient amount of insulin. Calcium is one of the major factors that the body needs to produce insulin while vitamin D is responsible for reducing inflammation and raising insulin sensitivity in the body. Research studies have proven that vitamin D helps to prevent Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes successfully.
Cardiovascular Health
Vitamin B3 is responsible for balancing triglycerides and cholesterol levels and reducing atherosclerosis which results from the inner walls of the arteries getting hardened. This is the major cause of heart attack, which is the most common cardiovascular disorder in the world today.
Golden oyster mushrooms contain sufficient amounts of vitamin B3 which helps to lower the production of histamine, improving blood circulation and preventing inflammation in the artery system. This is an incredibly efficient way to prevent the onset of cardiac arrest, especially for those who have already suffered once. In addition, vitamin B3 is also helpful in treating pellagra, which is a disorder caused by a deficiency of niacin in the body.
Mental Health
Research has shown how copper has a significant impact on neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and galactose, which are responsible for maintaining the balance between energy, mood, and focus in a person. Lack of sufficient levels of copper in the body often causes a drop in metabolic activity, upsets mood, disturbs concentration, and results in constant fatigue.
Copper is also known to use the antioxidants (such as vitamin C, ascorbate oxidase, tyrosinase, and superoxide dismutase) to prevent damage from free radicals in the brain and also to slow down the aging process, apart from helping to prevent cancer and numerous neurodegenerative disorders.
Instant Energy
Golden oyster mushrooms contain enormous amounts of different vitamin Bs. Vitamin B is responsible for transforming carbohydrates into glucose, which in turn provides energy to the body. This vitamin is also known to metabolize fats and protein. In addition, vitamin B5 in the golden oyster mushroom helps to rebuild organs, tissues, and muscles apart from maintaining an optimal metabolism level in the body.
Anti-Cancer
A special substance in the golden oyster mushroom’s fruiting stage has proven to slow the growth of human leukemia cells during research studies. The in-vitro studies figured that a form of glycoprotein, and not a lectin, is responsible for this effect.
The study has also found the way by which this glycoprotein interacts with cancer cells and restricts their growth.
Another research study, this time involving the use of water extract from the golden oyster mushrooms, found that it significantly shrunk tumors and reduced inflammation in test subjects.
Anti-Bacterial
A research study that isolated and used a form of glucosylceramide from the golden oyster mushrooms found it extremely effective in fighting against two potentially harmful disease-carrying bacteria. The substance is also being studied to discover its other abilities in making pharmaceutical anti-bacterial drugs.
Anti-Inflammatory
Numerous research studies have discovered and proved the incredible anti-inflammatory properties exhibited by golden oyster mushrooms. As inflammation is an integral part of numerous disease processes, such as athletic injuries, anti-inflammatory medications are extremely important today.
Anti-inflammatory medications are normally used to treat severe disorders, such as asthma, auto-immune diseases, and cancer, among others. Thus, the beneficial extract of the golden oyster mushroom can be extremely helpful in preventing or treating several inflammatory disorders.
Regulate Blood Pressure
The body needs vitamin D to regulate blood pressure and keep it under acceptable levels. However, most people who live in cold climates have a deficiency of vitamin D. Hence, golden oyster mushrooms can act as an excellent way to keep your blood pressure low, under normal levels, and prevent an unexplained rise in blood pressure.
Stronger Bones
Golden oyster mushrooms contain magnesium and vitamin D, both of which are incredibly important for a strong skeletal structure. Although everyone knows that calcium is the best nutrient for building stronger bones, what they don’t know is that vitamin D and magnesium are essential to process calcium and store it in the bones to make them stronger.
Anti-Neurodegenerative Disease
Golden oyster mushroom contains the amino acid ergothioneine, a cryoprotectant that is responsible for protecting cells against the stress of oxidation and damage from free radicals. Thus, golden oyster mushrooms can be incredibly helpful in combating neurodegenerative disorders, such as dementia, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s, to name a few.
Healthy Skin
Dermatitis is, unfortunately, one of the most common dermatological disorders worldwide. Tens of thousands of patients suffering from dermatitis are discovered every day around the world. Although there are a few treatment options available, these are usually expensive or extensive.
However, new research has shown that golden oyster mushroom extract is responsible for slowing down and inhibiting the symptoms of dermatitis. This makes golden oyster an incredibly important mushroom variety for potential use in cosmetics and skincare products.
Other Benefits
Apart from helping to lose unwanted weight, providing important nutrients, helping to fight cancer growth and inflammation, there are several other benefits of using golden oyster mushroom in your diet, including:
- Supporting immune system
- Anti-tumor remedy
- Reducing cholesterol
- Treating hypertension
- Assists in vascular health
- Anti-viral properties
- Treatment of arthritis
- Anti-oxidant properties
The golden oyster mushroom variety is also helpful to encourage the growth of beneficial microorganisms in yogurt or other fermented dairy products. In addition, golden oyster mushrooms also prevent the growth of potentially disease-causing microorganisms from colonizing and flourishing in fermented dairy products. Lastly, the golden oyster mushroom extract has incredible potential for use in the skincare and cosmetic industry.
The Ideal Dosage
Golden oyster mushroom and its extract products are sold for a variety of uses. Recent research has shown its incredible effects on the human body. As with any dietary supplement or food item, moderation is highly advised as too much of even something good can have adverse effects.
It is recommended to use golden oyster mushrooms in salads as taste additives and not make them form the bulk of the meal. Make sure to wash the mushroom with water before cooking. To use in salads, you can simply wash the mushroom in cold water, pat them dry with a paper towel and toss them straight into the salad bowl.
However, the firm part of the stem is not ideal for cooking so you can remove it before adding the mushroom pieces to the salad. On the other hand, the hard portion of the golden oyster mushroom stem is often used while cooking other recipes.
Conclusion
Overall, golden oyster mushrooms are easy to cultivate, taste nutty like a cashew nut when cooked, and provide incredible health benefits to the users. It’s highly recommended to buy fresh mushrooms to ensure optimal nutrition and benefits.
This mushroom variety deserves to be studied in-depth to discover much more of the health and medical benefits it may hold.
Happy mushroom hunting!
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