Oyster Mushrooms are delicious, hearty and healthful mushroom, that grows world wide, and the third most cultivated mushroom in the world. It is different from the white and brown mushrooms you find in the stores, in flavor and appearance. In the stores where it is sold, it can have a huge variety of names. 
 
The genus for the Oyster Mushroom is pleurotus. The mushrooms we grow are pleurotus ostreatus, also known as the brown mushroom, silver mushroom, and phoenix mushroom. The most common other variety is pleurotus pulmnarius, which is also known as the phoenix mushroom, as well as white, or alabaster mushroom. There is also one called pleurotus eryngii, also known as the King Mushroom, for some strange reason.
 
Why Oyster Mushrooms?
In general, oyster mushrooms are a delicious and healthy food. Their flavors and textures are very different from the store bought variety, bringing in whole new dimensions for ordinary dishes. Pizza and spaghetti become a gourmet experience with the addition of oyster mushrooms. Stir-fries, Mexican foods, barbecues and shish-kebab are all delicious with mushrooms. Whether you want to grow a few mushrooms at home or office or become a commercial producer, you will find a variety of flavors and textures as well as a surprising array of health benefits in these versatile fungi.
 
But are mushrooms really nutritious?
Yes. For example, shiitake is 13-18% protein by dry weight, high in the amino acids leucine and lysine (scarce in most grains), and has a significant complement of minerals and vitamins. Many other mushrooms are equally nutritious. The Oyster mushroom can be grown in straw, sawdust, coffee grounds, sugar cane baggasse, cotton seed hulls, and a number of other agricultural waste products. Because of this versatility, the Oyster mushroom species have a good potential for alleviating hunger in poor regions around the world.
 
Mushrooms are powerful immune stimulants. 
In Japan, extracts of shiitake are routine use for cancer prevention, and as adjuncts to chemo and radiation therapies. The polyphore Reishi, and the very taste maitake, have been shown in clinical studies to produce remarkable benefits for the immune system. The Oyster Mushroom contains a natural form of neo-Statin, which is a cholesterol lowering substance. The immune stimulating property of mushrooms is not too surprising, since in nature, some of our familiar antibiotics are made by fungi to compete against the variety of microorganisms in the soil. For more information on the medicinal and health properties of the Oyster Mushrooms click here.
 
How do mushrooms affect the environment?
Plants need fungi to live and prosper. While plants perform the daily miracle of transforming sunlight, water and carbon dioxide in the air into sugar, starch and cellulose via photosynthesis, they cannot break down inorganic materials (e.g. rock) On the other hand, the fungi lack chlorophyll and so cannot synthesize carbohydrates (sugar and starches), but they can easily break down inorganic minerals into the soluble nitrates, phosphates and sulfates that are essential to plants. Plants and mushrooms have co-evolved since the beginning of life.