キノコノゴエン's Story
About mushroom nogoen
My name is Kono from Kinonogoen.
In Hitachinaka-shi, Ibaraki-ken, they grow black jellyfish and white jellyfish, mainly 2 types of shiitake mushrooms, in a fungus bed using organic nutritional sources.
This is my third year as a mushroom farmer.
How I started a mushroom farm
The reason I started farming was studying abroad in Germany to learn soccer. Germany is a country where organic and vegan food culture is very naturally rooted in our lives.
If you walk around town, there are a number of natural food specialty stores, and supermarkets also have those shelves as a matter of course. Coming from Japan, I was a little surprised at how much interest in food was, and I thought eating was such a serious and rich thing.
Thoughts put into “Kinoko no Goen”
That experience stuck in my mind ever since I came back to Japan, and I naturally began to think about “food.”
Then, as I learned about various things, the feeling that “people who make things = producers are cool” gradually grew in my heart.
I support someone's everyday dining table at the root. I was strongly attracted to that kind of work.
The fact that one of my acquaintances was a mushroom farmer was also a boost, so I took the plunge and jumped into this world.
The name of the farm, “Kinokonogoen,” includes a wish that “wonderful relationships will be born one after another through mushrooms.”
People who eat the mushrooms they have grown, people who come to see the farm, friends I work with.
I would like to continue to cherish each and every encounter that mushrooms bring together.
The taste and appearance change depending on how you grow up
It's only been 3 years as a mushroom farmer.
There are many things I don't understand, but every day is a continuous process of learning and discovery.
For example, when shiitake mushrooms grow slowly during the cold season, they become thick and round before they fully open (this is called “donko,” and it has a strong flavor). Conversely, if it is warm and grows all at once, it becomes thin with open volume.
That's why we dare to grow them slowly over time at lower temperatures.
If you put your hands on it, it will probably turn into a mushroom full of flavor.
No matter how many times you look at it, you won't get tired of watching it, and it's so cute. In addition to shiitake mushrooms, they also grow black jellyfish, and white jellyfish, which is a bit rare in Japan.
The crunchy texture of raw jellyfish is surprising for those who only know dried ones to try it.
Future challenges
Recently, I've begun to try growing rice and cultivating it using raw wood, which is said to take 2 to 3 years to harvest.
There's still so much I want to try.
Thick and big, I thought, “This is a mushroom!?” I cultivate them every day with the desire to deliver really delicious mushrooms that will surprise people. Mushrooms are interesting creatures the more you know about them.
I'm looking forward to the fact that good relationships will be born through mushrooms.
