Valley Mushrooms NZ is a family business nestled in the Waitotara Valley supplying grow bags and quality fresh gourmet mushrooms to Whanganui and Taranaki areas.
We currently offer a range of mushrooms including pink and grey Oyster, Shitake and Coralstooth, a close relation to the Lionsmain mushroom.
Growbags are fun and produce two to three flushes of delicious fresh mushrooms in your home with little effort.
The flushes will get smaller as the nutrients in the block are used up. The spent block is organic so can be used as mulch in the garden.
We supply several restaurants in our area with delicious fresh mushrooms and are happy to recieve expressions of interest from any others.
Fungi have existed for billions of years, before any other terrestrial plants or animals, and they have spent that time learning how to adapt to any environmental changes. They play an important role as ecological decomposers while absorbing nutrition from the plant material they live off. Therefore, mushrooms like lion’s mane, shiitake and oyster offer many health benefits. They are resilient and adaptable and share with us the bio-compounds they absorb from other plants when we eat them.
Mushrooms basically consist of the mycelium, a stalk, and the cap. The mycelium is the root like structure consisting of a mass of tiny threads called hyphae. The stalk and cap are known as the fruiting body and are the visible part of the mushroom. In most mushrooms, spores are produced on the lower part of the cap – on the gills, tubes, needles, or pleats.
Mushrooms grow from fungal spores and thrive in dark, damp conditions. We grow our mushrooms in plastic bags filled with sterilized grain and wood chips. These bags help retain moisture and replicate natural conditions. As mushrooms do not require sunlight, they can be grown on shelves indoors.
You can. Mushrooms are incredibly healthy and contain many of the nutrients our bodies need to function well. So, like most things, mushrooms can be eaten often as part of a balanced diet.
The key active compounds found in mushrooms that research has linked to health benefits are:
Beta-D-glucans. These have been identified as primary sources of medicinal activity; they are a naturally occurring component of the cell walls of mushrooms that can activate or increase immunity. These occur in higher concentrations in the fruiting body, rather than the mycelium.
Triterpenoids play a complementary role with beta-glucans in immune system activation; core activities include liver protection, antioxidant activity, histamine and inflammation response.
Ergosterol, present in all fungi, has recently been shown to have immuno-modulating and antioxidant properties.
An antioxidant, Glutathione, has been shown to protect and maintain sperm health in numerous clinical trials and, importantly, glutathione can protect and preserve sperm health during assisted conception processes. Increasing dietary glutathione can be helpful for male reproductive health. All mushrooms contain some glutathione, but shiitake mushrooms contain particularly high concentrations.
