Choosing our strains: where our varieties come from

In the mushroom world, the strain plays the role that the variety plays for a tomato or the grape variety for a wine. Two oyster mushrooms of the same species can differ widely in taste, colour, yield and shelf life after harvest. Everything that ends up on the plate starts with this choice.

Our criteria

• Flavour and texture first: a strain must produce a mushroom a chef wants to work with.
• Consistency: predictable harvests, week after week, so we can commit to restaurants.
• Shelf life: a mushroom that keeps well for a few days in a cold room.
• Adaptation to our growing conditions and to the Geneva climate. Pioppino, for example, likes cool temperatures, an advantage for much of the year.

Steintaler Edelpilz, our strain supplier

Our strains come mainly from Steintaler Edelpilz, a German company specialising in pure mushroom cultures, which offers more than 130 species and varieties: edible mushrooms, functional mushrooms and rare species. It is at Steintaler that we found, for example, the Pink Queen lion's mane, a rare variety with pink hues.

Our collection brings together cultivated hybrids selected in Europe and wild strains of varied origins: European reishi isolated in France, Australian bush shiitake, North American lion's mane species. Each strain is presented in our Genetics and mycelium collection.

From culture to harvest

A strain is kept in the lab as a pure culture, in a Petri dish or as a liquid culture. It is then multiplied on sterilised grain, partly from the leftover grain of the Moulin de la Pallanterie, before inoculating the substrate. We explain this supply chain in our article on substrate.

Keeping strains healthy, renewing them and testing new ones is part of the daily work of a mushroom farm. It is also what will allow Mycotopia to offer, season after season, varieties rarely found in Switzerland.

To follow the farm as it takes shape and hear when we open, join the waiting list at the bottom of the page. Are you a chef or restaurant owner? Visit our page for professionals. In the meantime, our mushroom recipes give you a foretaste.