Every day should really be World Mushroom Day but it turns out that the generally agreed date is October 15th so let’s scream and shout. Let’s celebrate the mighty ‘shroom together!!
At Food Nation we are lucky enough to be able to use fresh, hand-picked mushrooms in almost all of our products. Instead of using imported soy or gluten as so many other products do, we use NZ grown mushrooms which provide us with a base ingredient that supports the nutrition and texture of our food range. Plus they’re naturally rich in natural ‘umami’ which supports the great tastes of all the other wonderful, fresh NZ ingredients we include .
Umami is is our 5th basic taste along with sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Its a Japanese word meaning ‘a pleasant savoury taste” which is why including mushrooms can enhance the flavours of other savoury ingredients.
The mighty mushroom is a super hero in many ways beyond their unbeatable taste.
Nutritionally, mushrooms contain up to 60% of our daily recommended intake of many required vitamins and minerals. They have
- five different B vitamins that help support energy, brain function and skin health,
- phosphorus to help build strong bones, and
- copper for immune system support and joint health.
- potassium to keep your muscles, nerves and heart working well.
- Selenium which is a powerful antioxidant and essential mineral that helps regulate blood pressure, support a healthy immune system, promote healthy hair, skin and nails, and positively affects your mood.
- No gluten, sugar or saturated fat
Environmentally mushrooms are definitely heros. They are one of the most environmentally considerate crops available. All our mushrooms are grown in vertical farms on trays stacked on top of each other, making them efficient users of water, energy and land. One Kg of mushrooms uses as little as 20 litres of water to produce. That’s compared to 280 litres for 1kg of potatoes, 800 litres for 1kg of apples and a whopping 17,000 litres for 1kg of chocolate.
And they gown in compost made of by products from surrounding areas. Once they are grown, this compost goes back on the fields to grow more crops and so on and son on – truely a circular process.
So today and everyday lets celebrate our humble friend the mushroom. They rarely take centre stage and don’t really like the limelight but sometimes we have to shine a light on these wee morsels of goodness.
To hear a bit more about our mushrooms click on this link