From the production of healthy food to attention to animal and plant health, from managing a beautiful and diverse landscape to contributing to a healthy economy: Limburg's farmers and horticulturists literally keep the province healthy. Today a conversation with entrepreneur Gerard Sikes from Ysselsteyn, who is well on his way to climate-neutral mushroom production.
Sikes (49) grew up on an arable farm, his wife Karin (49) on a mushroom farm. In 1988 they started cultivating mushrooms together.
'A nursery was for sale, but we could also have bought a sandwich shop or opened a bicycle shop,' says Sikes. 'What matters to us is doing business together.'

Every morning, around eight o'clock, the couple sits together at the table to discuss all current matters and the day ahead. 'A healthy relationship is the basis for our company. My wife gives feedback, is my complaint and teacher.'

Source: Nieuw Oogst (article is in Dutch)

The glacier protection fleece under the brand name of TenCate Toptex® GLS makes it into the Environment section of “Pictures of the year” 2020.

A picture of the spectacular installation of the glacier protection fleece TenCate Toptex® GLS from TenCate Geosynthetics on the Presena glacier in Italy was chosen to be included in Reuters´ renowned “Pictures of the year” 2020.

The most recent installation of the glacier protection fleece under the brand name of TenCate Toptex® GLS from TenCate Geosynthetics, covering over 100,000 square meters of the Presena glacier in Northern Italy, was documented by a photographer from the news agency Reuters. At the end of 2020, one picture of the series was selected to be included in the Environment section of Reuters´ „Pictures of the year 2020“.

Please read the full Press Release here.

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.

Researchers have identified another good reason to eat more mushrooms. New research , published in Food Science & Nutrition (January 2021) found that adding a mushroom serving to the diet increased the intake of several micronutrients, including shortfall nutrients such as vitamin D, without any increase in calories, sodium or fat.

Dr. Victor L. Fulgoni III and Dr. Sanjiv Agarwal modeled the addition of mushrooms to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011­2016 dietary data looking at a composite of white, crimini and portabella mushrooms at a 1:1:1 ratio; one scenario including UV­light exposed mushrooms; and one scenario including oyster mushrooms for both 9­18 years and 19+ years of age based on an 84g or ½ cup equivalent serving.

Key findings include:

• Adding an 84g serving of mushrooms increased several shortfall nutrients including potassium and fiber. This was true for the white, crimini and portabella 1:1:1 mix and the oyster mushrooms.
• The addition of a serving (84 g) of mushrooms to the diet resulted in an increase in dietary fiber (5%­6%), copper (24%­32%), phosphorus (6%), potassium (12%­14%), selenium (13%­14%), zinc (5%­6%),
  riboflavin (13%­15%), niacin (13%­14%), and choline (5%­6%) in both adolescents and adults; but had no impact on calories, carbohydrate, fat or sodium.
• When commonly consumed mushrooms are exposed to UV­light to provide 5 mcg vitamin D per serving, vitamin D intake could meet and slightly exceed the recommended daily value (98% ­ 104%) for both the 9 ­18 year and 19+ year groups as well as decrease inadequacy of this shortfall nutrient in the population.
• A serving of UV­light exposed commonly consumed mushrooms decreased population inadequacy for vitamin D from 95.3% to 52.8% for age group 9­18 years and from 94.9% to 63.6% for age group 19+ years.

"This research validated what we already knew that adding mushrooms to your plate is an effective way to reach the dietary goals identified by the DGA. Data from surveys such as NHANES are used to assess nutritional status and its association with health promotion and disease prevention and assist with formulation of national standards and public health policy (CDC, 2020)."

Mary Jo Feeney, MS, RD, FADA, Nutrition Research Coordinator,
Mushroom Council

Mushrooms are fungi ­ a member of the third food kingdom ­ biologically distinct from plant and animal­derived foods that comprise the USDA food patterns yet have a unique nutrient profile that provides nutrients common to both plant and animal foods.

Although classified into food grouping systems by their use as a vegetable, mushrooms' increasing use in main entrees in plant­forward diets is growing, supporting consumers' efforts to follow food­based dietary guidance recommendations to lower intake of calories, saturated fatty acids, and sodium while increasing intake of under­consumed nutrients including fiber, potassium and vitamin D. Often grouped with vegetables, mushrooms provide many of the nutrient attributes of produce, as well as attributes more commonly found in meat, beans or grains.

According to the USDA's FoodData Central, 5 medium raw, white mushrooms (90g) contain 20 calories, 0g fat, 3g protein and are very low in sodium (0mg/<1% recommended daily value). Few foods naturally contain vitamin D, and mushrooms are unique in that they are the only food in the produce aisle that contain vitamin D. Specifically, one serving of raw, UV­exposed, white (90g) and crimini (80g) mushrooms contains 23.6mcg (118% RDA) and 25.52mcg (128% RDA) of vitamin D, respectively.

Mushrooms are one of the best dietary sources of sulfur­containing antioxidant amino acid ergothioneine and tripeptide glutathione Ergothioneine and glutathione contents in mushrooms depends upon the mushroom varieties, and oyster mushrooms contain more amounts of these sulfur­ containing antioxidants than commonly consumed mushrooms: white button, crimini, or portabella mushrooms. The addition of a serving of commonly consumed mushrooms and oyster mushrooms would be expected to add 2.24 and 24.0 mg ergothioneine, respectively, and 3.53 and 12.3 mg glutathione, respectively, to the NHANES 2011­2016 diets based on published literature values.

At this time, the USDA FoodData Central database does not include analytical data on ergothioneine. However, the Mushroom Council is currently supporting research to analyze mushrooms for bioactives/ergothioneine for possible inclusion in USDA FoodData Central database.

More research from the mushroom council still to come

With mushrooms growing in awareness and consideration among consumers nationwide, in 2019, the Mushroom Council made a $1.5 million multi­year investment in research to help broaden understanding of the food's nutritional qualities and overall health benefits.

In addition to the analysis of mushrooms for bioactives/ergothioneine for inclusion in USDA FoodData Central database, additional research projects approved include:

• Health promoting effects of including mushrooms as part of a healthy eating pattern.
• Mushrooms' relationship with cognitive health in older adults. Mushrooms' impact on brain health in an animal model.
• Nutritional impact of adding a serving of mushrooms to USDA Food Patterns.

Since 2002, the Council has conducted research that supports greater mushroom demand by discovering nutrient and health benefits of mushrooms. Published results from these projects form the basis for communicating these benefits to consumers and health influencers.

Source: FLM Harvest Journal

In May 2020, the Shiitake Biltong team from Maastricht took part in the student competition Ecotrophelia. They have continued to develop new food products. Soon they hope to start their own company that will enter the market with potato chips based on mushrooms.

For Ecotrophelia, the group of Maastricht students presented a vegetarian variant of the biltong which is popular in South Africa; a snack consisting of dried strips of meat that resembles beef jerky. The students won the Dutch final with it and were also allowed to present the idea during the European final.

After the team took another critical look at the idea, the students came to the conclusion that shiitake as a raw material was not such a smart choice. Good shiitake is hard to get and must be imported from Asia. That is expensive and not really sustainable.

The team went back to work and now opted for raw materials from a Dutch residual flow. They developed mushrooms based on pieces of sliced ​​mushrooms. The idea has been elaborated in a business plan, contacts have been made with suppliers, buyers and a possible producer. At this time the production process is optimized and the students are about to start their own company.

Source: Foodholland (article is in Dutch)

Chicken manure is an important raw material in mushroom compost and for the composter as it is the biggest source of nitrogen. It is therefore vital to keep the quality as consistent and as high as possible. However, the quality of chicken manure is unimportant for the farmer, for him it is a waste product. So make sure you always pay attention to the following points yourself.

Quality
Achieve the best quality with: - a nitrogen content (N) of 3.5 to 4%. The higher, the better; - a moisture content between 20 and 50%. The majority of composters work with dry chicken manure. The most suitable type is manure from broilers. This contains a higher percentage of actual manure compared to the rest of the constituents such as sawdust.

Regular supplier
One of the main aims of composting is to create homogenous compost: ensuring that you always supply growers with the same quality of spawnable or incubated compost. This process starts with selecting your suppliers, including the ones who provide you with chicken manure. Always work with the same chicken farmer, who keeps his birds in the same way. If you do not have a regular supplier, then you will have to compensate for the differences in the chicken manure.

Analysis is essential
Even if you do use a regular supplier, analysing the nitrogen and moisture content in the manure remains essential, even though the results of the analysis are usually the same readings. If the birds are sent to slaughter earlier or later than usual, there will be a direct influence on the nitrogen content. You won't see it visibly in the manure, but it will appear in the analysis. Using the wrong recipe to blend the compost has immediate and far-reaching consequences for your mushroom production. You won't be the first person to have two weeks of bad production….

Distribute well
Distributing the chicken manure over straw can only be done well once. The blending done afterwards will not compensate for any bad initial mixing. Every single blade of straw must come into contact with the manure. You must avoid any large lumps of chicken manure ending up in the compost.

The last month several growers had problems with a too heavy casing soil. It is normal for this time of the year for casing soil to be heavier because of rainfall on the peat fields. It takes a few weeks for the casing companies to sort this out and in the mean time the grower has to deal with this. A normal situation for this period. Complaining is not the way to deal with this but inter acting is possible.

The first thing to do is to recognize that the casing ís heavy. This can only be observed if good attention is given to the filling of the room. Always talk to the truck driver about compost and casing and you already know a lot. They know exactly what material they carry. If they say it is a heavy load and if water is coming out the first thing to do is to adjust the filling machine. Heavy casing soil packs more so it has to be opened up. The caccing spinner on the combine filling machine plays a big role in this. It has to pick up the compost and mix it well into the casing. Cac a bit more than normal if casing soil is heavy. The next step is to make the mixing spinner turn a bit slower. Too intensive mixing will destroy the structure and cause big problems in outgrow of the pins later on. The pressing roll should be adjusted that way that it does not close the holes in the casing. If you look at the roller from the side of the shelf, a little bit of light should be visible between roller and casing.

Then be careful with water on the first day. Make sure the caccing material starts growing. This can be seen by the attachment of the compost to the casing. Do not wait however till you really see the mycelium. Because then the time for watering can be too short. And mycelium will overgrow the casing. The normal amount of water can be given minus a few litres. (the water on day one). It is a good thing if watering gifts can be split into small doses. 1 litre at a time with intervals of at least 1 hour. Only on the first watering day (probably day 2 after filling) bigger gifts are possible.

The next thing that might happen is that the mycelium has difficulties growing to the surface. Remember, a heavy casing soil needs help to release water and CO2 so always make sure that fresh air is given to the room. A minimum of 5% fresh air most of the times helps a lot. If the mycelium has reached the surface generally the fructification is normal. The only difference is from day 7 to day 10 of the fructification. From that day 7, the pins might stagger in outgrow. At that moment again fresh air is needed to keep the evaporation going. A minimum of 5% might not be enough anymore. If you see pins but they do not grow out you have a few possibilities.
A drop of water as a shock. This means 0,5 litre of water and mild drying with heating and fresh air. Fan can be set up to 5% higher in speed.

Or you can drop the CO2 to about 1000 ppm for a day. But make sure that RH stays over 88% in this case.Overall the growing later on will be on a bit lower CO2 than normal to keep evaporation going. Watering as normal. The biggest mistake made is to keep rooms like this too dry. Be aware that the room might develop less pins than normal. Let them grow out and pay special attention to the picking. This way these rooms do not have to be any worse. On the contrary, often they are better (in a financial way) than normal.

Recently the gucchi mushroom has been given a geofgraphical indication (GI tag). The gucchi mushroom is the most expensive exotic mushroom in the world and grows in the Jammu and Kashmir Doda District in India. A geographical indication is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin. In order to function as a geographical indication, a sign must indicate that a product comes from a specific place. In addition the qualities, characteristics or reputation of the product are due to the place of origin. The gucchi mushrooms cannot be grown commercially. They grow wild in the foothills of the Himalayas. They take months to gather them and they never grow in the same place. For these reasons, the gucchi mushrooms are very expensive. A kilo costs around 20,000 rupees, which is around 225 euros. The gucchi mushrooms are rich of vitamins, potassium, copper and vitamin D. Due to the many antioxidants, the gucchi mushroom can prevent health problems such as heart disease and diabetes.

We know the immune system is important for staying healthy, but what exactly is it and what can we do to support it?

The immune system is a complicated network of cells, tissues and organs in your body that protect against infection and disease. Given that there are so many pieces to the puzzle, there’s not one easy fix that can transform a weak immune system into a strong one in a snap of the fingers, but nutrition certainly plays an important role in its function.

Key Nutrients For Supporting Your Immune System
There are certain micronutrients in the foods we eat that play a key role in supporting the immune system1. An important step you can take for your immunity is to ensure you’re getting the recommended daily allowances2 of these nutrients. Find out how each of them serves your body and which foods you can find them in.

Mushroom Council has developed a "Feed your immune" system campaign, where they talke about nutrients in food and especially in mushrooms.
For the complete article, click here
Source: Mushroom Council