Eastern cultures have long known about the medicinal varieties of mushrooms and the western world is just catching up. Social media’s latest mushroom crush boasts a full, shaggy covering that resembles a fluffy pom-pom and is chock-full of bioactive compounds that can protect the body from everything spanning to diabetes and dementia.

Mr Brown & Towns Mushroom Garden is a delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards finalist that grows 11 varieties of mushroom, including lion’s mane.
Co-owner Fergus Brown says a selection of oyster mushrooms make up 70 per cent of the crop and 30 per cent is dedicated to exotic varieties such as chestnut mushrooms, coral tooth and lion’s mane.

“You’ve got medicinal mushrooms and culinary ones, most of the time those two are separate, but not always,” he says.

“It’s a venn diagram. Chaga or reishi are medicinal varieties that you can consume. While you can’t eat them, you can extract them into tea and tinctures to get the health benefits.

“Lion’s mane provides health benefits and you can throw it in frypan with butter and salt. I cooked it the other night with a good amount of butter in the pan. It has a standard mushroom flavour, not too strong.

“The texture is some of the best I’ve had. It’s super meaty, a blend between the texture of seafood and chicken texture. If you pull a piece apart, it’s striated like chicken meat. You can tear it with a fork like pulled pork for a stringy texture or cook a chunk like a steak.”

Lion’s mane mushrooms are a source of essential minerals such as zinc, potassium and manganese as well as vitamins including rhiamine, niacin and riboflavin. To make the most of its health benefits, it is often sold in powder form.

“I haven’t got around to making it into a powder yet, but it’s on the long list of things we want to get to,” Brown says.

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“There’s certainly enough research going into it that it’s hard to overlook. I believe the biggest studies have been done looking at its effects on the brain. There are two compounds in it, hericenones and erinacines, that can cross the blood brain barrier and help prevent the damage to brain cells and encourage regrowth of damaged brain cells.

“It’s also immunity boosting, helps with nerve cells in the body and it’s also good for the gut. There’s a long list of health benefits.

“I hope the popularity of lion’s mane cracks open a door to other medicinal mushroom varieties. It’s currently in the spotlight, but there are plenty more out there.”

For those looking to try them, a trip to Tasmania may be in order.

“We only sell five-10 per cent of our mushrooms on the mainland, but we hope to increase that,” Brown says.

“We sell mainly to restaurants but also at Harvest (farmer’s) Market in Launceston for customers that are interested in some of these weirder varieties.”

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