Italian Oyster: Mushroom of the month for July 2022

The Italian Oyster is the mushroom of the month as we enter the first full month of summer.

This mushroom is an all-star. It has a soft, tender texture when fried at medium-low heat, but it can also handle a hotter sear for a couple of minutes or be put in the oven. It is a mild mushroom that absorbs the flavours of other ingredients and has a slightly nutty taste when cooked on its own. 

The Pleurotus pulmonarius mushroom is one of the fastest Oyster mushrooms to grow. Within six to seven days, there is usually a large cluster of Italian Oysters ready to harvest. Only the Pink Oyster can compete with that speed. It likely has nothing to do with the Italian connection to Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo and Maserati, but it sure is quite the coincidence.

Italian Oyster mushrooms are also resilient when growing. The ideal temperature to grow them is around 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit). Last summer, when heatwaves and a delayed air conditioning installation caused most of our mushroom blocks to slow down production, Italian Oysters continued to flourish. They handled temperatures of about 25 Celsius (77 F), so if you want to grow mushrooms but can’t keep your room around 20 Celsius, Italian Oysters can be a calculated risk to take for a gourmet food grown locally.

The numbers speak for themselves. We recently announced that Italian Oyster grow kits are the lead sellers among our mushroom grow kits throughout the first half of 2022. They have a huge lead over our other strong-selling grow kits.

If you are looking to try growing mushrooms at home, a JCB Gourmet Mushrooms Italian Oyster grow kit is what you should try. You’ll get an instruction brochure with tips, tricks, do’s and don’ts. You’ll also get a humidity tent and spray pump bottle to give you an even better chance to grow two big yields of mushrooms and potential bonus harvests on the smaller sides. With the Italian Oysters, you’ll be ready to harvest within a week of setting them up, and they are not very picky to grow.

Speed, resilience, impressive stats… it feels like we’re talking about an athlete. 

They do have a bit of style, though. The caps have a smokey grey hue. That’s a popular colour for walls lately, so the Italian Oysters would fit in well with the interior design enthusiasts and home cooks.

Benjamin Moore's list of popular paint colours. Grey is popular, so why not add some Italian Oyster mushrooms to your home decor? (Screengrab from benjaminmoore.com)

Italian Oyster mushrooms also go by Phoenix Oyster, Indian Oyster and Lung Oyster. Our other alternative name for them is Delicious. Head on over to the shop page to order fresh Italian Oysters for pickup in person or to get a grow kit to ship or pick up.