Wine Cap mushrooms (also known as Garden Giants, or King Stropharia) are great for beginner growers. Transplant spawn into straw or hardwood chips in a shaded planter box, or mulched around the base of fruit trees, perennial plants and garden pathways.
Keep watered in the summer and dry periods, and enjoy the giant burgundy mushrooms as they sprout from your garden. Add more mulch annually to keep the mushroom crops coming year after year.
~2kg (4lbs+) on sterilized sawdust and wheat bran. Our Wine Cap sawdust kit will inoculate an area approximately 1m x 1m x 10cm deep. (3′ x 3′ x 4″ deep). Once that area is colonized, clumps of the white fungal mycelium can be spread to inoculate more areas.
Wine cap is also available as liquid culture.
Learn how to grow Wine Cap mushrooms here.
For peak viability we recommend using your mushroom products within weeks, and storing in a cool location until use. Refrigeration between 2-4C is ideal for the longest shelf-life. Even when refrigerated, the fungal mycelium continues to grow, and eventually mushrooms burst out one way or another.
After harvesting you should store the mushrooms in a paper bag, which allows them to breathe. Leave them in the main part of the refrigerator to get good airflow, not the produce drawer. They will keep for up to 1 week when stored in a paper bag in the refrigerator.
When cooked, Wine Cap mushrooms are crisp with a mild, earthy, and nutty flavor with hints of potatoes and red wine. Wine Cap mushrooms are commonly consumed when the caps are young and display their deep, red wine hues. If left to mature, these mushrooms can grow rather large and weigh up to five pounds, earning it the nickname the Godzilla mushroom. Favored by home chefs for their unusual flavor, Wine Cap mushrooms are versatile and are used in many different culinary applications.
Wine Cap mushrooms are best suited for cooked applications such as braising, grilling, and sautéing. When young, Wine Cap mushrooms can be eaten with the stem and offer a tender yet crunchy texture when lightly cooked in oil. They can also be sliced and mixed into meat sauces or risotto, roasted or braised along with other fall vegetables and served with meat, fowl or fish, added to soups, or stuffed and baked. If using the larger, more mature mushrooms, it is recommended to remove the stems as they become stringy and to slice or chop the cap to ensure even cooking. Wine Cap mushrooms pair well with lemon juice, wine, ramps, nutmeg, fennel, polenta, pasta, quinoa, and rice.
Broiled Stuffed Wine Cap Mushrooms
Corn Fettuccine with Black Trumpet and Purple Wine Cape Mushrooms, Lemon Verbena and Bucheron
White Bean & Sun-Dried Tomato Stuffed Wine-Cap Mushrooms
Wild Mushroom Caps Cooked in Embers, with A Mortar-Crushed Sauce
Wine Cap mushrooms contain fiber, vitamin D, amino acids, protein, iron, copper, and some calcium.
