Everything You Wanted To Know About Mushrooms

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Friday, 06 March 2009 19:41

San Marcos, California, March, 2009 - As they continue test harvest projects at their brand-new growing facility here, the Hokto Kinoko Company has launched a new web site for the United States audience. The site provides a compendium of news, research, recipes, events and links and is THE destination for fans, buyers and consumers of wild cultivated mushrooms: www.hokto-kinoko.com. “With the opening of the new growing facility only a few months away, we felt it appropriate to refocus our web presence for the US market,” says Katsumi Shigeta, president of Hokto Kinoko. “Hokto’s new web site will accompany and complement the introduction of locally grown, fresh organic cultivated wild mushrooms for the US consumers.” Hokto’s web site previously was a literal translation of the Japanese version and when that site was redesigned, Shigeta decided to create a new US site rather than follow the graphics and copy done for Japan. In addition to simple recipes developed by Hokto for home cooks, the web site includes some delicious mushroom recipes made for Hokto by well-known chefs such as Gene Kato of Japonais Chicago; Nick LeCasse of Chicago’s The Drawing Room at Le Passage; and Jason Marcus of The One Group. These recipes, such as “Thai-Style Beech Mushroom Lettuce Wraps” have been created for Hokto events throughout the country and challenge home cooks to adapt or follow them. Following Hokto’s education and research mission, the site also includes a section on research and health which includes key Japanese studies linking mushroom consumption with health benefits and healthy living. Another section of the website is dedicated to Hokto’s technological developments in mushroom cultivation. In terms of the technology of specialty mushroom cultivation, Hokto is unmatched. This section surveys the advancements that Hokto has made over the years. The US growing facility in San Marcos represents the culmination of these efforts and the largest specialty mushroom growing facility in the US. There’s also a regularly updated list of both distributors and retailers of Hokto Kinoko Company products nationwide, links to other mushroom sites and an interactive section. There, any mushroom lover can submit a found mushroom to the site, via a picture and a description of the mushroom in question, and Hokto will research and reply with information on that particular type. In this way, Hokto hopes to provide an educational experience for consumers as well as ardent mushroom gatherers. The web site was built by Hotel Travel Check (www.hoteltravelcheck.com) with assistance and hosting from Japan Business Systems Technology (www.jbs.com). “We’re aiming at the very top of the market,” says Tadao Yamamoto, Executive VP of Hokto Kinoko. “While the US consumes 900 million pounds of mushrooms annually, less than 5% are non-button varieties. We have been at work all year to increase consumer awareness of our healthy and nutritious ‘kinoko’ and have combined that campaign for public awareness with the increased production.” He concludes, “In today’s economy, our mushrooms provide their own unique taste and flavor, a high-quality meat substitute and value for the consumers’ dollar.” SOURCE: Hokto Kinoko < Prev   Next >