Published on 05/29/2022 at 5:16 p.m.,
Reading 2 mins.
Tasty wild mushroom, the morel is a dish that is eaten sparingly, given its high price (nearly 100 euros per kilo), but also its very short season. Its cultivation has been the subject of research for many years. But biologists have finally found the solution, which would allow a democratization of the fungus.
Ah, what would Bresse chicken in yellow wine be without the morels? Culinary ecstasy wouldn’t be the same at all without the presence of these famous mushrooms that play capriciously, hiding under the damp grasses from March to June. So much for the theory, because this little mushroom with a delicious nutty taste is not so easy to pick. A number of parameters prevent us from writing generalities about it. The more the season progresses, the more you have to climb in altitude to hope to find some, knowing that you have to know how to differentiate the conical morels, that is to say black, from the so-called common morels, that is to say blond.
Cultivating morels in greenhouses
The ambition to cultivate the morel in greenhouses is not new. For several years now, producers have embarked on this very delicate task, which requires setting up ventilation, a specific degree of humidity and precise shading in order to hope to obtain an economically viable harvest. In China, a scientist, Doctor Douxi Zhu, has developed a technique of artificial culture allowing to obtain ten to fifteen tons per hectare, according to the blog of an engineer-agronomist Corenthin Chassouant, Horti Generation. But this type of production being particularly capricious As it is necessary to adapt the growing conditions to each of the soils – while knowing how to anticipate climatic hazards, this expert media specifies that this affair is “a challenge for experienced producers”, attracted of course by the financial windfall represented by the little mushroom.
A French company, called France Morels, which brings together researchers as well as agri-food and agriculture professionals, has set up a culture sector. It markets licenses to cultivate morels, including seedlings, a selection of parent strains, but also all the necessary equipment such as the tunnel or the tarpaulins. According to data from France Morelshalf of their professional customers obtain 200 to 400g of morels per square meter.
Denmark has the solution
It will be understood: the cultivation of morels is complicated! In Denmark, a duo of biologists thinks they have found the solution. According Green Queen, the scientists succeeded in cultivating nine kilos of morels per hectare per year in greenhouses, in the space of six months. It is the result of more than forty years of research, carried out in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen and the Royal University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine. The two researchers have developed an artificial soil to avoid any risk of contamination by bacteria that can reduce the amount of harvest. They also evaluated many strains of morels to identify those capable of being the most productive. The duo is now considering marketing their method and even foresees the automation of morel culture. Their objective: to reduce the cost of these precious mushrooms so that they are more accessible… Black gold which is snapped up at exorbitant prices at the end of the year, can the consumption of truffles also be democratized, thanks to greenhouse cultivation?