In the Saxony-Anhalt town of Samswegen, corporate ideas are springing like mushrooms from tree blocks. Managing director Dieter Völkers grows and cultivates shiitake mushrooms in his “Magdeburger Pilzmanufaktur” in the Bördekreis district. The Asian mushroom has an extraordinary flavour. At the same time, the plant has exceptionally good “side effects”. Thanks to its active agent, Lentinan, cancer cells are fought as a result of consuming the mushrooms. It is warm and moist in the harvesting hall. Operations manager Susan Reiher and employee Christian Völkers collect their knives. They go to the narrow paths between the shelves and look at every single mushroom. Lots of wood blocks are strung here. The shiitake mushrooms germinate on these. If the membrane is burst beneath the cap and the gills can be seen, then the “harvest hands” carefully cut the mushroom and place it in the plastic case. Mornings and evenings are the harvesting time in Samswegen, as well as weekends and bank holidays. The team “harvest” up to 50 kilograms of shiitake mushrooms daily from the blocks. “Mushrooms don’t have days off. They always grow,” says Dieter Völkers, managing director of Magdeburger Pilzmanufaktur. He has no problem with this. “Our customers have to be sure that we work reliably and to a high standard of quality,” he explains. What is produced in his company is subject to the strict quality guidelines of the BIOLAND farming association. The factory relies on manual labour. Pesticides are completely avoided.“We only use light and water,” says Dieter Völkers. The mushrooms are not plucked either, as is usual in other mushroom farms. Instead, they are cut off with a knife. “This means the interface cannot become a hotbed for mould fungus,” explains Völkers. There are five harvest rooms in the former calf barn, which the managing director and his former partner had converted. Shiitake mushrooms stretch out at 16 degrees and 60 percent air humidity. It is not their first stop. Dieter Völkers points to the shelves, on which bags are stood with a browny-white content. An expert in Hessen fills the bags with sawdust substrate made of beechwood and inoculates it externally so that it is sterile with fungus mycelium. In the Samswegen ripening room, the mycelium settles the sawdust in the closed bags. From the wood powder, a block emerges and the first mushroom caps appear. The experts call this “perfoliation”. With one glance at the bags, they can see “whether something is already happening”. So that shiitake mushrooms grow in the bags, in which a special filter is installed, up to 25 degrees must prevail. To create the necessary moisture, employees spray water onto the floors which slowly evaporates. “We do not water directly, so that the mushrooms can absorb the water from the air,” explains the boss. In addition, an infiltration system runs day and night, so that the mushrooms get oxygen. For the team of the mushroom factory, it takes a matter of seconds to decide whether the mushrooms “are ready” and can be removed from the bag. The wooden block is cut back, then taken into the harvesting room. Each batch receives a “personal ID.” “The card contains information about everything, so that we always know when we have done something with the mushrooms,” explains Völkers. The overview is important, as lots of little blocks and mushrooms in different stages are located in the rooms. Harvested blocks go to the rest room. “The first wave of harvesting is over,” say the experts. For two to three weeks, the wooden blocks have a rest, then they are immersed for twelve hours into cold well water. “The actual mushroom is still in the wooden block,” explains Dieter Völkers. “If the mushroom feels the wet and cold, it thinks it is autumn and becomes animated to form new fruits again.” Ultimately, what follows is a second “wave of harvest”. When it is over, a transporter comes and picks up the harvested, discarded blocks and takes them to a Hordorf organic poultry company. The liquid manure is solidified using the shredded blocks. The remains of the mushrooms are taken to the biogas plant, which a businessman has erected directly behind the mushroom factory. “We have practically no waste,” says Völkers. But they do have beautiful white-grey shiitake. After the harvest, the mushrooms are stored in the cool room at five to seven degrees, covered in a cloth, before being packaged and sold. “This must all be quick, so that the mushrooms remain fresh,” explains Völkers. A couple of years ago, Dieter Völkers didn’t know any of this either. The graduate theologian and former social worker came across shiitake mushroom farming accidentally. “I wanted to do something new. A colleague brought the idea back from Japan with him and then we simply tried it.” In the meantime, a flourishing small business has emerged from the idea, with three employees and a number of seasonal workers, which can look back on six successful years. The fact that the factories are in Samswegen of all places was not planned. Dieter Völkers says, “A farmer offered us the halls, which were ideal for the purpose.” His investments in Saxony-Anhalt, on the other hand, were not accidental. “We decided to stay here and do something,” says Völkers, whose partner has now left the company. The businessman, who settled in Magdeburg of his own accord, has not been devoid of offers from other regions. Contractors from Schleswig-Holstein and Hessen have got in touch, offered their farms for acquisition or wanted to found a new company together with Dieter Völkers. He refused. “We prefer to promote here with the extraordinary products,” says the mushroom boss. The factory has had a good name in the food industry in Germany for a long time now. The company’s customers include retailers in Magdeburg and the surrounding area, and throughout the whole Thuringian and West-Saxonian region. In Berlin, a wholesaler distributes the shiitake mushrooms from Samswegen in almost all organic supermarkets; they are served up in all Karstadt department stores in the new Federal states and in Hamburg. People value the manual work in Samswegen and the extraordinary aroma, which taste like a mixture of radish and garlic. What gourmets almost completely forget: This mushroom could even be sold in pharmacies as a medicinal remedy. Shiitake have a strong anti-viral effect. When eaten regularly, the mushroom supports the body’s own antibodies so well that a person is well prepared against viral attacks - like colds. In addition, the shiitake mushroom combats high blood pressure, thrombosis and cancer cells. With all the positive side effects, the mushroom can be prepared with versatility in the kitchen. Irrespective of whether it is cooked, roasted, steamed or raw - shiitake mushrooms always taste special. Dieter Völkers can’t get enough of them. “I eat the mushrooms almost daily.” For him, the way to the heart of the company is through the stomach. “We feel that what we do is a calling,” he says, “and you cannot change a calling very quickly.”Author/Photographer: Manuela BockContact:Magdeburger PilzmanufakturDieter VölkersAm Sportplatz 439326 Samswegenph: +49 (0)391 / 72609342Fax: +49 (0)391 / 72609342E-Mail: info@magdeburger-pilzmanufaktur.deWeb: www.magdeburger-pilzmanufaktur.de