Swedish mushroom producer Hällestadsvamp AB has been awarded second place for the Skane Gastronomiska 2018 innovative food award for their pickled shiitake mushrooms, an alternative for pickled herring.

"Pickled herring is a very important product in Sweden during the Mid-summer, Christmas and Easter holidays and the pickled shiitake offers a great alternative for vegetarians. We have been testing the product with different mushrooms varieties to no avail, and discovered that the shiitake works really well in terms of texture and can take on a variety of different flavours," shared Mathias Persson, from Hällestadsvamp.

The pickled mushrooms will be available to selec markets this Christmas and they are hoping to have the full launch into retailers and food service by this Easter. Mathias also shared that he is hoping to make the product fully organic by this time as well, the mushroom are already organic and that its just about getting the remaining ingredients organic.

"The pickled shiitake comes in different flavours, but we also offer a flavourless pickle so that people can add whichever flavour they like. In Sweden, everyone has their own family recipe whether it be with creme fraiche, cavier, mustard, you name it, so now they have the ability to make their own version with our mushrooms too," said Mathias.

It has been a challenging year for Hällestadsvamp AB, after a fire at the beginning of the year ravaged their production area, leaving only the restaurant and farm shop behind.

"We were really fortunate that we were able to start growing our white and brown mushrooms again in temporary facilities, by the 22nd of June, just four months after the fire. The fire has brought new opportunities, our facilities were older and we were planning on building new ones, just not as soon as we were forced to. We have been working with Dutch mushroom growers to help plan our new modern growing facilities. Our plans include a 35% production increase in our brown and white button mushrooms and more than doubled production of our exotics."

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