Maarten Dijker is Texel’s very own mushroom farmer and grows a variety of mushrooms in a Texel schapenboet (a traditional-style shed for storing sheep food) using traditional methods.

Without the use of any pesticides at all, the mushrooms are grown on bales containing the culture and are harvested by hand: the best mushrooms are selected each day.

Varieties of mushrooms

Maarten grows several varieties of mushroom. Shiitake are available all year round. You can buy them either fresh or dried. In the summer, you can buy grey oyster mushrooms and eringii, which also known under several other names including king trumpet mushrooms and French horn mushrooms. On request, Maarten grows less common varieties such as maitake, otherwise called hen-of-the woods, for restaurants like Bij Jef.

Where to buy the mushrooms on Texel

These mushrooms are available from Texelse Paddestoelenkwekerij; the mushroom farm is housed in a renovated schapenboet on Hoornderweg. You can also buy 100-gram trays of shiitake at Ekoplaza Texel, the natural food shop, in Den Burg.

In addition, a number of Texel restaurants (regularly) feature dishes containing shiitake grown on Texel on their menus. Here are a number of restaurants: Restaurant Quinty’s, De Lindeboom and Visrestaurant ’t Pakhuus.

Recipes with mushrooms

Stir-frying, deep-frying, stewing or grilling are all great ways of preparing shiitake, but these mushrooms are also very good in soups and sauces

If you would like to cook a dish with Texel mushrooms, why not try one of these recipes?

• Flammkuchen with Texel vegetables
• Courgette with mushrooms

Tours

On request, Maarten shows visitors around the farm. He’s happy to explain how the mushrooms are cultivated and their growth process. For more information, please get in touch with Maarten.