Three generations and 35 years of shiitake
In the early 1990s Andris and Valda Vjaksa started shiitake growing in Latvia, here at Garīkas. Since 2026 the farm has been run by their grandson Gustavs Riekstiņš.
A manor with a long story
Garīkas lies in Rudbārži parish in the Kuldīga district, between Skrunda and Aizpute. Its history goes back much further than the shiitake. The estate is linked to the name of Baron von Firks, and the surroundings still show traces of the era of the Kurzeme manors.
The lime tree avenue leading to the house was planted in 1906, when Baron von Firks moved here. In summer its domed crowns smell of lime blossom.
The building has served both as a home and as a centre of local social life. After the Second World War several families lived in it, and in Soviet times it was used by the collective farm. By the 1990s it was in poor shape: the roof was damaged, the timber had rotted and parts of the ceilings had fallen in.
Andris and Valda: from a half-ruined house to a mushroom garden
The estate was closely tied to the history of Andris Vjaksa’s family. After Latvia regained independence, he and his wife Valda decided to restore it and build their own farm, almost from scratch. First the house itself had to be rebuilt.
At the same time Andris worked in road construction, including as technical director of the Liepāja Roads Administration and later at Kurzemes ceļi. The mushrooms had to fit around work and family. As Andris himself has put it, he has always been someone who sets himself tasks and gets them done.
While others chose traditional farming, in the early 1990s Andris started shiitake growing in Latvia. It is a mushroom loved for centuries in East Asia, especially in Japan and China, that hardly anyone in Latvia knew at the time. Garīkas became the first shiitake farm in Latvia.
There was little practical knowledge to draw on, so much was learned through mistakes. Once the mushrooms would not grow even on a large amount of oak; it later turned out that the spawn was to blame, and since then it has been bought from Europe and the USA. At first the neighbours found it hard to believe that logs stacked in rows would ever bear a crop, but Andris kept going even before there was anything to show for it.
Andris and Valda built the farm step by step as a place where work and family life go hand in hand. Their children and grandchildren grew up helping to pick, dry and process the mushrooms.
A mushroom garden where every log has its job
At Garīkas, shiitake grows on grey alder and oak logs. Spawn is placed into the logs and slowly works its way through the wood. It can take several years before the first crop, depending on the wood and the conditions.
When the time comes, the logs are soaked in water. That pulse of moisture sets the mushrooms growing. It is slower than growing on a specially prepared substrate and needs close attention to moisture and temperature, but it is how shiitake has been grown in Japan and China for centuries.
An LSM article about the farm mentioned some 13,000 logs. Each one is part of a long cycle: placing the spawn, tending, soaking and harvesting.
Gustavs: from a plastic knife to running the farm
Since the start of 2026 the farm has been run by Andris’s grandson, 23-year-old Gustavs Riekstiņš. He was born and raised in Liepāja but spent his childhood summers with his grandparents. While other children were off playing, Gustavs was picking, planting, watering, drying and grinding mushrooms.
When he was still too small for a real knife, he cut mushrooms with a plastic one to help his grandparents. Back then it was a childhood game; now it is his everyday work.
Gustavs studied forest engineering at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies in Jelgava and graduated in 2026. While still studying he helped his grandfather at fairs and markets, telling customers about shiitake, and those conversations convinced him that the Garīkas story had to go on. His degree helps too, since the farm’s main resource is wood.
Gustavs is open about the harder years before the handover: fewer tourists, less recognition and questions about the future. He started travelling to markets all over Latvia, posting on social media and reaching new customers, and interest in Garīkas came back.
Growing on logs stays. New things are coming too: a greenhouse of about 140 m² for growing mushrooms out of season, more automation, new products, the online shop and, in time, the European market. Gustavs wants not just to sell more mushrooms but to make shiitake better known in Latvia.
From the mushroom garden to the table
From the start, Andris wanted not only to grow mushrooms but to show people how to cook and process them. On a farm tour visitors see the mushroom garden, hear the farm’s history and learn how much work it takes to get from a little spawn to a harvest.
At the tasting you can try shiitake dishes, including the family’s own mushroom soup, which many guests have come to love. Gustavs takes special pleasure in visitors who have never eaten shiitake before and discover something new.
The mushrooms are sold fresh, and also dried and ground into powder so they can be used all year round. There is also accommodation, a sauna, a hot tub and walking trails.
The first medals for the new owner
In 2026 Garīkas entered the “Novada garša” (Taste of the Region) competition of the Latvian Rural Advisory and Training Centre for the first time. The dried shiitake won a gold medal and the mushroom powder a silver. Entering was Gustavs’s own idea.
Garīkas is also featured in “Pēctecība” (Continuity), a publication by the Imants Ziedonis Museum and the Rural Advisory Centre about farms and people who carry on their family’s and Latvia’s rural traditions.
Andris still helps with the work, but the day-to-day running is now in Gustavs’s hands. A change of generation does not mean the earlier work is forgotten. Gustavs has known this farm since childhood and knows how much work lies behind every mushroom.
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