Mushroom hunting

A person foraging mushrooms

Mushroom hunting, also referred to as mushroom foraging, mushroom picking, and mushrooming, is the activity of gathering wild mushrooms. These are collected for use as food (usually cooked and some only conditionally), psychotropic drugs, and dye. Analysis is required to distinguish between useful and poisonous species, often requiring advanced techniques.

The practice is popular throughout most of Eurasia and Australia, as well as in West Africa and temperate North America.

Identification

Some morphological characteristics of mushrooms useful in aiding identification

Numerous field guides on mushrooms are available to help distinguish between edible or psychotropic species and poisonous or inedible species. (Outside of biotechnological applications, so-called medicinal fungi are discounted as folk medicine.)

Morphological characteristics of the caps, gills, and stems of mushrooms are often essential for correct visual identification. Microscopy is sometimes needed to eliminate lookalikes.Template:Sfn A common identification method is the spore print, in which a mushroom is placed on a surface and spores fall underneath.Template:Sfn

Mushrooms generally begin to fruit when it is both warm and moist in their region.<ref name="audu">Template:Cite book</ref> In the North American Pacific Northwest, species shortly occur from spring to summer, but are most common in autumn. In the Southwestern United States, mushrooms can be found during the winter rains and spring. In the Midwest and Northeast U.S., they can be found from late April until the frosts of autumn. In the Colorado Rockies, they are best collected in July and August. They can be found through winter on the Gulf Coast.<ref name="audu" />

Commonly collected mushrooms

Many species of mushrooms are highly prized. Chanterelles, for example, are popular in both Europe and the United States. On the West Coast of the United States, they are harvested commercially.Template:Sfn Hedgehog mushrooms, name for the spines on the underside of the cap, are also popular.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Morels are another very popular edible mushroom.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Lobster mushrooms are edible as well, and have a shellfish-like flavor. They also have no look-alikes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The porcini (Boletus edulis) is also edible and very highly regarded. It is very popular in Italy, and prized for its nutty flavor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Caesar's mushroom is another edible mushroom. However, it is in the Amanita genus, and therefore one must be very careful when identifying it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It gets its name because it was popular among Roman emperors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The matsutake, another edible mushroom, is popular in Japan. It also occurs in the Pacific Northwest.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> There are actually multiple species of matsutakes, and the Japanese species does not occur in North America.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The matsutake has a spicy aroma, which David Arora has likened to "Red Hots and dirty socks".Template:Sfn Care must be taken to not confuse the matsutake with the extremely poisonous Smith's amanita.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Many truffles are also highly prized for their unique flavor and aroma, and can sell for very high prices.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Little brown mushrooms

The term little brown mushroom (LBM) refers to any of a large number of small, dull-coloured agaric species, with few uniquely distinguishing macromorphological characteristics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As a result, LBMs typically range from difficult to impossible for mushroom hunters to identify. Experienced mushroom hunters may discern more subtle identifying traits that help narrow the mushroom down to a particular genus or group of species, but exact identification of LBMs often requires close examination of microscopic characteristics plus a certain degree of familiarity or specialization in that particular group.Template:Sfn

Additionally, boring ubiquitous mushroom (BUM) describes groups of difficult to identify larger agarics, many of which are in the genus Hebeloma.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Just another Russula (JAR) can refer to any species of Russula that is common or difficult to identify.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn Yet another Mycena (YAM) describes any of the many Mycena species that are common, nondescript, or difficult to identify.Template:Sfn

Habitat

Particular mushrooms are associated with certain conditions such as proximity to certain types of trees and habitat.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Mycologist David Arora provides an exhaustive list.Template:Sfn

Collection

Although some individual species do not preserve well, many do with proper care. David Arora recommends the use of a firm container such as a basket, with lighter specimens stored above heavier ones and species being separated using waxed paper (not plastic bags, which trap moisture and cause rot); as the negative gravitropism of fungi tends to orient the gills downward, taller mushrooms must be stored upright.Template:Sfn

Poisonous mushrooms

Amanita phalloides, also known as the death cap, a deadly poisonous mushroom.

Mushroom hunting can be dangerous if one is not careful due to the fact that certain edible and poisonous species look alike. While some poisonous mushrooms simply cause digestive upset, others can cause organ failure or even death.Template:Sfn Certain species in the genus Amanita, such as the death cap (A. phalloides) and destroying angel (A. ocreata), are the cause of most fatal mushroom poisonings.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> The deadly Amanita species contain amatoxins, which can cause kidney failure. Death caps can be mistaken for edible paddy straw mushrooms.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> However, paddy straw mushrooms do not occur in the United States, and are instead found in Asia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> When young, death caps can also be confused with edible puffball mushrooms due to their similar shape. However, they can be differentiated if cut open. While a puffball is solid white inside, a young death cap has a mushroom shape visible.<ref name=":1" /> Amanita bisporigera, another amatoxin-containing Amanita species, also known as destroying angel, can be mistaken for edible meadow mushrooms.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Galerina marginata and Conocybe rugosa also contain amatoxins.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref> While Galerina marginata is rarely eaten<ref name=":2" /> because it is so small,<ref name=":0" /> it can sometimes be confused with hallucinogenic Psilocybe species.<ref name=":2" /> Cortinarius rubellus and Cortinarius orellanus contain a deadly toxin called orellanine, which can destroy the liver and kidneys.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The jack o' lantern mushroom (Omphalatus olearius), which causes gastrointestinal distress, can sometimes be confused with edible chanterelle mushrooms.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Some poisonous species, such as Amanita muscaria,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Paxillus involutus,<ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref> and Gyromitra esculenta,<ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref> are parboiled and eaten in some places. However, P. involutus has some toxins which cannot be removed by cooking, which accumulate in the body over time and can later be fatal.<ref name=":3" /> While G. esculenta is eaten, parboiling does not always remove the toxins so its consumption is not recommended.<ref name=":4" />

History

Mushroom hunting has been practiced for thousands of years in many parts of the world. It has likely been done since the Paleolithic. In 2015, scientists analyzed dental calculus on skeletons dating back to the Paleolithic period in Spain and discovered evidence of mushroom consumption.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ancient times

An ancient Sumerian text reveals that the ancient Amorites may have eaten truffles.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,300 year old<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> mummy found in the Alps,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> was found with two different species of mushrooms on him: the birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and the hoof fungus (Fomes fomentarius).<ref name=":6">Template:Cite web</ref> It is thought that he may have used the former as an antibiotic or anti-inflammatory<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and that he used the latter as a fire starter.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":6" />

In ancient Egypt, mushrooms were considered a delicacy and a gift from the god Osiris. Only the nobility were allowed to eat them.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Mushrooms were also eaten in ancient Greece and Rome.<ref name=":7">Template:Cite book</ref> The Caesar's mushroom (Amanita caesarea) gets its name because it was popular among Roman emperors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Emperor Claudius's wife Agrippa is thought to have poisoned him by serving him Caesar's mushrooms mixed with juices from the deadly poisonous death cap (Amanita phalloides).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Truffles were also highly prized in ancient Rome.

In ancient China, the lingzhi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) was used medicinally.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Middle Ages

Mushrooms depicted in a medieval manuscript

In medieval Europe, mushroom hunting was done,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but mushrooms were also viewed with superstition and skepticism<ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref> and often associated with witchcraft.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In Northern Europe, the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) was used by Sami shamans in rituals due to its psychotropic properties.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In medieval Europe, truffles, field mushrooms, porcinis, chanterelles, and morels were eaten.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the Middle East, people likely ate mushrooms as well. Arab physician Al-Biruni wrote about consumption of several species, including truffles.<ref name=":7" /> In China, people began to cultivate shiitake mushrooms during the Middle Ages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In Japan, matsutakes were highly prized and consumption of them was restricted to the imperial court. This law was in practice until the 17th and 18th centuries. Mushroom hunting was popular among the Japanese nobility, who sometimes sent matsutakes as gifts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> While mycophobia was prevalent in Europe during the Middle Ages, it began to decline during the Renaissance.<ref name=":8" />

Early modern period

In the 16th century, consumption of mushrooms was popularized in France. Around this time, the French also began cultivating mushrooms.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, during the early modern period, there was still mycophobia in some places. In England during the 17th century, mycophobia was very common. Mushrooms were associated with filth and were sometimes referred to as "excrements of the earth". However, some people in England did eat mushrooms at that time, and many 17th-century English cookbooks include mushroom recipes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In pre-industrial Scandinavia, mushrooms were not eaten very much and there was so much mycophobia that even in times of desperation, peasantry would not eat mushrooms. The Swedish used A. muscaria as a pesticide. In northern Sweden, dried mushrooms, possibly Melanogaster variegatus, were used as bait in squirrel traps. While mycophobia was common among the peasantry, it was less so among some of the upper class, who enjoyed false morels, St. George's mushrooms, button mushrooms, and possibly Lactarius deterrimus. This may have been due to French influence.<ref name=":9">Template:Cite journal</ref> It is thought that Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI may have died from eating death cap mushrooms.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

19th century

In the 19th century, mycology was on the rise, and several influential women including Mary Banning and Beatrix Potter contributed to the field.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Around the 1830s in Sweden, some authors began to promote mushroom consumption. In 1836, mycologist Elias Magnus Fries wrote a book about how mushrooms were eaten in many other countries and that he believed Sweden should do the same. In the 1860s, Sweden faced a famine and the government began promoting consumption of mushrooms, but Swedish peasants still didn't eat them.<ref name=":9" /> Around this time, European settlers in the Pacific Northwest began picking mushrooms similar to ones in Europe.<ref name=":10">Template:Cite journal</ref> In the 1880s, mushrooms began to gain popularity in Sweden among city-dwellers and the upper class.<ref name=":9" /> In 1896, the British Mycological Society was founded in order to promote mycology.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> In Poland, mushrooms have been eaten for hundreds of years, with many species being eaten in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In the late 19th century, American civil war veteran and mycologist Charles McIlvaine collected and tried many different species of mushrooms. He was able to tolerate mushroom species normally considered poisonous, earning him the nickname "Old Iron Guts". He published a field guide of 1,000 edible and poisonous species in 1900.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

20th and 21st centuries

Around 1912, mushrooms became more recognized as a food ingredient in Sweden, with posters of edible mushrooms being used in schools to promote consumption of mushrooms in the 1920s and 1930s. After World War II, mushroom hunting became even more popular in Sweden, being promoted by many mycologists and enthusiasts.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In Britain, mushroom hunting also became more popular due to a food shortage. Also, Polish troops who fought alongside the British in WWII brought Polish culture to the British, which included mushroom hunting. In the 1950s and 1960s, the British began to eat more porcinis and truffles due to the French and Italians also eating them.<ref name=":11">Template:Cite book</ref> On 26 April 1986, in Soviet Ukraine,<ref name=":9" /> the Chernobyl nuclear power plant experienced a nuclear meltdown,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> leading to many mushrooms in the region, including edible species, accumulating radioactive materials. This has led to concerns about mushroom hunting;<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> mushrooms as far away as Germany have been found to be contaminated with radioactive material.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Hedgehog mushrooms and terracotta hedgehog mushrooms have been found to contain some of the highest levels of radioactive material.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After the disaster, the Swedish government discouraged people from eating wild mushrooms.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> People in Sweden also began to refrain from mushroom hunting due to radiation.<ref name=":9" /> In the UK, several mushroom field guides were published in the 1980s and mushroom hunting became more popular in the UK in the 1990s.<ref name=":11" /> In the late 1980s to early 1990s, commercial mushroom hunting became a large industry in the Pacific Northwest.<ref name=":10" />

Mushroom hunting is currently popular in many parts of the world, including the West (including the Pacific Northwest)<ref name=":10" /> although some mycophobia persists.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Regional importance

Mushroom hunting is popular throughout most of Europe, Asia and Australia, as well as West Africa<ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref> and temperate regions of Canada and the U.S.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In addition to culinary and psychotropic uses, mushrooms can be used for dyeing.<ref name=":0" />

• British enthusiasts enjoy an extended average picking season of 75 days compared to just 33 in the 1950s.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• In Japan, particular mushroom types are hunted, with particular importance given to delicacies such as the Matsutake mushroom.
• In Slavic countries and Baltic countries, mushroom picking is a common family activity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to David Arora, "The Russians go absolutely bananas for fungus. Mushrooming is a commonplace tradition there, not the hallowed turf of the academic or connoisseur."Template:Sfn After a heavy rain during the mushroom season whole families often venture into the nearest forest, picking bucketfuls of mushrooms, which are cooked and eaten for dinner upon return (most often in omelettes with eggs or fried in butter) or alternatively dried or marinated for later consumption. In Southern Lithuania mushroom hunting is considered a "national sport". They even host a Mushroom Festival ("Grybų šventė") in Varėna including a mushroom hunting championship.
• In the U.S., mushroom picking is popular in the Appalachian area and on the west coast from San Francisco Bay northward, in northern California, Oregon and Washington, and in many other regions.Template:Citation needed
• In Nigeria, the sclerotia of Pleurotus tuber-regium are reportedly added to soups and used medicinally to treat mumps.<ref name=":5" />
• In Cameroon, Flamulina velutipes is considered a delicacy, and gathered by women and children in rural areas.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Festivals

The popularity of mushroom picking in some parts of the world has led to mushroom festivals. The festivals are usually between September and October, depending on the mushrooms available in a particular region. Festivals in the United States include:

• Boyne City, Michigan – Annual National Morel Mushroom Festival<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Mount Pisgah, Oregon – Mushroom Festival<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Madisonville, Texas – Texas Mushroom Festival<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Telluride, Colorado – Telluride Mushroom Festival<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Radiation

Nuclear fallout from the Chernobyl disaster is an important issue concerning mushroom picking in Europe. Due to the wide spread of their mycelium, mushrooms tend to accumulate more radioactive caesium-137 than surrounding soil and other organisms. State agencies (e.g. Bellesrad in Belarus) monitor and analyze the degree of radionuclide accumulation in various wild species of plants and animals. In particular, Bellesrad claims that Svinushka (Paxillus spp.), Maslenok (Suillus spp.), Mohovik (Xerocomus spp.), and Horkushka (Lactarius rufus) are the worst ones in this respect. The safest one is Opyonok Osyenniy (Armillaria mellea). This is an issue not only in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia: the fallout also reached western Europe, and until recently the German government discouraged people gathering certain mushrooms.Template:Citation needed

See also

• List of mushroom dishes
• Mushroom diet

References

Sources

• Template:Cite book

Further reading

• 100 Edible Mushrooms: With Tested Recipes(2007) Template:ISBN
• All That the Rain Promises, and More (1991) Template:ISBN
• Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada (2009) Template:ISBN (1-55643-795-1)
• Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America: A Field-to-kitchen Guide (1992) Template:ISBN
• How to Identify Edible Mushrooms (2007) Template:ISBN
• Mushrooming Without Fear (2007) Template:ISBN
• Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi (1986) Template:ISBN
• Mushrooms of Northeastern North America (1997) Template:ISBN
• North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi (2006) Template:ISBN
• The Mushroom Rainbow: Only the most delicious or deadly mushrooms sorted by color (2011) Template:ISBN (0986940909)