Even though this has been a relatively poor mushroom fall,
knowing where to search for them has helped Charlotte add eight
new species to her fungi database in the computer. Her list of
accurately identified species for the county now stands at 515.
I must admit that, other than a few giant puffballs and shaggy
manes, good edibles have recently been few and far between.
It seems so recently that we were enjoying the fall
wildflowers and weeds, then came the occasional mushrooms, and
now the falling leaves are producing quite a dense carpet thereby
concealing these fascinating and often very colorful plants.
Some people look at this wonderfully formed group of life as a
third kingdom surrounded by a web of legends dating back hundreds
of years.
The popular disinterest and ignorance of so many Americans
toward mushrooms is just short of astounding. Perhaps it is best
to let it go at that and urge the great majority to confine their
mushroom hunting to the shelves of the supermarkets.
The minority, however, find unusual beauty and variety in the
wild fungi. They come to realize that this large group of plants
is extremely important as natural recyclers in nature, is
actually included in the food of some wild animals and can become
fascinating challenges to learn about, to eat with care and to
photograph.
The subject of mushrooms to some folks is purely gastronomic.
Many houby hunters (houby, pronounced HOE-bee, which is Czech for
mushrooms) I recall as a boy in Kewaunee, including my dad,
picked only one kind of mushroom. They called it Vaclavky
(VOTS-luv-kee).
This fleshy fungi, named in honor of old King Wenceslaus IV of
Bohemia, is actually Armillariella mellea
(ar-mil-lare-e-EL-la MEL-le-a), the honey mushroom. Melleus
refers to honey, the rich, tan cap-color of these gilled
delicacies.
Sites of the vaclavky "finds" were guarded like
military secrets. And talk about quantities picked – bushels of
them some years! Most were canned for winter use. My very
favorite meal of them was in the form of my mom’s mushroom soup –
absolutely ambrosial!
Some mushroom hunters look down upon the lowly honey cap, or
"stump mushroom," because it is very slimy when cooked.
In our opinion this is the quality that makes it so perfectly
suited for soup.
If you’re going to eat wild mushrooms there’s no room for lack
of knowledge or carelessness. Good old-fashioned common sense is
very critical. It’s so important that you can’t be satisfied
with colored pictures in one book. If you’re going to resort to
this method for determining the edibility of mushrooms in
general, forget it! You might call that "playing mushroom
roulette." Better yet, stick to the supermarket variety.
The very best advice you can take to heart, if you are
determined to collect and eat some wild mushrooms, is to go into
the field with an expert, someone who knows mushrooms extremely
well and has collected and eaten them in the past. And by all
means, stick to a small number, such as two or three species,
that you can flawlessly recognize without a mistake.
Naturally Charlotte, in her serious study of mushrooms, is
very interested in the gill attachment to the stem of the
mushroom, the overall color and appearance of the cap and stem,
the spore color, the entire structure of the mushroom including
that which is concealed beneath the leaf litter, and the habitat
in which they are growing.
So many mushrooms are associated with very distinct
environments. Shaggy manes, extremely edible, usually favor
lawns and mowed roadsides. Suillus pictus (su-IL-lus
PIK-tuse), known as the painted bolete, is a beautiful mushroom
that grows in pine-woods and is considered by some to be choice
for eating.
The word "mushroom" very likely stems from the
French word "mousseron," referring to moss. Many are
found growing not necessarily in the moss but rather in mossy
places.
This is one of our favorite aspects of mushroom study – where
they grow. And even though we relish wild species of mushrooms,
we are quite satisfied to dine on the "store-bought"
varieties. See you in the woods!
The caps of these honey mushrooms are not fully opened.
Notice the dark orange edges of the gills
of these orange Mycena (my-SEE-na) mushrooms
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate
on 11/01/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
