Facts about mushrooms

Mushrooms are one of the most mysterious kingdoms of living organisms. Once in the past they were referred to the lower plant-forms, but it is proved today: mushroom combines both the plant and the animal characteristics. Consistence of chitine, urea formation, sexual reproduction and heterotrophic exchange type rank mushrooms to animals. There are lots of mushroom species: their amount exceeds 100 of thousands, and, by the way, biologists regularly discover the new ones. The most mushroom places of the world are the Europe and the Northern America, and the majority of species, especially edible, is represented on the territory of Russia and CIS.

The whole science — mycology makes the study of mushrooms and the application sphere of each species is very wide. Mouldy mushrooms are used in microbiological and farmaceutical industries for production of vitamins, antibiotics and enzymes. From the long past edible mushrooms having relatively big fruit body are used in cookery for cooking of nourishing, protein-rich dishes. Palatability of some rare species is so good, that they are sold by the piece on European auctions. It first of all concerns white «royal» truffles. Boletus or white mushroom is considered to be the king of all forest mushrooms in Russia — it is so not only by its size, but also by amazing flavor.

It is interesting, that lots of mushrooms in Russia are named according to places of their habitat; it seems to be for search simplification. Boletus grows in the piny wood, Aspen mushroom — under the aspen, Birch mushroom, accordingly, under the birch, Honey Fungus — on the stub and so on. These names reveal that mushrooms were very popular even in the Ancient Russia and they were one of the food sources. It is not surprising, because mushrooms stand on the second place after meat on protein consistence, it apparently can be explained by their «animal» characteristic. Among other things, one more special property of mushrooms is widely used today — they can accumulate radiation and remove it out from the organism.

The gathering of mushrooms starts on late spring and finishes on late autumn. Each species has its own period of vegetation and fruit bearing. Valuy mushrooms refer to the «earliest» group, even through their flavor characteristics are not so high and they need to be cooked in special way. It is difficult to specify the most active period of mushroom gathering in Russia because of its large territory and various climate. Nevertheless at whole it can be sent to the end of August — the beginning of October, but in the far Russian latitudes these terms can differ.

You should follow these rules of mushroom gathering:

1. Collect only known mushrooms in order to avoid the poisonous ones. If a mushroom seems to look like edible, but it still rises even slightest doubts or it has some specialties, — you'd better not touch it, because it can be the false one.

2. You should cut off the fruit body of mushroom accurately using special knife on the level of second quarter of its foot. It is done not to injure the mycelium.

3. Remember mushroom areas and come back there several days later, but only on condition of second rule fulfillment.

Let's talk a little more detailed on poisonous mushrooms. The most recognizable ones even came into fairy tales — «Pale Toadstool» and «Fly Agaric» in folklore are mentioned as the indispensable attribute of malicious Baba-Yaga house and so on. In this simple form parents educated their children to use the safety rules of mushroom handling. In fact, you can find among mushrooms very poisonous ones, they can cause hard poisoning, and sometimes it can be fulminating with lethal outcome. Apart from these, false mushrooms are also very dangerous — they look like edible. That is why mushroom hunters can be confused and collect them. False Honey Fungus and False Chanterelle are the most known in this group.

Edible gathered mushrooms can be used for food fresh or canned. Perhaps the most popular mushroom makings are the vinegar pickled Honey Funguses and Chanterelles placed in jars. Canned mushrooms have long period of storage and perfectly save the flavor of pickle. It is better to use young small size mushrooms for conservation, because they are softer, they can be impregnated easier and can be stored for much longer period.

The exclusive advantages of some mushroom species have brought to mushroom farming arising — artificial farming of mushrooms in house or industrial conditions. Originally only champignons and truffles were cultivated, but since near past one more mushroom called Veshenka has become very popular. It is connected with fact that Veshenka has almost the same flavor characteristics as champignons, but requires several times lower care. As almost all Russian living cultures this mushroom is unpretentious and, as a result, it is loved by farmers and private mushroom farming owners. This kind of business has appeared not so long ago and it's still on development stages, but it has very good perspectives.

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