How to collect mushrooms?
Mushrooms are a valuable food product, as well as a very tasty base for different dishes, or an addition to the table. Many people collect mushrooms for future use in order to eat them all winter. For this it is necessary to dry, freeze or preserve the mushrooms. This article is devoted to how to collect mushrooms.
Mass gatherings of mushrooms begin by the end of the summer, but there are some types of mushrooms that can be found in the forest much earlier. About when to collect mushrooms of different species, you will learn from another article by Alhau - “When to pick mushrooms?”.
Where to collect mushrooms
The number of harvested mushrooms depends on the care of the mushroom picker, as well as on the correctness of the choice of the place of gathering mushrooms. So, where to go for mushrooms? First of all, we note the places in which mushrooms can not be collected:
- Along the road and rail.
- In the territories adjacent to the plants and various industries.
- Near major cities and in them.
Despite the fact that some species of mushrooms grow in the meadows (for example, champignons, raincoats, meadow mushrooms), many people prefer to pick mushrooms in the forest.Depending on the type of forest, certain mushrooms prevail in it. At the same time, you will have more chances to find mushrooms in mixed forests and birch groves. However, it is worth trying happiness in coniferous forests (pine, spruce). It is harder to find mushrooms in aspen and linden forests. However, mushrooms grow in any forest; you just need to know where and how to look for them.
Most often mushrooms are found:
- In the meadows, edges.
- On the hills.
- Along the forest roads.
- Under freestanding trees.
- Do not forget that some mushrooms grow exclusively on tree trunks.
- Not all mushrooms are clearly visible, many of them "hide" under the foliage in the grass, therefore, it is useful to bend down, looking for them, or use a stick, raking the foliage. But in the second case, you can damage the mushrooms or mycelium, so it is important to move the shifted heaps of foliage and the ground cover back.
You are unlikely to find mushrooms in dark and damp places, so carefully choose the places where you go to pick mushrooms.
Mushroom picking methods
If you are a beginner mushroom picker, then such methods of searching for mushrooms as "spiral" and "spring" will be useful to your non-keen eye.
The search method "spiral" is great for exploring the fields and edges. You begin to inspect the glade from its center, and the spiral will turn out to be unwinding. And if you are on the edge of a forest, then the spiral will twist, start from the edge of the forest, and move further away from the forest, reducing circles of motion.
The "spring" method is ideal in the forest, walking along it, you seem to draw a spring, walking from a tree to and around another tree.
Tips: how to pick mushrooms
- For mushrooms should go early in the morning.
- After the rain, you expect the most significant prey, because after a little rain, the mushrooms grow like yeast.
- Do not collect any unidentified mushrooms.
- Proper packaging for collecting mushrooms is simply necessary, because it will keep the mushrooms in the best possible way before you bring them home and carefully disassemble. Great for this fit wicker basket, or a basket. In them, the mushrooms can breathe freely.
- Do not collect overripe mushrooms.
- Do not pick up spoiled mushrooms (wormy, rotten) - the taste is not the same. Even if you cut the damaged parts.
- Do not take those mushrooms that you do not eat, for whatever reason, there will always be someone who loves them, and you will throw out this mushroom at home.
- Remember, mushrooms do not grow one by one (if this is not the very beginning of the season), therefore, having found one fungus, examine the area around it.
- Before sending the mushroom to the basket, remove the foliage that has stuck to the needles from the cap, shake off the remnants of the earth, why not carry the excess from the forest home.
About how best to collect mushrooms, there are several opinions:
- Some believe that they need to be pulled out from the entire stem, while taking the mushroom by the leg, it is necessary to rotate it (a little), after such a procedure it will be easier to separate it from the ground and roots.
- Others believe that they should be cut with a knife.
- Third - to break off, leaving the base of the legs in the ground.
All options are suitable for collecting mushrooms, the main thing - it must be done carefully, without damaging the mycelium. If it so happened that you inaccurately collected a mushroom, then cover the bare mycelium with earth or fallen leaves.
When picking mushrooms, it is important to know not only how to pick mushrooms, but which mushrooms you can pick and which ones you can’t pick. There are a lot of types of mushrooms and not all of them are edible, besides, some inedible mushrooms are poisonous, and can lead both to severe food poisoning and death, which is why you can’t pick mushrooms that you don’t know.About what mushrooms you can collect, learn from another article on our site - "Which mushrooms can you collect?".
If you find a truly mushroom place, then picking mushrooms will be a pleasure for you. After such a campaign for mushrooms, you will say to yourself: “How I love to pick mushrooms!”. Indeed, what could be better: no matter what step, the mushroom, the air around is clean and fresh, the view is beautiful. But in order to come back here next year and find placers of mushrooms, you need to collect them carefully, without disturbing the mycelium.
In addition, mushrooms should be disassembled and cleaned immediately after you return home after collecting them. Do not postpone this matter until later, as most of what you have gathered will have to be thrown out - the mushrooms will spoil.
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