Mycologist revealed the secrets of eating mushrooms growing in the city: how not to get poisoned

They accumulate harmful substances in themselves, so they should be eaten no more than once or twice a year.

Not all residents of Moscow can afford out-of-town forays into the forest. However, in the capital there are many lovers of “quiet hunting”, among which there are those who arrange mushroom picking trips without leaving the city. Moreover, mushrooms in the metropolis are far from uncommon, they can be found in almost any yard, not to mention forest parks.

Warm nights and past heavy rains led to the fact that mushrooms in Moscow climbed from all the lawns. “MK” found out what can be collected from us, and whether “silent hunting” is dangerous within the Moscow Ring Road.

Connoisseurs can name dozens of types of mushrooms that grow in the capital and are eaten. In forest park areas today you can collect summer mushrooms or May rows (this white mushroom, delicate in taste, is very much appreciated in Europe).

Connoisseurs also collect garden entoloma in the capital – also an edible mushroom that begins to bear fruit in late spring or early summer.

Of the conditionally edible in the city, there are various types of koprinus (popularly known as dung beetles). There are lovers who in the spring collect a mushroom called the giant line on Elk Island.

Closer to autumn, wild oyster mushrooms (oyster oyster mushrooms) can be seen on the capital’s trees, and from the end of spring and almost all summer champignons come out on the lawns. These mushrooms are quite unpretentious, therefore they are easily cultivated on farms, and Moscow lawns also create a favorable biotope for them.

In Moscow, two types of champignons are common – meadow champignon and copse champignon. Both have excellent taste. It is almost impossible to meet inedible or slightly poisonous yellowing champignons in Moscow, and it is quite simple to distinguish them. Edible champignons may have small yellow spots – this is the norm, inedible or slightly poisonous species have much more yellowness. But the main difference is in the smell. Coppice or meadow champignons have a pleasant mushroom smell, and from afar their unpleasant counterparts smell like a pharmacy or ammonia. Today you can meet edible champignons in almost any metropolitan courtyard.

Another common mushroom in the city, the season of which began the other day, is the sulfur-yellow tinder fungus, which experienced mushroom pickers consider a delicacy and call it “tree chicken”. This fungus grows on dark-barked deciduous trees and is often found in city parks or metropolitan courtyards. It is difficult to confuse it with something – its appearance resembles bright yellow construction foam.

The metropolitan amateurs have already tasted this tree fungus – in parks and squares you can see traces of mushroom pickers’ knives that went on a raid for “chicken”. From one tree, you can collect up to 10 kilograms of this tinder fungus, but young individuals have the best taste – they are soft, when pressed, they release moisture. Old mushrooms are dry, lose their taste and can even be bitter. Guests will be pleasantly surprised if you put cutlets from this mushroom, schnitzels or an original pate on the table. The undoubted advantages of the fungus include the fact that it almost does not boil down in size and does not lose color during heat treatment. Well, it is also low in calories, which is a nice bonus to its other advantages. It is also believed that it has medicinal properties (for example, antibiotics and other drugs are made from it, in pharmacies you can buy laxatives prepared on the basis of HOA). The mushroom is stored frozen for a long time.

However, is it possible to eat mushrooms that have grown in the metropolis? About this “MK” said the famous mycologist Mikhail Vishnevsky.

– Many people are afraid that mushrooms in the city can be dangerous. Within the boundaries of any metropolis, mushrooms accumulate salts of heavy metals. Therefore, they cannot be eaten on an ongoing basis. But in fact, several times a year it is quite possible to afford to eat urban mushrooms. Moreover, they were collected not only in forest parks such as Bitsa or Losiny Ostrov, but also in the yard, on roadsides and even along highways. The main thing that they fear in such mushrooms is, I repeat, salts of heavy metals. Heavy metal salts are water soluble. Therefore, as easily as they enter the mushrooms with water, they come out of it just as easily. The main secret is that the city mushroom must be cut in half lengthwise so that there are large cut surfaces. Then it needs to be boiled and the broth is drained along with the steamed salts that have come out.

Mikhail Vishnevsky says that it makes sense to boil any mushroom for no more than 10 minutes – this is enough to free the mushroom from salts of heavy metals or to make an edible mushroom out of a conditionally edible one (in rare cases, it takes 15-20 minutes). We remind you that wild-collected champignons pereleks or meadow champignons, May rows and even young sulfur-yellow Trudoviks are edible raw (gourmets make carpaccio from them). Vishnevsky emphasizes that mushrooms collected in yards or along city roads can be eaten no more than 1-2 times a year. If mushrooms grew in a large forest park, then 4-5 times a year.