The chief mushroom picker of Russia predicted a unique mushroom wave

– When will the mushrooms finally come, or will we not wait for them?

“Well, where are they going?” There will be mushrooms, it’s just that this year everything has moved very much in time. At first everything dried up due to the abnormal heat, and then it froze, without getting wet properly. The situation is rather sad, but not catastrophic. If we take the suburbs, then in one or two weeks autumn mushrooms will go. This will partly be able to reconcile mushroom pickers with the absence of mushrooms this year.

– Where will mushrooms come from if there has not been a single normal rain so far?

– Mushrooms that grow on trees are less demanding on the amount of moisture that falls than those on the ground. Yesterday I ran into the forest and found that the beginnings of autumn mushrooms appeared, that is, in a week the start of the mushroom wave will begin. I mean exactly the wave of autumn mushrooms. And its duration will depend on whether it will rain in the coming days, and how plentiful they will be.

– How to explain that tree mushrooms grow even in dry summer conditions?

– Wood, unlike soil, absorbs and retains morning dew, which falls quite abundantly even in absolute drought. Therefore, even in the driest year, tree mushrooms give out a wave of fruiting in the fall – they have enough of this meager moisture.

– What other tree mushrooms, besides honey mushrooms, will delight us this fall?

– In the Moscow region, lung oyster mushroom has already begun to appear, soon oyster, standard, will join it, and now there is a large wave of sulfur-yellow tinder fungus.

– Are tinder fungi edible, are they hard like wood?

“I’m talking about a large soft orange-yellow mushroom. It is very tasty and healthy. And if you go to the forest now, then it’s really possible to gain 5-10 kilograms of this delicacy.

– How do you prepare it?

– I cut it into thin slices, quickly fry it with chopped onions, and then pour it with cream and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Salt at the very end of cooking, you can pepper a little. If the mushroom is a little bitter, then I add a drop of sugar. It turns out a very tasty, tender dish. No wonder the Americans call this mushroom “forest chicken”.

– Due to global warming, mushrooms came to our country from the south, some of them are very poisonous. This year there are probably even more of them?

– In the Moscow region, the species composition of mushrooms has not changed, although the number of some heat-loving poisonous ones, their biomass, has really increased. Pale grebes – and they, together with the bordered galerina, are still considered the most dangerous among the mushrooms of our region – love the heat and grow profusely around urban development, which is becoming more and more in the region. But the drought slowed down the start of fruiting of all mushrooms, without exception, including poisonous ones.

“So there’s nothing to be afraid of?” Are there poisonous mushrooms in the forest either?

“Not now, but that doesn’t mean they won’t show up with the onset of rainy weather. The mushroom picker can remain in the ground for a long time, even years, waiting for favorable conditions.

– Are false mushrooms poisonous?

Do not confuse false mushrooms with poisonous ones. In this case, “false” is rather a synonym for the word “tasteless”. And this is true for almost all “false” mushrooms, not only mushrooms. For example, false white fungus has a bitter taste, and false mushrooms are bitter. There is only one type of false honey agaric, sulfur yellow, which is slightly poisonous. The maximum that threatens the one who eats it is a severe indigestion.

– Advise beginner mushroom pickers how to protect themselves and their loved ones from such a disaster as mushroom poisoning?

– The advice is the same for everyone: take only those mushrooms in which you are completely sure, which you know well and cannot be confused with anything. If a mushroom picker is inexperienced, then before going to the forest, he needs to learn what the poisonous mushrooms of his region look like. Usually there are no more than a dozen. As a teaching aid, I advise you to use books, not the Internet. Moreover, it is better to use a domestic atlas of mushrooms than a foreign one.

How can you tell a fake one from a real one?

– A small piece the size of a pea is enough to determine the taste – whether the mushroom is bitter or not. If bitter, then false, if not, then real. But this method can only be used in relation to autumn mushrooms, but in no case should you check the taste of summer or winter mushrooms, which will also grow soon, because by mistake you can try a bordered galerina, and it is deadly.

– Where will the summer mushrooms come from if the summer is over?

– Summer mushroom is an example of an unfortunate name, in fact, this mushroom grows from May to November. It is a little more moisture-loving, but when the wood absorbs more moisture, even due to drizzling rain, summer honey agaric will appear in the forest. In general, I hope October will be especially rich in mushrooms, when summer, autumn and winter mushrooms will grow at the same time.

– What other autumn mushrooms, which are traditionally harvested for the winter, may appear this season?

– Milk mushrooms have been gone for a long time in the Moscow region, but mushrooms have begun to return to our forests, they can be found especially often in young spruce forests. So if normal rains pass, at least in the second half of September, then in the second half of October and even in November you can go for mushrooms. They are not at all afraid of the cold: they are covered with ice, freeze, then thaw, and everything is not how much for them. They can be collected until the first snow.

– Another question that worries many mushroom pickers is whether dry weather affected the taste of mushrooms? Some believe that even normal mushrooms have become toxic due to the heat.

– Don’t believe the rumors. Like all those numerous folk tips on how to check the edibility of mushrooms at home, which the Internet writes about. Some advise putting mushrooms in water and waiting for them to float or sink, while others wait for garlic or a silver spoon to turn black. All this is complete nonsense.

As for the toxicity of mushrooms, drought does not affect it in any way. Edible mushrooms have been and remain edible, and poisonous mushrooms have not become more poisonous. The abnormal heat affected the mushrooms in one single way – it slowed down their fruiting. But if it rains now, then nature will take its toll, and we will see white and chanterelles in the forest, and all those mushrooms that we were deprived of in the summer.

– Considering that the climate will continue to change towards warming, and, most likely, this is not the last hot summer, maybe you should already grow mushrooms on your site? Moreover, on the Internet, various companies offer mycelium to choose from, here you have whites and truffles – whatever you want.

These companies are absolute scammers. No forest mushrooms, except for mold, will grow with their help. But in general, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bgrowing mushrooms in the country is not without meaning. It is only necessary that forest trees grow on the site, because no mushrooms will grow under apple trees and lilacs, no matter how hard you try. But it may take years to implement this idea, everything will depend on how old your forest trees are.

– How is this related?

– During their life, trees change mushroom partners several times, so this period may immediately coincide with the planting of a mycelium transferred from the forest, or you may have to plant it for several more years and wait for a favorable moment.

– Is it enough just to bring mycelium from the forest and bury it under a tree?

– No, you need to observe the correct agricultural technology. It is necessary to plant the mycelium together with a large amount of forest soil, in addition, it must be watered regularly in the morning and evening, and in such a dry summer as this year, the soil should also be covered with mulch, sawdust or foliage.

At what age do trees change mushroom partners?

“About every ten years. For example, up to ten years, volnushki and russula grow under a birch, after 20 – boletus and aspen mushrooms, then porcini will go, and after 40 noble mushrooms will replace species less interesting in culinary terms. So planting forest mushrooms is best for trees that are 20 to 40 years old.