Mushroom picking is a pleasant, exciting and useful activity: if you are lucky, forest gifts will be enough for a good dinner,and for the winter you will have to salt and dry it. But do not forget that the mushroom picker must be careful and attentive to the basket did not get poisonous representatives of the mushroom Kingdom. Experienced mushroom pickers at first sight recognize the enemy, and beginners will have to enlist the support of professionals.
The rules of “quiet hunt”
Firmly remember the rules of mushroom hunting, because they affect the health and lives of those who will eat your forest harvest.
1. In any case, decisively dispose of the unfamiliar mushrooms, if you have the slightest doubt of their edibility. Remember that even one poisonous fungus can cost you your life.
2. The first time or with little experience go to the forest with seasoned mushroom pickers who are familiar to you personally, use directories and books.
3. Mushroom picking should be carried out in ecologically clean places, away from cities and large industrial enterprises, at a distance of at least 500 m from highways.
4. Do not take old mushrooms and instances of even small signs of mold.
5. Harvest, preserve and store mushrooms should be according to the recipes of experienced professionals, books and thematic programs.
6. Never buy mushrooms with hands have unfamiliar sellers and in stores, if they have no officially formalized resolution.
7. Go to the forest in tight closed clothes, be sure to wear a hat (hood-the best option), use the means of mosquitoes and ticks. Shake out your clothes after each forest walk. If a tick has bitten, do not panic (in some areas ticks are not encephalitic), but to contact the doctor immediately.
The theme of ticks in recent years is relevant from early spring to late autumn, so many mushroom pickers useful tips will come in handy this season.
8. At the first sign of mushroom poisoning, seek medical attention immediately!
And that you have passed this Cup, from all sides consider the mushroom found before you put it in the basket.
Follow these simple guidelines that will protect you from poisoning and give maximum pleasure from the “silent hunt”.
Amazing properties of mushrooms: medicine and poison
Previously, it was believed that the history of the study of fungi originates in China and has more than two thousand years. Recently, however, scientists in the glacier of the Tyrolean Alps found a frozen man, who was named Otsy. Radiocarbon method was able to establish that this primitive inhabitant of our planet was captured in the ice 5,300 years ago. But the most surprising thing in this discovery is that this primitive man were mushrooms. One of them was Amanita verna, who most likely acted as an amulet. In three other dried and frozen mushrooms contained acid, in its therapeutic effect similar to an antibiotic.
Mushrooms are unique: there is an opinion of scientists that they contain all useful and therapeutic substances necessary for a person, but only a part of them has been studied completely. In recent years, interest in their healing qualities has increased many times. The reason for this lies in the discovery of a number of new species of fungi that have anti-cancer and anti-infectious properties. They can be used to make medicines. For example, often there are drugs based on Inonotus obliquus-parasitic fungus (but still a fungus!), which settles in trees.
However, there is another side of the coin: the use of all mushrooms indiscriminately can lead to poisoning, hallucinogenic manifestations and even death. So in household conditions better not to experiment with properties wild mushrooms, and questioning this prerogative scientists.
What mushrooms can be eaten
As soon as it is mushroom time, we take up the basket and go to the nearest forest. But if little mushrooms, very fussy, hardly anyone will. So after this mushroom trip happened the food mishap, you need to know about the edibility of their findings in advance.
All mushrooms on food value are divided into 4 categories which are defined and approved.
Category 1: the most valuable and delicious species that give mushroom products of excellent quality.
Category 2: good and quite valuable mushrooms high, but not of excellent quality.
Category 3: mushrooms of average quality and taste.
Category 4: low-value mushrooms.
Mushrooms, which many consider edible
Not all the usual mushrooms are as harmless as it seemed. For example, Paxillus and Gyromitra are ambiguous representatives of the mushroom Kingdom. Let’s get to know them better.
Paxillus involutus
Thin Paxillus, which are often in the basket of the mushroom picker, perfectly accumulate toxic substances. Of course, a single use of the negative effect is not observed, but long-term leads to a change in the composition of the blood and liver cells. That is why thin pigs are classified as poisonous mushrooms.
Gyromitra esculenta
The situation is similar with Gyromitra esculenta. Conventional boiling for 15-20 min. and draining of water will allow once to eat mushrooms in a small amount. However, repeated use of them leads to a negative effect on the stomach and the appearance of pain, because they are also poisonous.
From forests – in Bank
Yield on mushrooms (or mushroom) years do not happen every season-it all depends on the vagaries of the weather. On the Internet, in Newspapers and on television you can see photos of nature lovers who hold mushrooms over their heads with huge, like umbrellas, hats, sitting on a “chair” – a giant bordered Polypore, hardly cover the leg of a huge Boletus edulis or pose against the background of several baskets of Armillaria mellea, collected in one place. It is clear that at once such a lot of mushrooms can not eat even a large family, will have to be taken for harvesting for the future. And here there is another nuance, which the hostess often forget. Temperature treatment does not always make mushrooms safe for use in food! Therefore, it is important to collect only those mushrooms that you know, and prepare them according to proven recipes.
Of course, people are inventive in cooking: rural residents recipes are passed down from generation to generation, urban add to the traditional recipes and restaurant experience of foreign cuisine, especially Italian and Japanese. But there is no limit to perfection: you always want to try to prepare something new, unusual and very tasty!
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