Fungi in Bulgaria....Гъбите от Гората - Лоша или Добра

[Rodger Whitlock]

A handy sounding book Rodger, I may stick to the fungi that local tradition suggests won't kill me ( or send me off into the sky with young girls and expensive stones! )
Do you go out a collecting Rodger?

No, I don't collect fungi, and I'd be reluctant to eat wild-collected ones, barring a few well-defined species. Friends of mine who escaped Czechoslovakia in 1968 are enthusiastic eaters of wild fungi, but one is a botanist and the other a botanical artist as well, so they know how to distinguish the various species and have, so far, managed not to poison themselves.

[Lesley Cox]

Apart, no doubt, from a small handful of people in-the-know about such things, we in NZ eat almost no fungi at all except the bland and boring cultivated kinds. I'd love the opportunity to sample wild fungi but I feel the best way would be to share a meal with a friend, and wait until he/she had had a jolly good sample before trying them, myself.

[Lesley Cox]

Is there any reason fungi are collected much more in Europe than the UK and possibly Ireland?

Fear! In the UK, undoubtedly Raymond Briggs' novel "Fungus the Bogeyman"

But what a wonderful book! Among my children's favouries and mine too.

[Paul T]

Apart, no doubt, from a small handful of people in-the-know about such things, we in NZ eat almost no fungi at all except the bland and boring cultivated kinds. I'd love the opportunity to sample wild fungi but I feel the best way would be to share a meal with a friend, and wait until he/she had had a jolly good sample before trying them, myself.

Lovely, Lesley.  If you treat your friends that way, what the heck do you do to your enemies!! 

 

[Rodger Whitlock]

we in NZ eat almost no fungi at all except the bland and boring cultivated kinds.

Do the Maoris have any tradition of eating fungi?

[Lesley Cox]

I'm not aware of any such tradition Rodger. More likely to eat their enemies (Paul!!!) than mushrooms I think, at least a couple of hundred years ago.

Paul, I don't have any.

[Hristo]

Lesley, even when you are quite certain ( 99.9% ) that the fungi are good, there is a certain 'thrill' when one
eats them! Then in my twenties I used to rock climb, sometimes without a rope, so I guess I've moved from dangerous sports to dangerous foods.....blowfish anyone?

[Ragged Robin]

Is it the Japanese who eat Blowfish as a delicacy, Hristo?

[Paul T]

I'm not aware of any such tradition Rodger. More likely to eat their enemies (Paul!!!) than mushrooms I think, at least a couple of hundred years ago.

Paul, I don't have any.

Lesley,

If that is friends you're meaning then it isn't surprising... if you're testing whether mushrooms are poisonous by feeding them to them.  There must be a decent attrition rate!  

[Joakim B]

The problem with some mushrooms is that they look similar to poisonous ones and that these gives serious kidney damage and may even destroy them so it is not something to play around with.
In Sweden they generally recommend to collect only the ones You know are good like the ones Stephen showed. Picking a lot and let experts sort them may let pieces of poisonous ones come in amongst the good ones.
In Portugal I think that the advice it to let the mushrooms be in the forrest. Some of the new immigrants from east (Ukraine) pick but since there might be bad ones looking like good ones from back home there are always some bad incidents.
Luckely some of the bad ones are bitter so one realizes that they are not tasty but one may have got to much toxin even when taking it out from mouth and stomach so this it not to be a system that can be trusted.
Get a local book about the mushrooms in the area is the best thing. One needs to have in mind that some mushrooms needs some processing before good, so if one do not treat them like the locals, one might be in trouble.

Good luck
Joakim

[Hristo]

Yes I think so RR, along with just about anything else that respires!!

[Stephenb]

Do the Maoris have any tradition of eating fungi?

Both the Maoris and the Aborigines in Australia did have a wild fungi eating tradition. In New Zealand, the Maori used at least a dozen species. Unfortunately, the early botanists were not particularly interested in fungi and a lot of the information was lost. Andrew Crowe (in Native Edible Plants of New Zealand) refers to a list of 16 Maori names of edible fungi (some duplicates) from 1859, but the identity of most isn't known.

One which was known to be eaten is the Basket Fungus (Clathrus cibarius); the thick shell before it burst open was a delicacy. Beware though - a reference is given to the need to eat this species young saying that “when burst, its curious network is covered with filth, which is indeed the excrement of the thunder god, of Rangi-whenua”  (it appears plentifully after thunderstorms)  http://tinyurl.com/yzwdwkk

Others used included the Flower Fungus (Aseroe rubra) (MUST BE COOKED AS POISONOUS RAW), Fungus Icicles (Hericium  - related to Hydnum repandum, the Hedgehog fungus used here in Norway and elsewhere in Europe; David Lyttle put out a picture of a NZ Hydnum recently); Harore (Pholiota aurivella syn Agaricus adiposus); it is very likely that the Maori also used the NZ Honey or bootlace fungus (Armillaria novae-zelandiae) as it was also probably called Harore (which meant edible mushroom); young puffballs were also eaten.
There are a number of other NZ edible fungi in Crowe’s excellent book!

Otherwise, Ear Fungus (Auricularia polytricha) which grows on Hoheria, Melicytus and Corynocarpus has been exported from NZ to China since the 1800s.

[mark smyth]

Stephen your reference to Ear Fungus reminds me that what I knew as Jew's Ear all my life is know called Jelly Ear. I know it wasnt pc.

[Lesley Cox]

Do the Maoris have any tradition of eating fungi?

Both the Maoris and the Aborigines in Australia did have a wild fungi eating tradition. In New Zealand, the Maori used at least a dozen species. Unfortunately, the early botanists were not particularly interested in fungi and a lot of the information was lost. Andrew Crowe (in Native Edible Plants of New Zealand) refers to a list of 16 Maori names of edible fungi (some duplicates) from 1859, but the identity of most isn't known.

One which was known to be eaten is the Basket Fungus (Clathrus cibarius); the thick shell before it burst open was a delicacy. Beware though - a reference is given to the need to eat this species young saying that “when burst, its curious network is covered with filth, which is indeed the excrement of the thunder god, of Rangi-whenua”  (it appears plentifully after thunderstorms)  http://tinyurl.com/yzwdwkk

Others used included the Flower Fungus (Aseroe rubra) (MUST BE COOKED AS POISONOUS RAW), Fungus Icicles (Hericium  - related to Hydnum repandum, the Hedgehog fungus used here in Norway and elsewhere in Europe; David Lyttle put out a picture of a NZ Hydnum recently); Harore (Pholiota aurivella syn Agaricus adiposus); it is very likely that the Maori also used the NZ Honey or bootlace fungus (Armillaria novae-zelandiae) as it was also probably called Harore (which meant edible mushroom); young puffballs were also eaten.
There are a number of other NZ edible fungi in Crowe’s excellent book!

Otherwise, Ear Fungus (Auricularia polytricha) which grows on Hoheria, Melicytus and Corynocarpus has been exported from NZ to China since the 1800s.

Stephen, you know a great deal more than I do about this part of the fungi saga. Thanks for this information. I find it very interesting. We still export tonnes each year to Japan but almost all, I think, cultivated white button types.

[Lesley Cox]

Actually I meant enemies Paul.