Time to pick mushrooms

Press, 11 April 1979, Page 22

Time to pick mushrooms

Mushrooms are good to eat and fun to pick. The autumn rains have a magical effect on the warm earth to produce many species of fungus fruits which flourish briefly and then are gone. If you are holidaying in the country during Easter, take time to look for mushrooms. If you are staying at home, a bicycle ride towards Tai Tapu, West Melton, or Belfast will bring you to grassy areas where you may picnic and explore. You will enjoy tne ramble and your family may enjoy mush-i rooms for breakfast. Mushrooms are neither plants nor animals. They are the fruits of fungi which feed on decaying

living matter. All fungi thrive in warm, moist conditions, and they cannot survive in direct sunshine, or extreme cold.

Young mushrooms have white caps with pale pink or light brown gills underneath. The caps flatten and the gills darken as they grow, They usually grow in clusters, several small mushrooms surrounding the larger parent one, each having a separate stem. The best time to pick them is the early morning; a mushroom is old at the end of a day. Toadstools, puffballs, ink caps, earthstars, and many other decorative fungi fruits may be described as the sinister relations of mushrooms be-

cause they are not edible and some are highly poisonous. The botanic name of one species of toadstool is ‘The Deadly Amanita,” which is commonly know n as Death Cap or Destroys ing Angel because of its glamorous appearance. So play safe. Pick only fresh mushrooms and discard any that you are doubtful about.

Before you gather mushrooms on a farmer’s land you should ask the fanner’s permission, because he may want the mushrooms for his own family. If you ask, then you will find that most farmers are only too happy to let you go and pick the mushrooms so long as you

close gates and do not damage fences. But if you do go on to a farm without permission don’t be surprised if the farmer follows you home and picks flowers from your front garden. This has actually happened, and the fanner replied to an angry household: “Well, you took my mushrooms. And whenever we are in the country we can also remember another true story. A careless family of picnickers scattered rubbish and left it on a farm. The farmer saw all the mess. He took the car’s number, gathered all the cartons, orange peel, and bottles, and scattered them on the family’s front lawn in the city.