On the hunt for mushrooms

It’s a perfect day’s hike: good friends, a beautiful forest, spectacular views and, as a bonus, some great mushrooms picked in the undergrowth. The hiker lovingly cooks them to enhance the supper for his small group of friends. Slight problem, several fell ill the next day.

Mary Tison
The Press

Fortunately, it’s not very serious and everyone recovers quickly. But the incident shows that you have to be careful when it comes to picking mushrooms and, above all, eating them.

“There are quite a few accidents and when there are, it is often due to recklessness, even unconsciousness,” says Pascale G. Malenfant, author of the guide. On the way to mushrooms – Mycotourism in Quebec, recently published by Éditions de l’Homme. “Being a little fearful is good. »

However, the risks should not be overestimated. M^me Malenfant, who is also an advisor in mycological development and innovation at the MRC de Kamouraska, draws a parallel with picking berries.

“Even if we are used to picking berries, we don’t go into the forest to eat just any fruit that we don’t know, because there too, there is a risk,” she notes. When you get to know mushrooms, you realize that you can very quickly identify one, two or three species that are very easy to recognize, a bit like raspberries, blueberries and strawberries when talking about berries. »

She believes that her guide is a good gateway to learn about the world of mycology. This is not a mushroom identification guide: there are already several titles to that effect. Pascale Malenfant instead emphasizes the resources to become familiar with picking. There are reference guides, websites, applications. But there are also introductory workshops, guided activities, interpretation centres, visits to an agroforestry farm or a mushroom farm or, downright, mycotourism packages.

“Mycotourism professionals are there precisely to push back the risks. They know that, they know how to educate people, how to talk about the world of mycology. It is an extraordinary gateway. »

On the way to mushrooms lists several of these resources. The author also gives the basics of a pleasant and safe picking, with some good advice.

The first rule is obviously not to consume a mushroom whose identification is not 100% certain, “even confirmed by an expert”.

“In the beginning, only pick one species of mushroom for your own consumption, and then, as you learn, progress one species at a time,” advises M.^me Bad child.

You should also avoid picking specimens that are too old or picking them from possibly contaminated sites, such as roadsides. It is necessary to refrigerate its harvest as quickly as possible, and to eat only a small quantity of a mushroom which one consumes for the first time.

Ethics and good practices

Pascale Malenfant also addresses the issue of ethics and good rules of conduct. You can’t pick just anything, anywhere, anyhow.

“Often when people start to know about mycology, they get excited and they feel like, every time they see a forest, they want to go inside,” says Ms.^me Bad child. In reality, we cannot do that. Most very accessible forests are owned by someone. There are ways to request permissions. »

Mycotourism is one of the answers to this problem: it gives access to places where you can go picking, sometimes with a professional.

M^me Malenfant lists other good practices, such as avoiding trampling the plants or digging the ground too much, or not picking all the mushrooms from a tiller. “Harvest mature specimens and leave at least 10% of the tiller,” she recommends.

The author suggests bringing brown paper bags to separate the species to avoid contamination. She also recommends having at your disposal at least two identification books for Quebec forest mushrooms.

“All the guides are a little different in their way of describing things, in their images,” she explains. It is really ideal to validate an identification with at least two guides. »

The author also gives some tips for properly storing and preparing mushrooms.

Who knows, maybe the hiker who slightly inconvenienced his comrades was a good picker, but a bad cook…