Mushrooms: Taste with cap and stem

Mushrooms are not plants
In the shop, mushrooms are stored next to fruit and vegetables, but that's not where they really belong. Mushrooms are not plants; they form a kingdom of their own. In terms of evolution, they come from the same root as animals. Mushrooms just split off early and are many times older than humans. While homo sapiens have populated the earth for around 200,000 years, there are 850 million year old mushroom fossils. Finds from China and Australia that are around 1.5 billion years old and are defined as mushrooms, however, indicate that they are much older. Since then, they have conquered the earth, are found almost everywhere and live off the organic substances that other living creatures build or have built. Without mushrooms, there would be no material cycle. They ensure that animal and plant remains are decomposed and dissolved. The button mushroom does this too. Its wild relatives can be found on pastures, where they turn manure into humus. If they didn't do that, the manure would soon cover the grass. Mushroom growers take advantage of this preference and also cultivate it on fermented horse manure and straw.

Fungi are astonishingly diverse. There are tiny single-celled organisms such as yeasts, which divide and multiply rapidly under good living conditions. Other fungi, including button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms, form a network of fine, thread-like hyphae in the soil or in the wood of trees, the so-called mycelium. They are reminiscent of plant roots, but the comparison is flawed. Plants have a clear structure of underground roots, an above-ground trunk or stalk and leaves. The living creature, the fungus, on the other hand, consists of the tangle of hyphae that seem to move aimlessly through the soil. What we see above ground and call a mushroom is the fruiting body - comparable to an apple or cucumber. If we cut it off, the fungus loses its chance of multiplying. But the mycelium lives on. A plant without an above-ground part is doomed to die.

Mushrooms usually have a strong stem on which a cap sits, which is initially spherical and later spread out. Depending on the type of mushroom, there are either gills or a number of tubes underneath that feel slightly spongy. The spores with which the mushrooms release their offspring into the world wait in these tubes to mature. When the time has come, you can tell when the mushroom is ready by its chocolate-brown gills and open cap. If you now place it on a white sheet of paper with the gills facing downwards, you will soon see the ray pattern of the gills, traced out in brown spore powder. Shiitake and oyster mushrooms are also gill mushrooms. Others, such as the sturdy porcini or chestnut mushroom, both of which can only be picked in the wild, are tubular mushrooms. But there are also mushrooms that are completely out of the ordinary in terms of shape, such as the pom pom mushroom. It is reminiscent of a round sponge and shows how diverse mushrooms are.

Cultivated mushrooms need optimal climatic conditions to grow and thrive. In the cultivation farms, a kind of artificial autumn prevails practically all year round. Computer-controlled systems let it rain as needed and always ensure the right temperature. The so-called mushroom spawn grows in a nutrient substrate that is often made from straw or wood with the help of horse and poultry manure and gypsum. First, the mycelium spreads, a network of threads that grows underground and makes up the majority of the mushroom. Depending on the type of mushroom, this phase lasts several weeks or even months. Only the fruiting body, which shoots out of the ground within a short time, can be eaten. Cultivated mushrooms have one major advantage over wild mushrooms: they can be enjoyed regularly and without restriction. Wild mushrooms, on the other hand, store heavy metals and radioactive caesium. Therefore, the aid information service (www.was-wir-essen.de) recommends eating no more than 200 to 250 grams of wild mushrooms per week and also advises that small children, pregnant women and nursing mothers should avoid this “wild” pleasure altogether.

mineral and vitamin bombs
Excluding the water, mushrooms consist of up to 40 percent proteins. They are also rich in vitamins B2, K, biotin and niacin, as well as the minerals potassium, iron, copper, selenium and phosphorus. It is also little known that mushrooms contain a lot of the "bone vitamin" D - the substance that can become scarce in our bodies, especially during the dark season. The human body is able to produce vitamin D itself, but it needs sufficient daylight to do so. ...