They also said Cantharellus only grow on trees in their print issue, likely AI generated text. Their last video on fungi was full of errors as well. They have really gone downhill
Wow, fungus never ceases to amaze me. Most people just make a post linking to an article, but you wrote a few paragraphs and included pictures. That is above and beyond, almost as amazing as the fungus
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I learnt a lot myself when reading up on it, and as there are lots of different species of insects that are infected by cordyceps there's the potential for future posts
Thanks for the feedback! There are some really weird things out there, I happened upon a photo of a tropical frog with a little mushroom growing out of its side....I'll post it this week if I can find it again
Oh no. Brie won't be white anymore, but orange, blueish or grey. It will taste exactly the same, but the color will slightly change. Guess its time to eat so much Brie that I will not want to eat it anymore any later.
Lovers of certain famous, creamy French cheeses could be in for a bit of a shock. Camembert and Brie are facing extinction as we know them! The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris has stated that, over the last 100 years, the food and farming industry has placed too much pressure on the production of these types of cheeses. Now, the fungus traditionally used to grow the famous, fluffy white rinds has been cloned to a point where the lack of diversity in its genetic makeup means it can no longer be reproduced. Turophiles must learn to appreciate more diversity of tastes, colours and textures to protect the cheeses’ future.
Sure! Let's start with the obvious. What you are seeing are blocks of sawdust and wheat bran (substrate) in a humidity and temperature controlled grow tent. In this case, you are also seeing the fruit of a Lion's Mane mushroom. Hericium erinaceus is an interesting species. Instead of forming a standard stem (stipe) and cap, it forms dense balls that grow spines that resemble an actual lions mane. (Mature fruit picture in the link)
To start the grow, I take a few sterilized jars of partially cooked grain (rye berries, rice, millet or whatever) and inject a culture of mycelium. The mycelium will develop and spread at a fast rate and eventually fill the jar and cover all the grains. (The function of this is for a couple of reasons: It creates a lot of mycelium so it will colonize a less tasty substrate quicker; It gives the mycelium a nutrient rich environment to outpace growth of any other bacteria or unwanted spores that might be lurking in the grain.)
Quick tangent about the environment and grow conditions to set the context:
Bacterial and fungal growth is highly competitive. By keeping the quantities of "good" mycelium higher in any environment at all stages of the grow, I can prevent the development and growth of anything else that is undesirable. Mycelium naturally produces metabolites that fight other infections and its excretion is how penicillin was discovered. Understanding this is also how I can transition from a lab-sterile environment (when working with spores or samples of mycelium) into a "normal" gardening environment where full sterilization is not needed.
When I start the grow, I load up a grow bag with a few pounds of substrate and then sterilize the bag in a pressure cooker for a few hours. After the bags cool down, I mix in a fully colonized jar of grain, seal the bag and put it in a warm area for 2-3 weeks. The mycelium spreads through the substrate and eventually it is ready to fruit.
By dropping the temperature a few degrees and cutting a hole in the bag, I can trigger the mycelium into fruiting. Fresh air, lower temperatures and higher humidity make the mycelium "think" it has gotten closer to the soil surface and that winter is coming soon. As a form of self-preservation, it forms its fruit in preparation to spread its spores. In this case, I will harvest the fruit in a day or so before it sporulates and becomes bitter. After this fruit is removed from the bag, it may produce 2-3 more fruit bodies before the substrate is fully consumed by the mycelium.
Basically, I am simulating a rotting tree and seasonal changes with the block of sawdust substrate and controlled environment.
Different mushrooms have different environments and substrates they prefer. If you look into my profile from the last day or so, I have posted some pictures of baby psilocybe cubensis mushrooms that are forming on a substrate of coco coir at warmer temperatures in a much cleaner environment. This particular species is a bit more vulnerable to infection from trichoderma which can overtake the "good" mushroom mycelium at an extremely rapid pace. (Trichoderma is great for gardens as it will choke out a ton of other bad fungal infections. It's also very common and you are probably inhaling a few spores of it as we type, depending on where you live. When an old loaf of bread molds and turns green, it is likely trichoderma and not penicillium chrysogenum that you are seeing.)
The author of this article seems to be as ignorant as the chefs behind this incident.
Morels are known to be toxic until cooked. I’m surprised there was no explicit mention of this in the article.
In general, the boilerplate advice is to never consume raw mushrooms, even from species known to be edible, unless they are explicitly known to be edible raw. Button mushrooms are the only one I can think of. It’s likely other species are edible raw too, but it’s better not to gamble if it’s unproven.
People preparing or consuming wild foods should make sure to do the proper research. That is the only safe way to practice foraging. Very sad that people died because of this.
"Morels are more likely to cause intestinal distress if eaten raw, although even raw, they can be tolerated by some people," the agency wrote. Morels should be cooked before eating, as cooking can destroy bacterial contaminants. "For that matter, all mushrooms, wild or cultivated, should be cooked to release their full nutritional value because chitin in their cell walls otherwise inhibits digestion," the USDA writes.
The article mentions multiple times that cooked mushrooms are safer than raw ones.
Safer because “bacterial contaminants” and “full nutritional value”. These things may be technically true but they mislead by the larger omission that the real issue is their established toxicity.
I wish food irradiation became popular. If only people weren't so irrationally afraid of any word that sounds like the word "radiation", then we would be able to safely eat all kinds of foods fully raw without any chance of getting sick from a microorganism.
I thought food irradiation went out of favour because the microbes became resistant? I have no idea where I heard that so maybe it's just people's irrational fear of "radiation".
The article also points out that there were people who ate the raw sushi with no adverse affects, so mentioning "their established toxicity" seems like it would be just as misleading.
I was wondering about this when I read the article this morning, as I have never once heard of anyone who ate morels raw or even partially cooked. Is this some kind of new trend trying to follow the Japanese who eat puffer fish?
I wouldn't even eat raw button mushrooms like you suggested.
In the best case, they can't be broken down by our bodies, so all the nutrients wander through us and get wasted.
In the worst case, the agaritine found in them, which easily gets destroyed by cooking btw, may get classified from suspectedly carcinogenic to carcinogenic.
I’ve heard this but considering they are widely eaten without issue I’m not convinced it’s a real problem. Many foods contain carcinogens, but it’s the dose that makes the poison. Considering the history of raw consumption it would take research demonstrating a link to cancer outcomes to convince me they’re not safe.
That said, I think they taste much better cooked anyway.
People preparing or consuming wild foods should make sure to do the proper research. That is the only safe way to practice foraging. Very sad that people died because of this.
You’re 100% right. For the record these mushrooms were cultivated; not wild, but also from China which introduces its own concerns.
Jacob and Karsten Kirk, twins from Copenhagen, say they have devised a method to reliably grow morel mushrooms in a climate-controlled environment.
“When new buds emerge on trees and the ground warms with the advent of spring, foragers fan out through woodlands, scanning the leaf litter for morel mushrooms.
Arguably the most iconic of wild fungi, morels stand 3 to 6 inches tall and sport a signature cone-shaped lattice cap in shades of cream to chocolate brown. Prized for their nutty, earthy taste, they sell for as much as $50 a pound fresh and $200 a pound dried. They appear for just a fleeting few weeks — in New York, generally from late April to early June.
Experienced morel hunters return to well-guarded spots year after year, often exhibiting a form of selective hearing loss when asked where they collected their haul.
“There’s something about morels — they have a mystique that people are fascinated by,” said Gregory Bonito, a biologist studying morels and other fungi at Michigan State University. And unlike some wild mushrooms, which can be easily cultivated, morels have a quirky life cycle that makes them notoriously tough to grow, Dr. Bonito explained.
Cultivating morels isn’t impossible. Until 2008, at least one U.S. grower produced them commercially. And since about 2014, farmers in China have done it outdoors in the spring, but yields can be variable, Dr. Bonito said. He leads a small morel-farming project in Michigan and surrounding states funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. All the participating farmers but one grew at least one morel last year, he said, though this year’s numbers are ticking up.
But prospects for morels on demand appear to be looking up. In December, after four decades of research, Jacob and Karsten Kirk, twin brothers from Copenhagen, announced that they had devised a method to reliably cultivate hefty amounts of morels indoors, year-round, in a climate-controlled environment.
Good point. However the issue is a less developed food culture around these mushrooms than their mode of production/harvest. So I think the same logic applies here.
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