Mushrooms in September
Mushrooms are a special group of living organisms that contain a huge amount of protein. They are sold at the market or in the store, but it is much more pleasant to pick mushrooms yourself in September.
Mushrooms in September
Classification and Description
Mushrooms grow in September in deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests, and in short, in all their types. They are also found in artificial forest plantations.
Before picking mushrooms in September, you should understand the varieties and their names, understand which mushrooms can be picked and which ones should be discarded.
There are many varieties of all mushrooms. There is no general world classification. On the territory of Russia, they are divided into 4 categories:
- the most valuable;
- less nutritious and tasty;
- with mediocre taste;
- low-value, with a mild taste.
Type 1 (category) includes porcini mushrooms, boletus, mushrooms and yellow milk mushrooms. The most favorable for collecting such mushrooms are the Tula region and the Moscow region.
In Category 2 includes boletus, boletus and mushrooms. They have slightly less nutritional value and aroma.
TO 3 categories in Russia are edible mushrooms with an average nutritional value and taste (mushrooms, russula and honey mushrooms). In the Voronezh and Belgorod regions, russula and milk mushrooms are harvested in autumn. In the Altai Territory, they are less common in September, the main period of their collection falls on the summer months.
IN Category 4 included mushrooms with a peculiar taste and low calorie content (oyster mushrooms, raincoat or motley flywheel).
According to their edibility, September mushrooms, like everyone else, are divided into the following groups or categories:
- edible;
- conditionally edible;
- inedible;
- poisonous.
This classification is based on food safety and ease of preparation:
- Edible mushrooms safe to use, they cannot be poisoned, even if they are raw.
- Conditionally edible you cannot eat raw: fresh representatives of the category have an unpleasant taste. They are pre-soaked, then boiled or dried.
- Inedible mushrooms - safe for human health, but tasteless inedible mushrooms. They are not used in cooking.
- Ipoisonous mushrooms characterized by the fact that toxic substances cannot be removed from their fruit bodies by simple culinary methods at home. Eating them is life-threatening.
Types of autumn mushrooms
Mushrooms need high humidity
Certain types of mushrooms that grow by this time correspond to each month.
These mushrooms can be picked in September:
- late boletus;
- honey agarics;
- autumn oyster mushrooms;
- swamp birch trees;
- white pine lactic acid;
- russula late.
The best mushroom weather is high humidity and air temperature. This is typical of the last days of August and September. In the south of the country, the intensive collection period lasts until the end of October.
No sooner had the summer chanterelles and flocks left in the Volgograd and Saratov regions than the autumn mushrooms were already appearing.And in the Krasnodar Territory, Samara and Bashkiria, black milk mushrooms and late boletus ripen. Novosibirsk is located in central Russia: in these forests in September, under the spruce trees, you can feel the amazing and at the same time strong aroma of camelina. And southern Crimea is famous for its black and white ryadovka, which is harvested until the very frost. In September, these mushrooms are easy to find even on the outskirts of the forest.
To make it easier to navigate during the "quiet hunt", you should first carefully study the description of popular mushrooms on the territory of their collection.
Honey mushroom
These fungi grow on stumps, parasitize living trees. It is easy to find them on the trunks of fallen forest trees, in forest thickets. They grow up as families.
Representatives of this group are easily recognized by their appearance:
- cap up to 8 cm in diameter;
- a hollow leg up to 15 cm in height, with a ring at the top (almost under the cap);
- light beige color;
- the shape of the cap is round, convex.
They grow abundantly in the presence of high air humidity (up to 85%), so it is easier to find them in old forests, where there are many fallen leaves and fallen trees. Honey mushroom is a dangerous parasite of trees that can easily attack living ones and very quickly kill them.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
Autumn mushrooms bear fruit until the end of autumn. Although they grow on all types of wood, they can sometimes be found on soil as well. This is what misleads an inexperienced mushroom picker. In fact, everything is much simpler - under the soil layer there is rotting wood, which is absolutely invisible from the outside. It is she who becomes the place of development of the mycelium, and the fruiting bodies, as it were, "misinform" a person, coming out to the surface of the soil above it. They grow in clusters and families, and families can be very, very significant.
By the way. Very often, two species are hidden under the name "autumn mushroom": the autumn mushroom itself and its brother northern autumn mushroom, the distinctive features of which can be seen only during microscopic studies.
In terms of nutritional value, they are more valuable than vegetables. They contain many macro- and microelements and vitamins C, A and group B.
Oiler
One of the most popular and favorite species among mushroom pickers is oil cans. Among them there are those that belong to the late September. They are used fried, boiled, salted, pickled and dried. They can be successfully frozen for further cooking. At the same time, the fruit bodies retain all their beneficial properties and external qualities.
Butterlets grow in well-lit meadows or forest edges. Sometimes they are found on the side of the road. But it is not worth taking mushrooms there, because they accumulate carcinogens from passing cars. Therefore, they and other fungi are often called "bioaccumulators" of harmful compounds.
They have a convex, slimy cap, 13 cm in diameter. The color varies with the age of the organism, from brown with a yellow tint to dark brown. The leg is up to 10 cm high, without the top ring.
Porcini
The porcini mushroom is appreciated for its taste.
The porcini mushroom does not darken when cut. Its color remains white during any cooking.
The porcini mushroom is considered the generally recognized "king" in the mushroom kingdom, the most valuable and delicious. Its cap reaches 45 cm in diameter. It is olive yellow at a young age and then turns brown with age. The leg is up to 26 cm in diameter, widening downwards, even, with a fine surface mesh. The pulp is uniform, white.
This mushroom is suitable for any cooking, drying and freezing. The aroma and taste are bright, but they are best manifested during drying, when excess moisture leaves the pulp.
Grows in different regions of the country, singly and in groups, in mixed forests.
Black lump
The largest mushroom in September is the black lump. It is great for pickling for the winter. Its cap is up to 32 cm in diameter, lamellar at the bottom, crispy and tasty (but only after pretreatment).Its color is olive in a young organism and almost black in an older one. The leg height reaches 20 cm.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
The black milk or gypsy is a mycorrhizal forming agent and enters into a symbiotic relationship with birch. You can find it in mixed forests where birch is present or in birch forests. At the same time, it forms large groups growing in moss, or it is found on the forest floor, in the grass, along forest roads, in well-lit places.
This mushroom belongs to the category of conditionally edible mushrooms. That is why it is used for food only after a thorough and very long pretreatment to remove bitterness - soaking with the obligatory regular change of water at the same time. Some prefers boiling. When salted, the mushroom takes on a purple-burgundy color.
When frozen, it does not lose its properties, but it is not suitable for drying and frying.
Useful properties of mushrooms
Mushrooms contain a large amount of useful macro- and microelements, vitamins and minerals that are useful for the human body.
Potassium, phosphorus, iron and sodium in one serving of autumn mushrooms is enough to replenish the daily requirement for humans.
When they are eaten, the work of the whole organism is regularly stabilized, and its functions are improved. They contain high quality proteins and amino acids such as alanine, threonyline, lysine, stearic and glutamic acids, as well as natural antibiotics. Such a set of useful substances necessary for the human body is not found in any other living organism.
When low in calories, they quickly make you feel full. This is due to the high protein content in them, which is several times more than in meat and eggs. The average calorie content of 100 g of champignons is 25 kcal, white mushrooms - 35 kcal, and russula contains only 18 kcal. They are useful for dieting. However, it is important not to forget that during any type of cooking, the calorie content of mushrooms changes, and not in the direction of decreasing.
Forest gifts are useful for strengthening the nervous system due to the high content of B vitamins. They strengthen hair and nails, and promote skin regeneration.
They are indispensable for strengthening the circulatory system. The walls of blood vessels under their influence restore their elasticity and ability to "professional activity". Melanin in mushrooms serves as a natural antioxidant.
Harm and precautions
But despite all the benefits that they bring to the human body, there are still certain restrictions and the culture of their use in food:
- For people suffering from gastrointestinal problems, the consumption of mushrooms must be limited or completely eliminated. They are difficult for digestion due to the chitin in the composition, and they burden the dishes.
- Small children and pregnant women should not eat this product. Allergic reactions may occur in pregnant women.
- Mushrooms are best paired with potatoes, vegetable salads, porridge or bread to improve digestion. Eating with meat will make the food heavy on the liver and slow down digestion.
- Alcohol with mushroom dishes "thickens" the protein in the stomach, which will complicate the process of digesting food. As a result, it can feel like poisoning.
Collection and use rules
Each species has its own location: under trees, on forest edges or on stumps. Do not neglect the collection rules, because if you do not follow them, it is easy to get poisoned even with edible mushrooms.
These organisms accumulate toxins in themselves if they grow near the road. Do not put damaged, "rotten" mushrooms next to healthy ones. You should not collect them in plastic bags, from which forest organisms will absorb chemical compounds harmful to humans, especially strongly emitted in hot weather by artificial material.In addition, in such a package, they will suffocate in a few hours of your trip through the forest.
It is best to pick mushrooms away from the pistes, in proven and familiar locations. You need to put them in wicker baskets made of natural materials, immediately selecting the good ones, throwing out rotten and wormy ones without pity.
Before cooking, the fruit bodies should be sorted out again and then soaked. Eat immediately after frying or boiling, do not refrigerate for several days, do not reheat on the stove several times. They serve as a good breeding ground for bacteria when stored ready-made.
Application
Traditional and official medicine uses them to create medicines and treat various diseases. Mushrooms have not been fully studied by scientists. They are considered a separate kingdom, which received its name - Mushrooms and is located by taxonomists between plants and animals, because they have features of both. Some experts think that underground mycelium covers the entire globe, while others are sure that they are an extraterrestrial life form. The work on the study of properties does not stop. Many are used to obtain active antimicrobial drugs and antibiotics.
The antibiotic lactariovilin was obtained from the camelina, and mycomecitin was obtained from the talker. Anthelmintics are made from chanterelles. Extracts from part of the cap fungi are used to treat staphylococcus aureus and blood poisoning.
Honey mushrooms are used to combat intestinal and thyroid problems.
Conclusion
Forest picking of mushrooms at the beginning and at the end of September will bring true pleasure to the connoisseur of forest walks "with benefit". Once having plunged into this process, it is impossible to refuse it in the future, because it literally drags on a person, giving him the opportunity to get acquainted with the amazing world of wildlife. And preparations for the winter will surprise you in ready-made dishes with their rich taste.
