There are many types of honey mushrooms, so the periods for their collection vary. Today food industry well developed, honey mushrooms have been learned to be grown under artificial conditions. However, buying a product in a store is not as valuable as collecting it yourself and searching for honey. Where to collect honey mushrooms, when is the best time to do it? These questions interest many amateurs and avid mushroom pickers.
Young mushrooms most often have a hemispherical cap, while mature mushrooms have an umbrella-shaped cap. There is a convexity in the center that turns into a flat part, the edges are lowered downwards. The size of the cap can vary, ranging from 1 to 10 centimeters. On top of it are small scales that disappear as the fungus grows. Honey fungus also has different cap colors. They can be light yellow, cream, or reddish with a dark center. The legs are very elongated. Their length can be 2 - 18 centimeters, diameter - no more than 2.5 cm. However, each type has its own individuality.
Honey mushrooms belong to a variety of edible forest gifts that have plates. They grow in summer, autumn, winter periods. At the same time, it is difficult to say exactly when to collect honey mushrooms.
The autumn honey fungus ends the season. It is considered one of the most frequently collected and most common mushrooms. Collection starts at last days August, but lasts only a short time, for 14 - 20 days. During this period they bear fruit well. In the case of a dry summer, this period may be missed or come a little later.
It has been noticed that in the northern regions globe Often a second stage of reproduction occurs based on weather conditions. In these places, honey fungus grows until mid-October.
Collection summer mushroom starts from the beginning of June and ends in October. In specimens collected in summer, compared to autumn honey mushrooms, the cap is smaller. Its shade is yellow-brown, lighter towards the middle. This product belongs to category 4. It is good for drying, pickling, and preparing stew.
Winter honey fungus grows in small clusters and only on trees. It appears in the fall and remains under the snow in the winter. If the climate is mild, mushroom picking can be done until March. They do not have strong taste characteristics, so it is better to use them for preparing stews, first courses, and pickling.
Mushroom location
Every avid mushroom picker knows where honey mushrooms grow. They like to grow in old forests, where there are many damaged and weakened trees, near stumps, in areas of wood that is dead and rotting. Most often these are hardwoods:
- Acacia.
- Poplar.
However, they are often located on spruce, pine, and fir trees. Even if honey mushrooms take a liking to some clearing, it’s not just like that. It follows that deep underground there are roots that extend from the stump.
Honey mushrooms are permanent mushrooms. They do not prefer to “jump” from one place to another. If one day a family was found next to a fallen tree, then next year You can 100% reap a good harvest from this place. And until the tree or its stump becomes rotten, mushrooms will bear fruit around them.
A completely different type is the meadow honey fungus, which loves open, spacious, grassy meadows. That's why it is found in places such as:
- fields;
- gardens;
- forest glades;
- roadsides.
Honey mushrooms grow almost until November.
This mushroom is quite sociable. They look for him in groups, collecting a full basket. It has been noticed that the meadow mushroom is characterized by frequent growth not just in clusters, but with the formation of a circle. Such myceliums can have a fairly large area.
The breadth of the growth area of honey mushrooms includes almost all forests; they are only absent in permafrost.
The higher the humidity in the forest, the greater the mushroom yield will be. However, it happens that a damp ravine is enough for them.
It is very important to be careful in such places so that the collected mushrooms are not confused with false honey mushrooms.
On what stumps do honey mushrooms that appear in summer grow? They are located on the stumps of deciduous trees, logs, and various tree remains. They do not grow on living trees. Collection time is from early July to September. Small mushroom. Its cap is yellow-brown in color, with dark edges on which there are grooves. In damp weather it is translucent. The leg is brownish in color.
Mushroom pickers consider the autumn species to be the first real honey mushroom. It can be found as part of a large family or growing alone. Where to look for forest gifts? It lives on tree trunks, both living and dead. Also - on dead wood and stumps, in damp forests. Moving onto tree trunks, honey mushrooms cause the formation of white rot, which leads to the death of the tree. They are collected from late summer to early winter. The most productive month is September, when the average temperature is +10.
The season for collecting summer honey mushrooms begins in June and continues until the beginning of autumn. Mushrooms are found in all forest plantations in Russia. Experienced mushroom pickers go out in search of crops after long rains, especially if the weather is warm. Most often, honey mushrooms settle in hard-to-reach or impassable places. If you come across a tree with a rotten hollow on your way, it is recommended to look into it, otherwise you may miss a whole nest of mushrooms.
Summer honey mushrooms, in addition to fallen trees and clearings, can settle on healthy wood or at the base of a tree, in leaves or tall grass. Mushrooms love birch, oak and hazel.
Varieties of honey mushrooms (video)
In order not to return from a quiet hunt empty-handed, it is recommended to go for mushrooms in a forest that is more than 30 years old, since its forest area has many suitable places for mushrooms: windbreaks, rotten stumps, protruding root system. It is important to adhere to the established rules for collecting forest gifts:
- do not cut off unfamiliar or unfamiliar mushrooms;
- if there are suspicions about the edibility of a mushroom, it is better not to pick it;
- It is not recommended to collect very young or, conversely, old specimens, since the fruiting body absorbs toxic substances during growth;
- It is advisable to twist the tubular type, and break or cut off the marsupial mushrooms;
- When picking a mushroom, it is important not to cause damage to the mycelium;
- since honey mushrooms grow in colonies, if you find one mushroom, you should carefully look nearby;
- Instead of a bucket, it is recommended to take a basket to provide air access and avoid spoilage of the mushrooms;
- Mushrooms should be placed in the basket with their caps down or sideways.
It is best to go for mushrooms early in the morning, while their freshness and density have not yet been lost after the coolness of the night. The fruit bodies are not fragile, but easily bendable, which makes them easier to transport.
Description of the taste and nutritional value of summer mushrooms
Fruits belong to category 4 taste qualities. Their soft and pleasant taste, as well as the delicate aroma of fresh wood, is valued in Russian cuisine. Universal mushrooms are used in the preparation of any dishes, since heat treatment does not affect the nutritional properties. The legs are not recommended due to their hardness.
Having studied the properties of honey mushrooms, experts came to the conclusion that it is not only delicious product, but also good for health.
How to distinguish summer mushrooms from false types of mushrooms
Among the representatives of the mushroom kingdom, there are inedible individuals that are similar to their edible relatives, not only in appearance, but also in their places of growth. So that a poisonous specimen does not end up in the basket with summer honey mushrooms, It's important to know some differences:
- an edible mushroom is characterized by the presence of a ring (skirt) on the stem, formed from a protective film, which, as the mushroom matures, comes off the cap, remaining on the stem;
- on the surface of the cap of natural representatives (except for old individuals) there are small scales, painted in a darker palette than the cap;
- the color of the surface film on the caps of false specimens is much brighter and depends on the location of the fungus;
- the color of the plates in twins is slightly green, yellowish or dark olive, in summer mushrooms it is beige-cream or light yellow, depending on the age of the mushroom;
- Unlike the musty odor emitted by inedible species, real mushrooms have a pleasant aroma.
Given the signs edible mushrooms, even a novice mushroom picker will be able to distinguish false specimens from forest mushrooms.
Where do honey mushrooms grow (video)
Features of growing summer honey mushrooms at home
Honey mushrooms are natural product, which is cultivated in an artificial environment. There are several growing methods that do not require special preparation, using:
- logs;
- banks;
- package;
- greenhouse or open area.
Only winter and summer species again. When using wood, it is important to adhere to the following rules:
- The trunk must have a dense structure, but not rotten (birch, aspen, poplar) with a diameter of 15 cm or more;
- Provide sufficient humidity. If the material for growing mushrooms is dry, then a few days before sowing it should be watered abundantly or immersed in water;
- After sowing, bring the trunk into a cool room (not lower than 15°C);
- As soon as the mycelium begins to germinate intensively, the wood can be taken out to the site and buried a little with earth;
- You can collect mushrooms after a couple of years, until the wood is completely destroyed;
- To obtain mycelium, you can use fruits, wood pieces, or purchase mycelium in specialized stores. It is recommended to use a refrigerator to store it.
If you want to grow mushrooms in your garden, you usually use wood. At the same time, labor costs are very low. In addition, you can grow mushrooms on your own in a greenhouse or in a jar. In the case of using a greenhouse, the following technology is used:
- logs prepared in advance are stacked in the greenhouse;
- wood is infected with mycelium using spores or mycelium;
- Before the mushrooms appear, the wood is constantly moistened.
In addition to wood, you can use substrate blocks purchased from finished form, either cans or bags. If desired, you can make the blocks yourself from a mixture of sawdust, barley (oats) and chalk. You need to take 200 g of sawdust, 70 g of cereals and a teaspoon of chalk. Then boil the sawdust in water for a third of an hour, drain the water and dry it. After this, add the remaining ingredients, mix and place tightly in a container. This method is usually used for cultivating winter mushrooms.
To grow summer honey mushrooms, territories with large area. 15-20 sq.m. is enough. m. Regardless of the chosen location, it is important to maintain temperature regime, varying from 20-25°C to 10-15°C. Keeping high level humidity, you can increase the rate of mycelium development. Mushrooms do not require lighting, so in an open area it is better to choose a shady place so as not to dry out the wood.
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Description
It consists of a fruiting body and underground roots of the mycelium. The mycelium looks like long thick cords, with the help of their honey fungus it feeds and spreads. In addition, it is interesting for one property: under the bark and a layer of humus on the roots of honey mushrooms, the mycelium is oxidized, causing the mycelium threads to glow.
The cap of a young mushroom is spherical, then it becomes convex as it grows, and in an old one it becomes almost flat with a tubercle in the middle. The edges of the cap of young ones are turned inward; later they straighten out. There are small thin brown scales on the surface.
The diameter of the cap can be from 1 to 8 cm. Color is brownish or yellow-brown. The plates are white or brownish in color; in young honey mushrooms they are covered with a film; later, as the mushroom grows, it breaks, forming a ring on the stalk.
The leg is usually short, but can reach 10-12cm, cylindrical, thin, strong and dense, there is a white film ring. The color at the base is brownish, closer to the cap it is whitish.
The flesh of the mushroom is white and yellowish in color, does not taste bitter and does not produce juice, and has a pleasant smell.
The flesh in the stem is coarser and more fibrous than in the cap.
Where does it grow?
Distributed throughout the forest zone of Russia. They grow on stumps, roots, trunks and around them on both coniferous and deciduous trees. Honey mushrooms appear especially often on alder, birch and aspen. Appearance time: .
Largest quantity(layer) of them grows after the autumn fogs, they continue to grow until October.
Collection
Not complicated because they are growing large families, sometimes in one place it is possible to immediately cut a small basket. But in unfavorable years for them, you have to walk a lot through the forest before you get a basket.
During collection, you need to be careful and remember that in addition to real honey mushrooms, there are also false ones.
False honey fungus is a poisonous mushroom, so that it does not accidentally end up in your basket, you need to be able to distinguish them
Its differences from an edible mushroom:
1) Autumn honey fungus grows only on wood, while false honey fungus grows on the ground. In order to find out, you can dig up the humus and see where the mycelium is located on the wood or ground.
2) In false mushrooms, the color of the cap is bright red or greenish-gray, the plates are also greenish-gray.
3) False ones do not have scales on the cap and rings on the stem.
Fresh such mushrooms are good boiled and fried, but they are best when marinated.
To preserve them for the winter, they are frozen, dried, pickled and sometimes salted.
Pickling
Young, strong honey mushrooms are suitable for pickling. The collected mushrooms must be sorted, the stems cut off, and then washed before cooking. The prepared mushrooms are weighed and the required amount of spices is calculated: per 1 kg. mushrooms take 1/2 cup of water, lemon acid on the tip of a knife, 1 tablespoon of salt. Then they are lowered into a saucepan, filled with water, the above ingredients are added and put on fire.
During cooking, it is necessary to stir and remove foam. Cook from the moment of boiling for about 15 minutes. Readiness can be determined by the following signs: the mushrooms sink to the bottom and the brine becomes lighter.
When they are cooked, they are taken out of the pan and placed on a sieve. After the water has drained, put it in clean, preferably sterilized, jars so that they take up about 3/4 of the volume. Then pour in the marinade prepared in advance.
The marinade is prepared as follows: for 1 liter. drinking water take 1.5 tbsp. spoons of salt, 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of 80% vinegar essence, 5 black peppercorns, 3 pcs. bay leaves, cloves and cinnamon.
After 12-15 min. After boiling, the marinade will be ready.
The finished product must be sterilized; you can see how to do this.
