F u n g i   F o o d

How do you like your fungi? Sautéed, in soups, on pizza, or raw? Fungi come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. Molds and toadstools are all a form of fungi. My favorites, of course, are toadstools, which are also known as mushrooms. Mushrooms are very interesting to study out in the woods and around your lawn and in the flower garden. They tend to grow in small to large circles due to the fact that they multiply by spores which drop from the parent and spread in increasingly larger circles. Mushrooms grow in a wide variety of places. Growers grow food types, down in caves, in wood and manure mulch, and are harvested for stores. Many mushrooms that grow in the wild are poisonous and should not be eaten.

So where did the term toadstools come from? Well, it appears that since toads and mushrooms live together, the toads dine frequently on the beetles and other insects that are in turn dining on the dying and decaying mushrooms. It very suspiciously looks like the toads are using the fungi as a stool.

Mushrooms grow in and on some very interesting places. You can find them growing on the side of trees and down in the roots under the leaves. I spent the night in a friend’s basement in my sleeping bag rolled out on his brand new carpet. The next morning I awake to hundreds of little mushrooms all around me. It seems his central air was dripping water on his new carpet causing a perfect habitat for these little fungi. To make light of this situation, I suggested that mushrooms were good with eggs for breakfast. He was not amused. There are many books on the identification of mushrooms with good pictures and descriptions but I still don’t eat wild ‘mushrooms’. Fungi such as mushrooms provide a valuable service by helping return hard-to-breakdown materials back to the soil and provide beauty as they do it. Some molds, on the other hand, can cause serious health problems, but some yeasts are very beneficial like the yeast you would use to leaven your bread and make it light. In Heaven God tells us that things won’t mold and go bad as they do in our earthly homes. I’m looking forward to that time and hope your planning on that very real TRIP also.

Burney Tompkins

    - Uncle Burney