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Gary quit the rat back and the temperature Where to go race, became a stay- drops below 4°C. Ask a seasoned forager where to find at-home dad and • Garden Route You mushrooms and you’ll get a range of took long walks on should find mushrooms evasive responses. spots, Table Mountain, as all year round. especially mycorrhizal mushroom spots prescribed by his • Magaliesberg, (see “What you’ll find” on page 100), are cardiologist. On one of KZN Midlands well-guarded secrets. This is because, these walks Gary found and Soutpansberg if you know where to look, you’ll find some mushrooms and his Gary Goldman The summer months mushrooms in the same place at the first thought was, are best for foraging. same time every year until you die > Go “Can I eat them?” He went to the library and took out all the mushroom books he could find. Book a foraging outing mushroom He pored over the bibliographies at the ends of these books and ordered any that sounded interesting on Amazon. His mountain walks grew hunting more frequent, and he started to learn where to look for mushrooms and which ones he could eat. Most South Africans grow up thinking “I’ve never poisoned myself,” he wild mushrooms are poisonous and one says, “and I never will. I only eat should rather stick to the supermarket something when I am 100% certain I know what it is.” variety. But this notion is flawed on every Before long, Gary was collecting more level – and the learning starts right here… mushrooms than he could possibly consume, and he began to supply TEXT NICK DALL MAIN PHOTO MICHAEL LE GRANGE restaurants and friends with fresh wild mushrooms. Not only was he getting something free of charge, but he’d also inadvertently started a new career. A foraging trip with Gary Restaurants would pay between n season, says Gary Goldman, R220/kg and R380/kg in the Cape (and Delheim Wine Estate, and hunts are R250 per person aka The Mushroom Guru, he goes up to R1 000/kg in Gauteng!), but in Stellenbosch (maximum 15) and pine ring and foraging every day. “I’m in the recent years Gary has focused his 3 & 4 July 2015 hunts are R150 per person (maximum 20) forest before the sun rises, and on attention on guided foraging trips, as he Cost R595 per person, including a talk by Contact Email gary@mushroomguru. weekdays I have it pretty much is determined to share his knowledge Gary Goldman, the foraging trip, lunch co.za – provide a cell number and indicate Ito myself. But on weekends there are with fellow South Africans. and either a foraging basket or a bottle of whether you’re able to forage during the other mushroom hunters. And without Delheim wine and two glasses week or only on weekends/public holidays fail I hear Greek, Italian, French, When to go Contact Johan van Dyk 021 888 4600 (groups are smaller during the week). German, Polish… Europeans are taking • Western Cape People say you can [email protected] our mushrooms and I’m on a mission RESERVE NATURE GROOTVADERSBOSCH AT LOCATION ON SHOT only find mushrooms in the Western to educate South Africans about wild Cape between March and July, but Jonkershoek Nature Reserve, mushrooms so they don’t miss out on this is a gross oversimplification. Stellenbosch all the free food available to them.” Mushrooms will sprout two weeks 6 & 13 June 2015 MARGAUX TAIT TAIT MARGAUX Gary, a Capetonian, knows his after a drenching rain, provided there Cost R1 300 for a group of four people wild mushrooms and can identify are some sunny days in-between. Last (foraging only) or R2 600 for a three-day any mushroom you show him, and year, for example, Gary had bumper mushroom identification course, including his partner at Mushroom Guru, hauls in March, but this year there a forage for you and three friends led by Craig Fourie, specialises in growing were very few mushrooms in Cape Adriaan Smit mushrooms and teaching others Town in April. Contact Adriaan 082 749 8553 how to do the same. The two sides The first mushrooms to appear are [email protected] of the business couldn’t be more the poplar boletus, followed about different: foraging is musty, grimy and a week or two later by the porcini. Gary Goldman’s forages, Wordsworthian, whereas cultivation is When the porcini start to die down, the Cape Town technical, precise and scientific. bay boletus and pine rings show their Gary offers guided forages in Cape Town Like all of the most engaging gurus, faces. The blushers come out quite late throughout the mushroom season. Gary is self-taught. To cut a long in the season (around mid-June), and Cost Porcini hunts are R350 per person VAYNHUNT O. FROM 20 MODEL MANAGEMENT STYLIST MANAGEMENT MODEL 20 FROM O. VAYNHUNT story short, a high-octane career in IT the wood blewits appear near the end (maximum 10), boletus, wood blewit A prize porcini ()

resulted in burnout and a heart attack. MODEL of June, when all other mushrooms die

PLATTELAND Winter 2015 97 MUSHROOMS Five of the best (and worst) DID YOU KNOW? The alluring “portabellini” and “brown” mushrooms you buy We asked Gary Goldman to at the supermarket are pick five of his favourite edible actually the same species of mushrooms and five poisonous mushroom ( bisporus) ones our readers really should at different stages of its know about. He thought each list should be quite a lot longer development. Millions of tonnes (he’s foraged 23 edible species of these are cultivated every in the Western Cape alone) and year, and most are clones of reiterated that no mushroom a single clump of pure white PORCINI POPLAR BOLETUS should ever be consumed unless (Boletus edulis, eetbare boleet) (Leccinum duriusculum, populierboleet) mushrooms discovered by you are 100% confident you’ve a farmer in Pennsylvania identified it correctly. He also in 1926. insisted we include Latin names, as common names vary from region to region.

Gary cleaning porcini (Boletus edulis), a delicious and very popular type of mushroom that attaches itself to the of oak trees, chestnuts and certain . EDIBLE or until the tree is removed. Most Gary has been stopped by rangers Unfortunately, he’s never been able to species of mycorrhizal mushrooms on numerous occasions but has get an official permit because South only attach themselves to certain types always been able to convince them African law makes no provision for POISONOUS PINE RING BAY BOLETUS of trees. The porcini (Boletus edulis), he is in fact helping the environment. mushroom foraging. On private land ( deliciosus, oranje melkswam) (Xerocomus badius, bruin boleet) for example, attaches itself to the you can do what you like, as long as roots of oaks, chestnuts and certain you have the owner’s permission. conifers. The pine ring () attaches itself to conifers, What you’ll need whereas poplar boletus (Leccinum • A wicker basket or a breathable duriusculum) attach themselves bag Make the DIY basket on page 88 solely to the South African poplar tree and line it with cloth. A reusable cloth (Populus canescens). Alarmingly, the shopping bag will do for a start. death cap ( phalloides) also DANGER! GEVAAR! INGOZI! • A small, sharp knife This is not attaches itself to oaks and conifers – Never eat a wild mushroom until you’re for cutting mushrooms out of the so be careful! absolutely certain of its species. Most ground but rather for cleaning them Someone looking for a mushroom books advise getting an expert to before you put them in your basket spot should start by foraging under identify all of your mushrooms, but – or bag. Simply scrape away all the PANTHER FLY AGARIC WOOD BLEWIT oaks, poplars and conifers. They as a recent poisoning case in Cape dirt and detritus from the base of (, tiersampioen) (, vlieëgifswam) (Lepista nuda, pers ridderswam) will gradually learn where to find Town proves – not all mushroom the mushroom. mushrooms like the field mushroom “experts” are created equal. Rather • A mushroom guide Unfortunately, (), parasol take loads of photos of your mystery most of the best books are out of (Macrolepiota or Lepiota species), and mushroom (from above, below and print, but you can find some in your the ink caps (Coprinus species), which side-on, and at different stages of local library or – if you’re lucky – in are all saprophytes. development, if possible) and email a second-hand bookstore. Try Some You might also wonder whether [email protected] with as South African Edible Fungi (Stephens foraging is legal. This is indeed a bit much information about it as possible & Kidd, 1953), Some South African of a grey area, especially on SANParks (where you found it, when you found Poisonous & Inedible Fungi (Stephens land. Most people think mushrooms it, its size). Gary and Craig respond & Kidd, 1953), A Field Guide to the are like plants and liken picking to emails like this every day, because Mushrooms of South Africa (Levin mushrooms to picking wild flowers. they know the mushroom revolution et al, 1985), ’n Veldgids tot die Actually, the two couldn’t be more they dream of will only be possible Sampioene van Suid-Afrika (Levin DEATH CAP YELLOW-STAINING FALSE PARASOL different, as mushroom pickers leave if South Africans learn more about et al, 1987) and Sasol First Field Guide (, MUSHROOM (, a trail of spores in their wake and assist wild mushrooms. to Mushrooms of Southern Africa duiwelsbrood or slangkos) (Agaricus xanthodermus, geelvleksampioen) valssambreelsampioen) in the spreading of species. (Branch & Branch, 2001). >

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What you’ll find There are various ways of classifying PLANT OR ANIMAL? mushrooms, but the following is Grow your one of the most useful. Foragers can Scientifically speaking, fungi are a lot longer than humans have target all three classes (although the more different to plants than (420-million-year-old fossils have most rewarding foraging is probably they are to animals, and are been found of mushrooms that are for mycorrhizal species). If you want defined as “organisms that live by 10m high). The Chinese have long own mushrooms to grow your own you’re limited to decomposing and absorbing the prized their medicinal properties; saprophytic mushrooms. organic material in which they Egyptian hieroglyphics depict Growing mushrooms is certainly trickier than selecting them from a shelf, but in • Mycorrhizal mushrooms attach grow”. This covers athlete’s foot, royalty eating mushrooms; and the the long run it’s also cheaper and more rewarding. And the best news is that the themselves to the roots of certain mould, mildew and yeast – all a far Romans called them “the food of tree species in a symbiotic relationship. cry from a porcini risotto. the gods”. The French pioneered South African exotic-mushroom market is extremely underdeveloped… Examples are porcini, boletus and Mushrooms are the “fruit” of mushroom cultivation – Louis XIV How about a career change? pine ring. certain species of fungi, whereas is said to have been the first • Saprophytic mushrooms grow on the “roots” are the mycelium – mushroom farmer. anything “dead”, such as leaves, logs an incredibly fine branch-like Mushrooms consist mostly raig Fourie became very beginning (with cultures) can be alcohol again and wait another half or straw. Examples include shiitake, structure that grows in soil, leaf of water, which means you can fascinated with mushroom extremely disheartening, as there will be hour, by which time you’ll probably oyster and button mushrooms. litter and decomposing trees. There dry them without losing any of cultivation after far more failures than successes. So need another shower. • Parasitic mushrooms live on another are hundreds of thousands of fungi their flavour or goodness. And a mind- much so, you might give up and Why does one have to be so clean to living thing, gradually killing their host. (or maybe even millions) but only what a lot of goodness there is: broadening try golf or bird-watching! grow mushrooms indoors when they The most common example is chicken a fraction of the fungi in the world mushrooms are jam-packed with encounterC with the pop up so “easily” in the wild? of the woods. produce mushrooms. Of these healthy amino acids, vitamins and “magic” variety Three “Lots of people ask that,” laughs Craig. mushrooms, the vast majority aren’t minerals – yet they’re very low in 21 years ago. Back golden rules “The answer is simple: The mushrooms great to eat. The rest can be divided kilojoules and contain absolutely then, you couldn’t Craig has these three you see growing in the wild are from “There are old into three categories: delicious, no cholesterol. And that’s before just google stuff, and commandments for would- ‘the spores that made it’ – just like poisonous and deadly. we’ve even started on medicinal as a 20-something he be mushroom growers: your existence was reliant on that one mushroom hunters Mushrooms have been around mushrooms… spent far too much time • Don’t believe everything sperm cell that made it. If you want to and there are bold in the libraries of Port Craig Fourie you read on the internet grow mushrooms commercially, or at Elizabeth, teaching himself There’s a lot of nonsense out least have some success growing them mushroom hunters. to grow mushrooms. He learnt there (any article titled “Grow your own for your family, you have to create better by trial and error. And error. And then porcini at home”, for example). What’s conditions for them.” Never both.” some more error. more, once you find a reliable source Craig spent the next two decades you’ll have to follow the instructions to What? When? Where? honing his craft, but it was only in 2013 the letter: mixing valid methods is as In the right growing conditions you can Dos and don’ts he chose to make a living from gourmet futile as following an incorrect method. cultivate any saprophytic mushroom • In the Western Cape, any mushroom and medicinal mushrooms. He then • Mushrooms are not like plants that (although some species are more with a spongy () underside designed and built the Mushroom Guru need a lot of water Overwatering high-maintenance than others). Start (as opposed to one that resembles gills, website and launched three workshops is a problem at every stage of the with a species that has temperature like those of a fish) is edible. with Gary Goldman. cultivation process. Mycelium can even parameters that match the ambient • All termite mushrooms are edible. Some might describe Craig’s lab take water out of dry wood, so you temperature outside. In summer, use These grow out of termite mounds technique (when in doubt, disinfect need to use very little. Bacteria such as warm-weather species such as the (mainly found in the north of South again) as “anal”, but when it comes Bacillus and Neurospora thrive where pink oyster, Indian oyster and grey Africa) and always have long “tap to mushroom cultivation this is most there’s too much water. oyster). In winter, you’d be better off roots”, pink gills and spores. definitely a compliment. Once you’ve • Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re with the king oyster, wood blewit and • Never put unidentified mushrooms mastered the art of eliminating super clean Even if you are, your black morel. And if you want to grow of different species in the same contamination issues you can grow environment may not be. There are shiitakes, there are both warm- and basket: a poisonous mushroom could pretty much any saprophytic mushroom particles floating in the air all the time. cold-weather strains. > contaminate the edible ones. Instead, – as is evidenced by Craig’s library of Once you’ve prepared your station you put each batch of mushrooms in 58 edible and medicinal species. need to allow the room to stand for a separate breathable bag. According to Craig, mushroom an hour. Then clean the surfaces with • Don’t cut mushrooms out of the cultivation entails so many skills it’s ground with a knife. Pull them from DID YOU KNOW? best to begin your at the the soil as gently as possible, trying not harvesting stage and work backwards. to destroy the mycelium. Afterwards, Some mushrooms are being used in bioremediation, He advises getting a bag that’s already cover the hole with soil to protect a process that involves the absorbtion and digestion growing (see “Or try an easy kit” on the mycelium from the elements so page 103) and placing it in a terrarium another mushroom can grow from it. of dangerous substances such as oil, heavy metals, to learn optimal conditions and how and • Always clean mushrooms before you pesticides and industrial waste in locations where when to harvest. Because there’s such put them in your basket. they threaten the environment. a huge learning curve, starting at the

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Unless you live in Durbs you’ll have place spores or, better still, a piece of have what is known as spawn. Break up to mist your growing area three times mushroom gathered from the forest, that grain and add it to straw, and you a day to keep the humidity levels up. on top of the agar. This can then be can grow mushrooms. The sorghum is Once you’ve invested in a growing turned into spawn, but you’ll need to merely a transfer medium to get spores environment that controls temperature have done an advanced course to have onto the growing medium. There is no and humidity (these start at about any chance of getting it right. such thing as spawn in nature, but it R1 000), the sky’s the limit. • Spawn Once spores or a culture have is the best chance a beginner has of In the same way you’d need seed, grown on sorghum, millet or wheat, you successfully cultivating mushrooms. seedlings or potted plants to start a garden, you’ll need one of the DID YOU KNOW? following to cultivate mushrooms: • Spores Underneath a mushroom you After athlete’s foot, the most googled in the world is have gills or a sponge, and inside are the reishi mushroom, which has been proven to cure just about the spores (like micro-seeds), which can every malady you can think of apart from impotence. germinate under the right conditions. Dried reishi sells for R2 400/kg, which is why most of the Boletus edulis • Cultures Prepare a Petri dish with agar, malt and water, and you can mushroom farmers in South Africa are focusing on it. Pink oyster mushroom

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MUSHROOM GURU COURSES try the two-hour shiitake log workshop where Growing your own mushrooms is easy with Craig Fourie and Gary Goldman run several you will inoculate your own take-home oak log The Mushroom Factory’s all-in-one growboxes. courses: a two-hour oyster mushroom with spawn. In the reishi mushroom workshop We spoke to co-founder Carla de Freitas. workshop includes a CD with course notes and you learn how to grow the trickier ultimate a bag with spawn to take home, or you could health mushroom (and you get to keep your Where did it all begin? reishi grow bag). Serious mushroom addicts The Mushroom Factory was started by Shiitake cultivation should consider Craig’s one-on-one advanced Quentin Duncan and myself. We are keen fungi-culturing course, where you learn gardeners and wanted to try growing our GOURMET MUSHROOM ACADEMY culturing on agar Petri dishes, isolating good own mushrooms. The oyster mushrooms As a young boy, Dr Adriaan Smit (above) mycelium from bad contaminations, making were super easy to grow and, after researching enjoyed kicking puffballs, fascinated by the your own master spawn, and growing edible some kits being made in other parts of the clouds of spores. One thing led to another and and medicinal mushrooms. world, we thought, “Why not?” before he knew it he had a PhD in microbiology. Where? Somerset West and Johannesburg Carla de Freitas and Quentin Duncan In 2001 he organised South Africa’s Cost From R575 for the shiitake log workshop Which kits do you stock? And how first gourmet and medicinal mushroom to R1 200 per module for the advanced fungi- easy are they to use – could anything stuff like inoculating the growing medium and for people who have everything, and for conference, and since then the and culturing course go wrong? controlling the humidity. The customer just has vegetarians, foodies and people who love his involvement in it have, well, mushroomed. Contact 021 852 6771 info@ We currently stock four types of kits: pink and to add water. Obviously, with it being a natural growing things. His Gourmet Mushroom Academy is mushroomguru.co.za mushroomguru.co.za white oyster mushrooms, button mushrooms product, kits don’t always work, but we have the only company in the world providing and portabellas. Buttons and portabellas a replacement policy. The recommended price is R180 for the mushroom training on a weekly basis, as Reishi are only stocked in winter, as they are quite oysters and about R250 for the buttons and ACADEMY MUSHROOM GOURMET T HE AND well as e-learning courses. Although it sensitive to high temperatures. The kits are Who is buying the kits? portabellas. Visit mushroomfactory.co.za also offers basic foraging and cultivation designed to be easy; we do all the technical The kits are proving very popular as gifts for a list of stockists. courses, its main focus is on small CRAIG FOURIE CRAIG entrepreneurs or commercial , mushroom farmers who want Buying spawn and supplies to make money out of mushrooms. Spawn can be couriered to your door – Where? Cape Town, Johannesburg, you can use it straight away or store it Durban, Port Elizabeth and in a fridge below 4˚C (but don’t freeze East London it!). Try the following online stores for Cost R3 300 (entrepreneurial course) an incredible variety of mushroom- and R9 000 (commercial course). Prices related supplies: are advertised in euros and rands – due • Mushroom Guru to exchange-rate fluctuations it may mushroomguru.co.za actually be cheaper to pay with your • Funguys Gourmet funguys.co.za credit card in euros! • MushRush mushrush.co.za

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