There are deer spittle in the forests, but this is of little consolation

This summer, with tropical downpours and St. Petersburg winds, is not at all conducive to seasonal entertainment in the Moscow region: swimming is cold, sunbathing is useless, mushroom picking is too early. According to the forestry committee of the Moscow region, this year's mushroom season will begin with a delay of 1.5 months - not in mid-July, but in early September. Rare chanterelles and boletus, which now delight the eyes of the most ardent followers of quiet hunting, are unlikely to be able to satisfy the demand of avid mushroom pickers and the appetite of sophisticated gourmets. There is practically nothing to dry, fry, pickle, boil, freeze and store for the winter, officials say.

Typically, the beginning of the mushroom season in the Moscow region occurs in the second decade of July, and the peak occurs in the second or third week of August. This is subject to have a nice summer. This year the summer is cold, the earth does not have time to warm up, so we expect the start of the mushroom season later, the forestry committee explained to MK.

Meanwhile, true mushroom pickers are in no hurry to complain about the “dead season.” According to expert Oleg Savelyev, from the very beginning of summer he returns from the forest with a full basket.

There really aren’t enough mushrooms for this time of year, but if you want, you can harvest a good harvest,” Savelyev told MK. - First there was a wave of morels, now there are summer honey mushrooms in the forests. There are deer spittle, there are a lot of chanterelles and here and there boletus. There are about a hundred species of mushrooms in the Moscow region, and the forests are almost never empty. Personally, I collect mushrooms from April to November. Somehow, even on January 13, I remember, I dialed full basket again. Amateur mushroom pickers, of course, will not fill their baskets to the top now, but the forestry committee’s postponement of the start of the mushroom season is, in my opinion, a hasty decision. So soon we will wait for the approval of the official opening date and closing date. You don’t have to look far for an example: in Estonia, some time ago, the day the hazelnut harvest began was officially announced. But this is of no use. If you wish, you can go into the forest at any time and discover something there. Well, don’t forget that over the past decades the forests in the region have been severely degraded. Urbanization has done its job, and now there are fewer mushrooms, not only because the weather is not suitable, but because the green region has been cleared and developed. But back in the early 20th century, near Zagorsk, bears used branches to fill their dens.

According to the general opinion of mushroom pickers, nature regularly presents tricky riddles to lovers of quiet hunting. No one can still explain how and why 2 years ago there was a real boom in the forests of the Moscow region yellow web spider. Until then, this mushroom was considered an extremely rare guest in these places, but now, out of the blue, it literally flooded the region. And then he disappeared again. Last year’s surprise was the massive appearance in July of autumn honey mushrooms, for which the time, to put it mildly, had not yet come. And yet they “looked out” all the time, and mushroom pickers never tired of saying: “Miracles!”

It is impossible to explain all these phenomena by weather conditions alone, says Oleg Savelyev. Mycologist Ksenia Alekseeva agrees with him, who calls forest mushrooms"unpredictable creatures":

There are no warning signs for mushroom season. None scientific methods and folk signs cannot tell in advance what will happen to mushrooms this year. These microorganisms can unexpectedly produce massive fruiting, or they can disappear for no reason at all. Therefore, I cannot explain the temporary absence of forest gifts only by the vagaries of the weather.

So questions from the series “How long will we wait for the appearance of noble mushrooms? automatically fall into the category of rhetorical. Meanwhile, people do not hesitate to collect “conditionally edible garbage.” And even within the city limits.

“In the green zone of Shcherbinka there are simply tons of champignons! And there is darkness in the River Russula area,” a resident of the Moscow region left his note on one of the mushroom furums.

“Near the house in the city I saw 2 boletus and syroega, but in the forest there was absolutely zero,” responded another network user from Pushchino.

“Now there are more ticks than white ones,” the third interlocutor sneered.

Mushrooms are a special gift of nature! They are tasty and are used by chefs in a wide variety of dishes. And what a pleasure it is to pick mushrooms: a forest filled with the aromas of herbs and foliage, the chirping of birds and the delight of mushroom finds! And no mushrooms from the store can compare with the fragrant mushrooms from the forest found in person. How to pick mushrooms and when to pick mushrooms. The answers to these questions will be given by the mushroom calendar or mushroom calendar.

Mushroom picking- is not as simple a matter as it might seem at first glance. There is an optimal time to pick mushrooms different types. And of course we need appropriate weather conditions. The mushroom calendar will help you choose the time to go for mushroom gifts of nature. Experienced mushroom pickers, of course, can do without it, but beginners will find the mushroom calendar very useful.

Mushroom calendar

A novice mushroom picker must know that mushroom year begins in April and ends in the second half of October. Please note that each mushroom grows in certain time, and not all the time. Therefore, if you are specifically targeting honey mushrooms or russula, then first you need to look at the mushroom calendar and check the months when they grow.

• Mushroom calendar for April
  

April - The most difficult month for mushrooms, the mushroom calendar records. At such times there are often frosts, so not all mushrooms are able to survive frost, snow and cold. Only the most resilient survive. Mushrooms appear around mid-April. You can find morels in the thick of the forest, right where there is still snow. They grow in open areas where most of the sunlight. But oak and pine forests They will definitely delight you with stitches and burnt omphalias.

• Mushroom calendar for May

May also does not particularly please mushroom pickers with the abundance of its gifts, according to the mushroom calendar. This is the month when mushrooms are just preparing for their summer and bountiful season. But if you try hard enough, you can find morel caps and chunky stitches deep in the forest. The end of May will please mushroom pickers more, since during this period there is a high probability of finding boletus and chanterelles. Of course, the bulk of this type of mushroom will appear a little later, but if you are so impatient, then you have the opportunity to find such pioneer mushrooms.

• Mushroom calendar for June

In June, as the mushroom calendar says, there is folk sign: If the strawberries have already turned red in the grass, and the rowan and viburnum are already covered with flowers, then you can safely go in search of russula. Finding them will not be difficult, since they are located in open places and do not hide from anyone. In mid-June, you can safely go to collect boletus, boletus and moss mushrooms. The end of the month will generously delight you with strong boletus, mushrooms and loads.

• Mushroom calendar for July

July, as the mushroom calendar records, is one of the worst have a good month for a mushroom picker. There is little rain during this period, and the scorching sun simply does not allow mushrooms to grow and develop normally. Therefore, during this period you should not hope for a special mushroom harvest. But, still, if installed rainy weather, then you can safely go into the forest in search of boletus, boletus and boletus, reports the mushroom calendar.

• Mushroom calendar for August

August is one of the most favorable months for mushroom pickers, according to the mushroom calendar. The heat subsides, night fogs become more frequent, and dew becomes more abundant. In the forests you can find a huge number of butterfish. You will also be lucky to have autumn mushrooms and Polish mushrooms. Saffron milk caps are a real gift for a mushroom picker who goes to the forest in August.

• Mushroom calendar for September, October
  

September and October are cold months, during which it is already difficult to find large number mushrooms, but it’s still worth a try. The Mushroom Calendar notes that if you show persistence and perseverance, you will be able to please yourself with russulas, goats and greenfinches.

More details about the mushroom growth schedule can be found in the Mushroom Calendar below. Every month is rich in mushrooms. Simply, a special time is allocated for each mushroom. Therefore, if you have any preferences, then it is best for you to navigate the mushroom picker’s calendar this way.

Mushroom calendar for June July August spring and autumn

What mushrooms to collect	When to pick mushrooms
	mushrooms in April	mushrooms in May	mushrooms in June	mushrooms in July	mushrooms in August	mushrooms in September	mushrooms in October
Morels	+	+	+
Stitches	+	+	+
May mushroom		+	+
Oyster mushroom		+	+	+	+	+	+
Meadow honey fungus			+	+	+	+
boletus			+	+	+	+
Oiler grainy				+	+	+
Summer honey fungus			+	+	+	+	+
The fox is real				+	+	+
White mushroom			+	+	+	+	+
Boletus			+	+	+	+	+
Pluteus deer			+	+	+	+	+
Spiky raincoat		+	+	+	+	+	+
Common champignon			+	+	+	+
Field champignon					+	+
Valuy				+	+	+
Funnel talker				+	+	+
White umbrella mushroom				+	+	+
Variegated umbrella mushroom				+	+	+	+
Real milk mushroom					+	+
Poddubovik				+	+	+
Ivyshen					+	+	+
Loader white					+	+
Loader black					+	+
Fat pig					+	+
Russula yellow, food, etc.		+	+	+	+	+
Green moss			+	+	+	+	+
Yellow hedgehog					+	+
Ringed cap				+	+	+
Larch oiler				+	+	+
Volnushka pink					+	+	+
Black breast				+	+	+	+
Spruce green camelina					+	+	+
Pine mushroom					+	+	+
Gray talker					+	+
Late oiler					+	+
Winter mushroom						+	+
Loader black and white						+	+
Polish mushroom					+
Autumn oyster mushroom						+
Gray row						+
Autumn stitch						+	+
Autumn honey fungus						+	+
Row purple					+	+
Greenfinch					+	+	+
Hygrophor brown						+	+

Now you know when to pick mushrooms. Hurry - the end of June is a great time to collect young mushrooms suitable for delicious dishes. While you can still treat yourself to delicious mushroom food, let’s wait for the other two summer months Feel free to pick mushrooms for pickles and pickling! And for a snack interesting information about mushrooms and advice for mushroom pickers.

Lifespan of mushrooms

Mushrooms grow quickly, increasing by approximately 1-2 cm per day. The mushroom acquires an average size in 3-6 days. The lifespan of honey mushroom, chanterelle, and boletus is 10 days. Live up to 14 days porcini mushroom and boletus, up to 40 - champignon. With the maturation of spores, the number of which amounts to tens of millions, the mushrooms age and often rot. Mushrooms are tasty and nutritious. If you follow some rules, the mushroom season will bring you only joy:

1. The first sign of a clean area in which to collect mushrooms is the abundance of fly agaric mushrooms.
   
2. If only russula grow at the edge of the forest, it is better to avoid it - most likely, the soil is contaminated.
   
3. 90% of mushrooms grow along the edges, clearings and young plantings, so there is no point in climbing into the thickets at the risk of not finding your way home.
   
4. Mushrooms grow from 1 day to 3 days. Optimal conditions: 10-20 degrees Celsius, for lamellar and noble ones - from 5 to 15 degrees above zero. Air humidity is 80-90%, rain and heavy dew are desirable.
   
5. Only young mushrooms whose caps are not fully opened or partially opened are suitable for food. Overripe mushrooms with a cap open like an umbrella have no nutritional value. It is better to hang such a mushroom on a branch - let the spores spread throughout the area. But if the cap is curved like a dome, it means that the mushroom has already released spores and a poison similar to that of a corpse is formed in it. It is dangerous and is the main cause of poisoning.

Previously on the topic of Mushrooms:

In Russia, mushroom picking is almost considered a national sport. According to statistics, every third resident of our country goes out into the forest with a basket in the fall. But if before the revolution in Russia there were up to 40 kg of mushrooms per capita per year, today it is only 3 kg. Why?

Looking in the wrong place!

Mushrooms (especially those of high nutritional value - boletus, boletus, and boletus) are not so easy to find in the forest. A lucky few get a full basket of boletus; most come out of the forest with russula and pigs.

— The main thing in “ quiet hunt" - know mushroom places, says Vera Mokeeva, candidate biological sciences, researcher at the Department of Mycology and Alcology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University - Mushrooms reproduce with the help of spores, which, when they fall into favorable conditions, form a mycelium. New mushrooms subsequently grow from it. Such myceliums persist in the soil for quite a long time, so experienced mushroom pickers remember the place where they once reaped a rich harvest, periodically visit there and do not tell anyone about the “place of mushroom power.”

How to find a mushroom place?

There is no point in looking for mushrooms in thick grass and forest thickets. They usually grow in clearings, sunny meadows and forest edges, in moist but not soggy soil. Some types of fungi - mycorrhiza-formers - are closely related to the root system of certain tree species (aspen mushrooms, boletus mushrooms), others - xylotrophs - with living or dead wood (honey mushrooms, oyster mushrooms) - and with what older tree, the greater the likelihood of finding mycelium under or on it.

It is known that the mushroom yield is not constant. The fertility of mycelium depends on the weather. If the summer was hot and dry, there will be few mushrooms in the fall. Moderately warm and in moderation rainy summer promises a rich mushroom harvest.

Take valuable ones

A mycelium is a sponge that absorbs all the nasty things from environment.

“In most edible mushrooms, the mycelium is located near the soil surface and absorbs large amounts of moisture from the environment,” explains candidate pharmaceutical sciences Igor Sokolsky. “If the soil is contaminated with water-soluble xenobiotics, they easily penetrate the mushrooms and can accumulate in quantities that render edible mushrooms inedible.”

Autumn mushrooms are the safest and healthiest. The mycelium “gives out” all the accumulated negativity with the first harvest, later autumn mushrooms you can safely collect. They are the safest. Exceptions are mushrooms collected along highways, railway tracks, landfills, landfills, etc. Eating them is extremely dangerous.

Another important mushroom nuance is edibility. Unlike other products, mushrooms are conditionally edible. By the way, this term has taken root exclusively in our country. All over the world, sow mushrooms, volushki, russula, lacticaria, morels, milk mushrooms, rows (and other mushrooms that have a poisonous or acrid taste in their raw form) are considered inedible.

— Toxins of conditionally edible mushrooms are resistant to heat treatment(that is, neither frying nor boiling can neutralize them), explains Elena Tereshina, Doctor of Biological Sciences, - you can eat them (if you really want to) only in salted form and exclusively in “ at a young age"(that is, rotten wormy mushrooms- overgrown plants should be left in the forest “bed”).

Mushrooms of the first and second nutritional value - porcini, boletus, boletus, saffron milk caps, chanterelles - are not only tasty, but also extremely nutritious. They are rich in vegetable protein (dishes made from them are recommended for fasting), carbohydrates and minerals.

Moderation and caution

Mushrooms are considered “heavy food”. Mushroom protein is enclosed in chiton shells, which are not affected by gastric juice, so their dietary fiber is practically not digested, passes through the gastrointestinal tract in transit and complicates the digestion process.

An abundance of mushrooms on the table is fraught with eating disorders and indigestion.

To get the maximum benefit from mushrooms, start processing them immediately after picking (the content of biologically active substances in freshly picked mushrooms is higher than in stale ones). Remember that young mushrooms are more nutritious and healthier than old ones, and the caps are more nutritious than the stems.

Most useful way mushroom preparations - drying. When drying, moisture is lost, but the nutritional value increases. Mushrooms are best digested in crushed form - prepare mushroom powder by grinding dried mushrooms in a coffee grinder or mill.

Get treatment for your health

The medicinal properties of mushrooms are no less known than the recipes. Mushroom decoctions, tinctures and powders have been present in the arsenal of doctors since time immemorial. Chronicles indicate that Vladimir Monomakh was treated with a decoction of chaga for a tumor of the lower lip. Mushrooms were also used by personal healers Empress Catherine II And Alexandra Fedorovna. Even before the revolution, about 50 species of mushrooms were considered medicinal.

Nowadays, a whole direction has emerged - fungotherapy (mushroom treatment). It is based on serious evidence base. Penicillin, which saved millions of lives, was isolated from molds. After this discovery, it became clear that many fungi have antibiotic activity. The antibiotic agaridoxin, which acts on many pathogens, was obtained from the meadow champignon. The antibiotics drosophyllin, nemotin, biformin, and polyporin were also obtained from mushrooms. More recent studies have shown that mushrooms can regulate blood pressure and reduce cholesterol and blood sugar.

The discovery of the antitumor effect of mushrooms was a real sensation. Scientists discovered this property in the last century, drawing attention to the residents of several Japanese villages in which there was not a single case of cancer. It turned out that the basis of the diet of their inhabitants is mushrooms. Today, the antitumor effect of mushrooms is being actively studied, but what biological compounds of mushrooms have such an effect is not yet known for certain.

Supporters of fungotherapy believe that mushrooms can help with heart and lung diseases, boost immunity, and beneficial properties Almost every mushroom has it.

Raincoat is a hemostatic agent. Pieces of mushroom applied to the wound stop bleeding, prevent suppuration and help rapid healing.

Honey mushrooms are effective against E. coli and staphylococcus. Autumn honey mushrooms are used as a mild laxative. Morels also help improve vision.