Wild Edible Mushrooms along the Camino

[ccmay]

Hi all,

I am thinking about following the Camino next autumn. One of the most appealing parts of the journey is the prospect of sampling the local foods and wines as I pass through the countryside. I am particularly fond of wild mushrooms-- the edible, non-hallucinogenic types, that is-- and had the following questions for anyone with knowledge of the topic:

- What is the best mushroom season in Galicia? I am guessing late summer through early winter is the right time, but which month is best overall?

- What kinds might I expect to see? I would hope that there will be plenty of my favorite, the porcini, Boletus edulis, a.k.a. king boletes or penny-buns. I'm told they are called andoa in Gallego, and variously hongo blanco, rodellon, rey de boletos, seta de calabaza, or panza in other dialects of Spanish. I wouldn't expect morels that time of year, but what about some other easily recognizable types such as chanterelles (cantarela, pan de cabra, or trompeta), puffballs (peido de lobo), oysters (gírgola or champiñón ostra), and shaggy-manes (matacandil)?

- Are these or other edible mushrooms common along the Camino? Are there many peregrinos who pick and eat them along the way? Are they typically cooked and shared in the communal kitchens of the albergues? Is there enough pressure on the resource to raise concerns about sustainability?

- Would the locals object? I'm sure there must be many who make some money picking them for sale. When and where is it legal and customary for passers-by to pick them?

- Would the common varieties I mentioned above, the kind that are familiar and frequently consumed worldwide, be apt to have any disagreeable local lookalikes that I would not have run into before in North America?

- Would it perhaps be better to forget foraging for them along the way, unless by serendipity, and instead buy them at markets or sample them in restaurants along the Camino? I assume they are readily available locally when in season.

- Can anyone suggest a good guidebook to the fungi of Galicia, or of Spain in general? English is preferred, but I can read Spanish or French adequately.

Thanks! And if you see someone with an Arizona Mushroom Club patch on his pack next fall, that will likely be me.

 

[Stephen Nicholls]

I dont know about wild mushrooms...but I know I feasted on wild blackberries.
So much so that I came into a lunch stop one day with red hands and mouth

That's one of the beauties of Spain. The Spanish, as a rule, don't bother to pick blackberries. Which means they leave them for the non-Spanish to enjoy! I wonder why that is? Do other Mediterranean nationals pick the blackberries? I lived in Spain for eight years, and each autumn enjoyed the beautiful, sun-ripened blackberries by the kilogram.

Buen camino!

Stephen
http://www.calig.co.uk/camino_de_santiago.htm

 

[TerryB]

Hi,
From your post it sounds as though you know what to look for and what the non-edible 'mushrooms' look like! Autumn (boletus time) will obviously be the best time for you - we have walked in April / May.
Others may know more detail, but I have a feeling that many rural folk in Spain, as in the U.K. will not eat 'wild' fungi. There is a bit of a craze at present in the U.K. (because of T.V. cook programmes) to go out and gather fungi. Unfortunately it can lead to cases like the one recently in Wales, where a woman died after gathering and eating 'mushrooms' (Amanita Phalloides) from her own garden!
Please everyone, unless you know exactly what you are doing, leave well alone!

That is unless you are

someone with an Arizona Mushroom Club patch on his pack

Blessings
Tio Tel

 

[ccmay]

Hi,
From your post it sounds as though you know what to look for and what the non-edible 'mushrooms' look like! Autumn (boletus time) will obviously be the best time for you - we have walked in April / May.

I am not terribly experienced, but I have a scientific background and have learned enough mycology to be able to pick and eat nearly a dozen types of wild mushrooms without so much as an upset stomach. It's really not that hard, and in some parts of the world, children of eight or ten are trusted with picking mushrooms for their family's table after appropriate instruction.

And while I am indeed familiar with the appearance of a number of truly dangerous mushrooms such as the 'death cap' and the 'destroying angel', I do not depend on that knowledge to keep me safe. Far better than learning the dangerous mushrooms is just sticking to the safe ones you know. The rule of thumb is, 'when in doubt - throw it out'. If you can't confidently identify a mushroom that you pick by its Latin name, don't eat it!

From what I have read, it is looking like late September, October, and early November are the prime seasons.

Others may know more detail, but I have a feeling that many rural folk in Spain, as in the U.K. will not eat 'wild' fungi.

The English and Americans definitely have a national mushroom phobia. My sister won't even eat the ordinary store-bought Agaricus bisporus button mushrooms. I know they have a pretty lucrative wild mushroom industry in Spain, and I think the locals (like most of the Latin world) enjoy keeping a goodly portion of the harvest for their own consumption.

Look what I found in poking around the Internet: The "Chestnut and Mushroom Festival" in Rios (Ourense) on November 3rd and 4th. Not really on the Camino, but close enough for a weekend detour, or to follow the completion of the pilgrimage:

A very nice specimen of what looks to be Macrolepiota procera! Seems to be called "cogordo" in Gallego and "parasol" in Spanish (as in English), and found especially in Ourense, according to this site:

http://comunidad.laopinioncoruna.es/ser ... aleria=499

There is a bit of a craze at present in the U.K. (because of T.V. cook programmes) to go out and gather fungi. Unfortunately it can lead to cases like the one recently in Wales, where a woman died after gathering and eating 'mushrooms' (Amanita Phalloides) from her own garden!
Please everyone, unless you know exactly what you are doing, leave well alone!

It's a shame, and so easily avoided, as I mentioned above. But even for foolhardy people who don't want to devote the time it takes to learn what they CAN safely eat, they can keep clear of the great majority of the truly dangerous mushrooms merely by refusing to eat any with white gills underneath the cap, or any nondescript "little brown mushrooms" smaller than a lollipop. The white-gills rule would have been enough to save the poor Welsh lady from the death cap.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

I don´t know about wild mushrooms in Galicia, but I know they are very popular in Burgos, Palencia, and Leon provinces. They´re most often seen in pine or oak woods, where "niscalos" are highly prized and often kept in "Cotos de Niscalos," closely guarded reserves. (sorry, I don´t know the English or Latin word for these. They taste a lot like truffles to me, but don´t look like them.) There are several other species of high-altitude woodland mushrooms that are delicious, but there are also several look-alikes that are not edible.

Regular mushrooms "champiñones," grow in threshing floors or fields where the hay or crop was cut earlier in the year, and rain or heavy dew has fallen in the previous night. You have to get up very early to beat the locals to them, I am not sure how it would go over if pilgrims joined in the search! (they are very much worth searching for.)

Also visible along the camino some mornings are "senderistas," little umbrella-cap mushrooms that grow in long winding rows. Small and delicious and peppery. I have not seen many mushrooms in the past couple of years, but I often see people out in the fields looking for them, and at the same time, delicious wild snails. Anytime I pick wild mushrooms I take them to Leandra, a wise neighbor lady, who tells me which of them will not make me sick. I am not from this area, I am not an expert, so I would NOT eat them otherwise!

Best bet is to keep an eye open during mushroom season for "setas" to appear on the restaurant Menus -- those are the wild shrooms. You will not see them on the Pilgrim Menu, as it is assumed only the locals will appreciate them.

 

[Anniesantiago]

Being members of the Mycological Society ourselves, we have kept our eyes peeled on each Camino walk.

This year, we found a LOT of chanterelles, not in the Fall (when they grown in Oregon) but in the Spring! It was a great surprise! We also ran across morels (also a spring mushie) - so far, walking in the Fall, I have only run across one couple picking field mushrooms, and those are so difficult to identify I'd be afraid to eat them.

Oh! And I found a HUGE Chicken of the Woods this year, but alas, it was in someone's yard. I'm not sure they knew what they had, but it sure was a pretty sight to see!

 

[Rebekah Scott]

how cool it must be, to know what you are looking at!
I know they grow chanterelles in a mine in northern Palencia, but I have not seen them growing wild. I saw what looked like a "hen of the woods" but I couldn´t be sure. So many many natural things I knew back in the Western Pennsylvania hills just do not translate to Spain.
I guess knowing your mushrooms must be like knowing some Spanish. It adds SO much to your experience.

 

[ouroboros]

I dont know about wild mushrooms...but I know I feasted on wild blackberries.
So much so that I came into a lunch stop one day with red hands and mouth And everyone was like "What on earth have you been doing :?:
Gosh they were yum!!

So YOU"RE the one who ate all the blackberries before I could get to them!

:lol:

 

[ccmay]

I know they grow chanterelles in a mine in northern Palencia, but I have not seen them growing wild.

If they're really being cultivated down in a mine, they're not chanterelles. Plain old button mushrooms, you bet. Oysters or shiitake, perhaps.

Chanterelles are mycorrhizal, meaning they grow only on the forest floor, in association with the roots of certain living trees.

They make the most wonderful cream soups.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

I was in Bercianos del Real Camino today, at the Albergue Santa Clara, aka "Rosa´s place." She had just picked two big baskets of setas -- remarkable large boletus mushrooms that were gray, yellow, brown, and rusty red. They looked like something crudely hacked out of a potato, but they were certainly abundant! Next time you pass through, find her and you will find your mushrooms (as well as a very friendly nanny goat.)

 

[ccmay]

I was in Bercianos del Real Camino today, at the Albergue Santa Clara, aka "Rosa´s place." She had just picked two big baskets of setas -- remarkable large boletus mushrooms that were gray, yellow, brown, and rusty red. They looked like something crudely hacked out of a potato, but they were certainly abundant! Next time you pass through, find her and you will find your mushrooms (as well as a very friendly nanny goat.)

Cool! One to remember.

The porcini certainly can be ugly fat lumpy dirty things, but they taste so gooooood.

 

[ccmay]

Since there doesn't seem to be much else on the forum regarding this topic, I am going to post useful links here as I find them.

Here's some:

Farmacia de Arauzo de Miel, list of edible mushrooms:
http://www.arauzodemiel.org/setas.htm

Tiempo.com forum:
http://foro.tiempo.com/guia-de-setas-comestibles-t124706.0.html

Cesta y Setas, online magazine:
http://www.cestaysetas.com/category/setas-comestible/

Bioecologia guide (many more good links):
http://www.bioecologia.es/bioecologia/?q=node/200

 

[CaminoGen]

I wouldn't dare pick mushrooms myself but I sure love them. I was in Italy a few years ago during fungi season and I ate my weight in mushrooms. Every bar and restaurant had their daily delivery in a basket by the door. Lovely memories

 

[oursonpolaire]

I do not know about Spain, but in France pharmacists will identify mushrooms which you bring in, and will let you know which ones are safe and which are not. My mushroomophiliac friends tell me that one region's varieties can confuse someone from another mushroom-picking zone, so that it is always best to check.

The advice given to always order the setas is wise. Revuelto de setas, often found on the menu de dia but not the menu de peregrino, is a delightful and nourishing first dish.

 

[pablo.m]

Being members of the Mycological Society ourselves, we have kept our eyes peeled on each Camino walk.

This year, we found a LOT of chanterelles, not in the Fall (when they grown in Oregon) but in the Spring! It was a great surprise! We also ran across morels (also a spring mushie) - so far, walking in the Fall, I have only run across one couple picking field mushrooms, and those are so difficult to identify I'd be afraid to eat them.

Oh! And I found a HUGE Chicken of the Woods this year, but alas, it was in someone's yard. I'm not sure they knew what they had, but it sure was a pretty sight to see!

am also a little uninit

Being members of the Mycological Society ourselves, we have kept our eyes peeled on each Camino walk.

This year, we found a LOT of chanterelles, not in the Fall (when they grown in Oregon) but in the Spring! It was a great surprise! We also ran across morels (also a spring mushie) - so far, walking in the Fall, I have only run across one couple picking field mushrooms, and those are so difficult to identify I'd be afraid to eat them.

Oh! And I found a HUGE Chicken of the Woods this year, but alas, it was in someone's yard. I'm not sure they knew what they had, but it sure was a pretty sight to see!

 

[pablo.m]

This year, we found a LOT of chanterelles, not in the Fall (when they grown in Oregon) but in the Spring! It was a great surprise! We also ran across morels (also a spring mushie)

exciting...tho as an uninitiated mushroom forager the thought makes me nervous...
I'll be camino-ing this spring, well...may - & its after a frost, right?

getting hungry...

 

[Wild Guides]

How great to come upon this forum strain!

We walked the Camino Frances in 2014 three times - once in spring, summer and fall, to document and conduct field research about all of the wild edible possibilities along the trail - both mushrooms and plants. We were amazed to identify over 250 different species, 77 of which are included in our recently published guidebook The Edible Camino.

It is always exciting to see and hear about other people interested in wild plants. We had so much fun learning about the different species, experimenting with recipes, and cooking feasts in albergue kitchens during our research. It was also great to meet local Spaniards and witness their excitement for wild mushrooms, especially when it came to the "Seta de Cardo" (Pleurotus eryngii) - a mushroom that grows in association with field eryngo (Eryngium campestre), a common plant in Castilla y Leon.

If anyone is interested, we'd be happy to answer any questions or give advice about wild foods along the Camino!

 

[Mike Savage]

Last year in Galicia during the first week of October there were many people collecting mushrooms. I talked to quite a few of them. Maybe conditions were just right . . .

I know I saw and photographed many varieties of all shapes and sizes, even some black and some red. Sorry I can't give a better description I'm more in to wildflowers.

 

[alansykes]

Last year in Galicia during the first week of October there were many people collecting mushrooms. I talked to quite a few of them. Maybe conditions were just right . . .

I was lucky enough to hit Soria, on the Camino Castellano-Aragonés, during its semana de la tapa micológica, when all the city centre bars were doing boletus and setas-based tapas, and there was a huge marquee in the Plaza Mayor celebrating all things mushroom, even a mushroom-based beer. Walking through the pine woods the next few days I came across many pickers, and a few times was able to point them in the direction of ceps, chanterelles and a clump of inkcaps I'd just passed.

Mushrooms are clearly important to the local economy, with signs in the forests boasting about how many kg per hectare of setas have been picked over the last few years (and fierce signs warning against illegal picking). A sad leader in the Diario de Soria lamented the fact that some boletus edulis cost €5 when bought in Soria, but €15 by the time they reached the market in Barcelona - and to add to the injury, the next day the coveted Seta de Oro was awarded to the Catalan chef Joan Roca, of Can Roca.

Of the 7 days I saw the Diario de Soria on the zinc in the bars of the area, on 4 of them the "splash" was mushroom-related - surely the only paper in the world where that is likely to happen?

 

[Castilian]

Maybe I overlooked it but I think nobody said yet that you need (or may need) a permit to pick mushrooms. It's not a subject of my interest so I don't know if the permits are always needed or are just needed on some places. I don't know either who (autonomous communites? municipalities?...) grants them when needed. But it seems every season there's people fined for picking mushrooms without permit so be aware.

We walked the Camino Frances in 2014 three times - once in spring, summer and fall, to document and conduct field research about all of the wild edible possibilities along the trail - both mushrooms and plants. We were amazed to identify over 250 different species, 77 of which are included in our recently published guidebook The Edible Camino.

Hi Wild Guides! Welcome to the forum!

Two questions (just out of curiosity):

1. Does your book include info about legality? I mean, for example, permits needed, protected species, areas where it's forbidded to alter nature... Or, in other words, Is your book practical or theoretical?
2. Do you plan to make a second part including info about animals?

 

[trecile]

That's one of the beauties of Spain. The Spanish, as a rule, don't bother to pick blackberries. Which means they leave them for the non-Spanish to enjoy! I wonder why that is? Do other Mediterranean nationals pick the blackberries? I lived in Spain for eight years, and each autumn enjoyed the beautiful, sun-ripened blackberries by the kilogram.

Buen camino!

Stephen
http://www.calig.co.uk/camino_de_santiago.htm

Maybe they are so angry at the blackberry bushes for taking over their gardens?

 

[Wild Guides]

Maybe I overlooked it but I think nobody said yet that you need (or may need) a permit to pick mushrooms. It's not a subject of my interest so I don't know if the permits are always needed or are just needed on some places. I don't know either who (autonomous communites? municipalities?...) grants them when needed. But it seems every season there's people fined for picking mushrooms without permit so be aware.



Hi Wild Guides! Welcome to the forum!

Two questions (just out of curiosity):

1. Does your book include info about legality? I mean, for example, permits needed, protected species, areas where it's forbidded to alter nature... Or, in other words, Is your book practical or theoretical?
2. Do you plan to make a second part including info about animals?

Hi there! Thank you for the great questions.

1. The Edible Camino was written for pilgrims to use while walking the Camino. It is highly practical and contains information so readers may identify, harvest, and cook wild edibles along the Way. Most of the plants in the book can also be found in North America, areas in the Southern Hemisphere, and across Europe, therefore the book has use beyond the Camino.

During our 7 months of field research we identified over 250 edible species along the Way, but included only 67 in the book. The featured plants were selected based on criteria that considers the abundance of the specie, ease of identification, use and taste, cultural significance, and more. None of the plants in the book are endangered or threatened species. We made sure the included species can withstand heavy harvesting and are found prolifically during at least one stage of the Camino.

In addition, the introductory material of the book offers information of how to ethically collect wild plants along the Camino -- respecting private property, abiding by signs that mark prohibited harvesting areas, harvesting "humbly," using common sense, etc. With time, harvesting rules and prohibited areas may change and thus we recommend our readers to always respect signs and consult locals from the area when needed.

2. At this point we are not planning to write a book about animals along the Way, however it is an excellent idea!

We would love to continue this conversation and answer more questions as they arise. We wrote this book in the attempt to bring pilgrims closer to the natural world and its great abundance found along the path. We hope some will find it useful and put it into action.