Score! - my big matsutake haul

Sorry - you won't get a geotag on this one. As far as I can tell no one else picks in this area, so I feel obligated to keep it secret.. Fortunately the real craze is over and they aren't worth quite so much anymore, but I would still hate to see the place overrun.. I've invited some friends over to help me eat these ones :)

2Tricholoma magnivelare

comments (5)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

Wikipedia mentions "globalization" makes them so valuable, but that can't be a reason. What makes them so valuable? Their taste? Rarity? Imagined physical/mental benefits of consuming them? Posted 8 years ago
1. morpheme
  
  Lion
  
  They are valuable because of their taste and their rarity. Some mushrooms can grow anywhere, but many have a complicated relationship with the soil they grow in. They need specific soil conditions, weather conditions and host plants, which to this point, no one has been able to reproduce in controlled conditions, so no one has ever been able to cultivate them (Chanterelles are the same). They are quite popular in Japan - which can be very fanatical about it's luxury foods - square watermelons, stawberries worth $3,500... at this same time the forests in Japan where these mushrooms grow are being killed by a nematode. For a little while "perfect" matsutake - large, but young and unopened ones would sell for ridiculous amounts of money. The craze has fortunately (for our forests) died down to a great extent, now that the same mushrooms are being harvested in larger amount from Korea and China as well as here in the US. They are still valuable - nice unopened go for $80 lb and up, but opened ones, like most of the ones I picked can be as little as $15 - Chanterelles are actually more right now at $20 (but I know how to find those too... and they are always so much nicer fresh... the ones in the grocery store always look so sad and are starting to dry up), but the days were a morning of picking could get you enough money to buy a car are over. This isn't really a bad thing.. to find those unopened ones can be destructive the to forest floor - they aren't visible on the surface and unethical pickers simply rake up the mushroom beds. This can disrupt the mycelium to the extent that it will not fruit again. Posted 8 years ago

travismorhardt

Lion

Very nice! Posted 8 years ago
1. morpheme
  
  Lion
  
  Hey! Welcome back! Posted 8 years ago
2. 1. travismorhardt
    
    Lion
    
    Thanks! I'm not sure how active I will be; I am at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport now killing time. I thought, why not check out JD! :) Posted 8 years ago

The Tricholoma magnivelare

''Tricholoma magnivelare'' is a gilled mushroom found in the Pacific Northwest of North America growing in coniferous woodland. These ectomycorrhizal fungi are typically edible species that exist in a symbiotic relationship with various species of pine. They belong to the genus ''Tricholoma'', which includes the closely related East Asian songi or matsutake. ''T. magnivelare'' is also known as ponderosa mushroom, pine mushroom.

In recent years, globalization has made hunting for pine.. more

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Similar species: Agaricales

Species identified by morpheme

By morpheme

Uploaded Nov 12, 2016. Captured Nov 12, 2016 12:40.

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